Another early composition ("She Quit Me") was included in the soundtrack for the film Midnight Cowboy (1969). He wrote several songs for his White Whale label-mates the Turtles ("Like the Seasons" and "Outside Chance"), though his participation in their recording is unknown. He spent time as a session musician and jingle composer. Zevon turned to a musical career early, including a stretch with high school friend Violet Santangelo as a musical duo called lyme & cybelle (the band name eschewed capitalization). Zevon's parents divorced when he was 16 years old and he soon quit high school and moved from Los Angeles to New York City to become a folk singer. By the age of 13, Zevon was an occasional visitor to the home of Igor Stravinsky where he, alongside Robert Craft, briefly studied modern classical music. Warren's mother was from a Mormon family and was of English descent.
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William worked for years in Cohen's Combination, where he was known as Stumpy Zevon, and was best man at Cohen's first marriage. William was a bookie who handled volume bets and dice games for notorious Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia, and his original surname was Zivotovsky.
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Zevon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Beverly Cope (née Simmons) and William Zevon.