Meyer's story sounds like the plot of one of his motion pictures. The son of German immigrants, he grew up in a modest home where there was little disposable income. It was a big deal to go to a restaurant. At 15, he quit high school and spent his time shooting pool, boxing at a nearby gym and hanging out with the neighborhood toughs. With little education or direction and few options, he figured he'd be drafted. So when he heard about a boxing program in the Marine Corps, he signed up.
罗恩·梅耶尔的故事听起来像他所监制的动作片里的情节。作为德国移民的儿子，他生长在中等水平家庭，收入刚刚够维持生计，去餐馆吃饭就是很大的奢侈了。 15岁那年，梅耶尔高中辍学，他常在台球厅、附近的拳击馆或和一些附近的小混混闲混来打发时间。没受过太多教育，既无目标也无选择，他觉得他的人生也就这样了。所以当听说海军陆战队有拳击项目时，他就报名参加了。
At one point, he was quarantined with the measles, with no TV and nothing to do. His mother sent him two books. One was The Amboy Dukes, a novel about kids in street gangs. The other was The Flesh Peddlers, now out of print, about a guy in the talent-agency business who was living a glamorous life. "I realized ," he says，that I was no longer that idiot kid I had been, and I wanted to change my life."
有一次，梅耶尔因为得麻痊而被隔离，没有电视，也没什么别的事情可做。他母亲给他带了两本书去，一本是关于街头暴力下的孩子们的小说《安博公爵》。另一本是《人肉贩子》，这是一本关于一个有着天才代理才能、过着精彩生活的人的小说，不过这本书现在已经不再出版了。“我意识到他说我不能再像以前那么无知了，我要改变我的生活。”