Within weeks of his birth, his parents changed his name to Daniel to honor a recently deceased cousin.
While Thompson was still a child, his family moved to Los Angeles, and his father set up a bakery in Boyle Heights.
[3] After graduating Fairfax High School, Thompson joined the United States Army Air Forces and served in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II.
He then returned home to attend the University of California and study Industrial Arts and Mathematics.
Thompson died in Palm Desert, California, of complications from a fall on September 3, 2015, at the age of 94.