Background
Allan Douglass Coleman was born on December 19, 1943 in New York, United States. His parents were of Russian and Polish descent on the side of his father, Earl M. Coleman, and Scots on the side of his mother, née Frances Louise Allan. During the McCarthy era (1951-1953) his family moved to France, during which time he became bilingual francophone, and then briefly to England, before returning to the U.S. Aside from that interruption Allan was raised in Manhattan.