David Shedd Bradley was a grandson of Charles Banks Shedd, a prominent
Chicago real estate investor, banker, and financier, and civic leader who also served as an executive officer of the
Knickerbocker Ice Company of Chicago, which had been founded principally by Edward Avery Shedd, younger brother of Charles Banks Shedd. He attended the
Todd School for Boys (from which
Orson Welles had graduated in 1931) from 1935 to 1937, and
Lake Forest Academy during 1937–1940. He then spent a year at the Goodman Memorial Theatre Drama Department of the
Art Institute of Chicago. During this time, he also directed a feature-length
16 mm version of
Peer Gynt with 17-year-old
Charlton Heston in the title role; Bradley having known Heston since high school. His studies at
Northwestern University were interrupted by three years’ service in the
U.S. Army Signal Corps motion picture section during
World War II. He worked as a combat photographer during the European campaign, eventually filming the arrival of the Allies in Paris. He graduated in 1950 with
Bachelor of Science degree from the university's School of Speech. On the basis of the 16 mm feature
Julius Caesar that he had produced and directed in Chicago (and which also starred Charlton Heston), he was hired as a directing intern by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1950. ==Later years==