Frank Abagnale Jr. was born on April 27, 1948 in Bronxville, New York. His parents are Paulette Abagnale and Frank Abagnale Sr. who had four children, Frank Jr. being the third.
Frank grew up attending catholic school. When he was sixteen his parents divorced which had a large impact on his life. The divorce is what started his imposter faze. Frank said in a interview "It begins with my parents' divorce and its dramatic effect on me. I ran away and suddenly found myself a teenager alone in the world. I had to grow up very quickly and become very creative in order to survive. But what started out as survival became more and more of a game. I was an opportunist, so when I saw an opening I asked myself, "Could I get away with that?" Then there was the…show more content… The more I got away with, the more of a game it became "a game I knew I would ultimately lose, but a game I was going to have fun playing until I did." ("Real Frank Abagnale Jr. - Catch Me If You Can True Story")
Abagnale’s most significant achievement is his ability to impersonate people. His first impersonation was a Pan Am pilot. He called the Pam Am agent claiming his hotel lost his uniform giving him access to the uniform supplier. Next, he gave the company a fake employee ID number along with a Badge. He made the badge by taking a picture of himself; he bought a fake plane with the Pan AM logo on it and copied the logo off the plane. He made a fake FAA license to gain knowledge about the Pan AM Company. He posed a student researching a project about aviation with the fake name Frank Williams. Authorities started to catch on to Frank being a pilot so he moved onto being a doctor. With the help of a friend from his apartment complex who worked at the hospital. Frank started to go to the hospital with him to get to know the other doctors. After he knew the doctors, he obtained access to the medical library where he learned about the medical field.
