Mr. Farley hails from Braintree, Massachusetts, on Boston's south shore. Raised in a working-class family, his early life included training as a commercial artist and as a sculptor. He has worked in a variety of professions including: farm worker, doorman, longshoreman, gardener, asst. night club manager, produce clerk, merchant seaman, furniture mover, bill collector, steel rigger, bartender, garbage collector, college professor, meat carver, construction laborer, waiter, factory worker, haberdashery salesman, bug exterminator, and doughnut maker. Drafted by the U.S. Army, Farley worked as an illustrator for an intelligence unit. After receiving an honorable discharge he found himself back at the Pentagon with Norman Mailer and several thousand others trying to make it levitate Mr. Farley's first film was made in 1970. As a graduate student majoring in sculpture he took a class on the history of film. At the end of the semester he had the choice to either write a paper about the films he saw or make a film. Terrified by the prospect of writing a paper, he made a film. The film was a hit on the film festival circuit and Farley was hooked. When he received his MFA a year and a half later he had more credits in film making then sculpture.