Jack T. Chick - Biography

Biography

Chick was born in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California, the first of two children of commercial artist Thomas Chick (1903–1973) and his wife Pauline (1903–1991). The family later moved to Alhambra where Chick was active in the high school drama club. Chick's official biography notes that he was not religious in high school and was in fact avoided by Christian students, who believed "he was the last guy on earth who would ever accept Jesus Christ."

After his graduation, he continued his drama education at the Pasadena Playhouse School of Theater on a two-year scholarship. In February 1943, Chick was drafted as a private in the U.S. Army. He served for three years in the Pacific theater, serving in New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines and Japan. Chick credits his time overseas with inspiring him to translate his tracts into many different languages and says he has "a special burden for missions and missionaries."

After the war, he returned to the Pasadena Playhouse and met his wife while working on a production there. Lola Lynn Priddle (1926–1998), a Canadian immigrant, came from a very religious family, and Chick's official biography describes her as "instrumental in his salvation." Priddle and her parents introduced Chick to the Charles E. Fuller radio show, the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, and Chick relates that he was converted while listening to an episode of this show. They married in 1948 and had one child, Carol, who died in 2001. In February 1998, Lola Lynn died and Chick has since remarried. In a 2005 issue of Battle Cry, Chick reported that he had suffered a heart attack while being transported to the hospital suffering from hypoglycemia. Shortly thereafter he had a triple coronary artery bypass.

Very little is known about Jack Chick; he lives a reclusive life and has given only one known professional interview since 1975. His reclusiveness created speculation in the past that he was a pen name for an unnamed author or authors. Several audio cassettes of his preaching distributed to his subscribers purport to contain his voice. He has never released a photo of himself for publication, although photos purportedly of Chick have been published by others.