Early Life
Simmons was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Simmons was born to show business parents and raised Catholic in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. He enjoyed Cor Jesu High School (now Brother Martin High School). He was obese throughout his adolescence and by the time he graduated from high school, he weighed 268 pounds. As a young man, he considered being a priest. In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Simmons explained he adopted the name "Richard" after an uncle who paid for his college tuition.
His first job, in New Orleans, was selling pralines at Leah's. After starting college at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, he transferred to Florida State University. While enrolled there, he studied as an exchange student in Florence, Italy. He graduated with a BA in Art. After graduation, Simmons moved to New York City where he worked in advertising, as a waiter, and for cosmetics companies Revlon and Coty Cosmetics.
Read more about this topic: Richard Simmons
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“[In early adolescence] she becomes acutely aware of herself as a being perceived by others, judged by others, though she herself is the harshest judge, quick to list her physical flaws, quick to undervalue and under-rate herself not only in terms of physical appearance but across a wide range of talents, capacities and even social status, whereas boys of the same age will cite their abilities, their talents and their social status pretty accurately.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“Think of the life of the working woman as the decathlon. If you even finish it’s a miracle.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)