Dwight David Frye is the son of Laura Bullivant and Dwight Iliff Frye. When young, he traveled extensively with his parents while they were still doing stock and regional theater together (e.g., "The Pursuit of Happiness," 1934). After his mother gave up the stage, Buddy grew up in Hollywood, where his father struggled to find minor screen work. Buddy himself appeared in at least two films for RKO in 1937, including "The Man Who Found Himself" (as a young boy injured in a train wreck), which also featured his father as a hysterical patient on a plane. Buddy was with his father on that tragic day of November 7, 1943, when Dwight I. collapsed on a bus on the way home from the movies. His father was pronounced dead shortly after.