Pascal was born Gábor Lehel[1] on June 4, 1894 in Arad, Transylvania, Austria-Hungary (now Romania). His wife wrote in her book on Pascal's relationship with Shaw that his "origin was shrouded in a mystery which, I often suspected, he enjoyed thickening with contradictory remarks. When people tried to probe into his past, he had a tailor-made answer for each inquirer." [2] He claimed to have been an orphan taken from a burning building as a child and raised first by Gypsies before being taken away to an orphanage.