coburn was born on august   in laurel nebraska the son of james harrison coburn ii and mylet coburn his father was of scottish-irish ancestry and his mother was an immigrant from sweden the elder coburn had a garage business that was destroyed by the great depression coburn himself was raised in compton california where he attended compton junior college in  he enlisted in the united states army in which he served as a truck driver and occasionally a disc jockey on an army radio station in texas coburn also narrated army training films in mainz germany