Norris was born in 1911, the son of a prominent Philadelphia gynecologist, who was described in a newspaper article as "a famous surgeon and chief of staff at the city's largest hospital.

At age 16, he dropped out of the Culver Military Academy to marry a socially prominent physician's daughter, Virginia Bell Hiller, and took a job as a reporter.

He ended his film and television career the following year when he appeared on an episode of The Third Man, titled "Ghost Town".

On July 21, 1942, newspaper columnist Harrison Carroll reported that Norris "eloped to Arizona Saturday with a new Hollywood beauty who gave her name as Jane Doe.

"[4] The bride's real name was revealed by columnist Jimmie Fidler on July 30, 1942: "The girl Edward Norris married and introduced to reporters as 'Jane Doe' is June Satterlee, ex-night club hatcheck looker.