Lori Martin was born Dawn Catherine Menzer, in Glendale, California, at 10:02 a.m.; her fraternal twin sister, Doree, arrived four minutes later. As she weighed only 5 pounds and measured just 18 inches at birth, she spent the first few weeks of her life in an incubator, during which time her survival was somewhat doubtful. Her father, Russell C. Menzer, was an MGM and Warner Brothers commercial artist and art director. She had a younger brother, Stephen Menzer, and an older sister, Jean Coulter, a veteran Hollywood stuntwoman who doubled for the lead actresses on "Ironside" and "Charlie's Angels".