Background
Beale was a son of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and a brother of Edith Bouvier Beale whose lives were highlighted in the documentary Beale was born on 13 February 1922 in New York City, New New York He was the youngest son of Phelan Beale, Senior and his wife Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (known as "Big Edie"). Beale grew up at at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood in East Hampton on Long Island.
Unlike his sister and elder brother Phelan Beale, Junior., Beale followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather by attending Yale Law School and establishing his own law firm in New York—Walker and Beale (later Walker, Beale, Wainwright and Wolf).