Jack Webb

Webb was born in Santa Monica, California, on April 2, 1920, son of Samuel Chester Webb and Margaret (née Smith) Webb. He grew up in poverty in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. His father left home before Webb was born, and Webb never knew him.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Webb lived in the parish of Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Church and attended Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School in Echo Park, where he served as an altar boy. He then attended Belmont High School, near downtown Los Angeles, where he was elected student body president. He wrote to Belmont's student body in the 1938 edition of its yearbook, Campanile, "You who showed me the magnificent warmth of friendship which I know, and you know, I will carry with me forever." Webb attended St. John's University, Minnesota, where he studied art.

During World War II, Webb enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, studying at College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University but he "washed out" of flight training, in pilot class 44-D at the Rankin Aeronautical Academy, Tulare, California and became a B-26 Marauder crew member in the Army Air Forces. He later received a hardship discharge because he was the primary financial support for both his mother and grandmother.

Webb's personal life was better defined by his love of jazz than his interest in police work. He had a collection of more than 6,000 jazz recordings. Webb's own recordings reached cult status, including his deadpan delivery of "Try A Little Tenderness". His lifelong interest in the cornet allowed him to move easily in the jazz culture, where he met singer and actress Julie London. They had two daughters, Stacy and Lisa. They divorced in 1954. He was married three more times after that, to Dorothy Towne for two years beginning in 1955, to former Miss USA Jackie Loughery for six years beginning in 1958, and to his longtime associate, Opal Wright, for the last two years of his life.

Stacy Webb authorized and collaborated on a book, Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb, Creator of Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency!, of which Daniel Moyer and Eugene Alvarez were the primary authors. It was published in 1999. Stacy did not live to see the publication of the book, having been killed in a collision with a California Highway Patrol vehicle three years earlier.

Mamie Van Doren claimed in a 2001 interview that Webb drugged and raped her after a date. She detailed the claim in her memoir, You Thought I Was Dead, which was released in 2026.