After his father, a medical surgeon and major in the U.S. Air Force, was killed in the crash of a B-24 Liberator bomber near Gunnison, Colorado, on July 19, 1943, his mother entrusted Quine and his younger sister, Janis, into the care of Alec Dahlke, a carpenter, and his wife Evelyn, a schoolteacher, in Oxnard, California.

[citation needed] Their daughters, Phyllis and Patty babysat the two siblings, giving Don's mother the opportunity to continue working as a dental assistant while staying at the home of a friend to save up money for a place to live with her two children.

[citation needed] He bought the first TV set in his neighborhood, a 10" RCA, and charged kids a nickel a peek to watch Howdy Doody and Lone Ranger, until his stepfather put an end to the operation and explained to Don that capitalism has its limits.

After his mother divorced Gores and married an officer in the Coast Guard, Nathan Vanger, Don moved to Staten Island and graduated from New Dorp High School in 1957.

This led him to New York City where he studied at the American Theatre Wing with Stella Adler and John Stix, before landing the role of Tom Stark in Robert Penn Warren’s Off-Broadway premiere of All the King’s Men at the East 74th Street Theater in 1959.