Early life and education

Breslin was born on October 17, 1928, into an Irish Catholic family in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. His alcoholic father, James Earl Breslin, a piano player, went out one day to buy rolls and never returned. Breslin and his sister, Deirdre, were raised by their mother, Frances (Curtin), a high school teacher and New York City Welfare Department investigator, during the Great Depression in the United States.