John Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Katherine Florence (Incerella) and Nicholas Turturro. His mother was born in the U.S., to Italian parents with roots in Sicily, and was an amateur jazz singer, who had worked in a naval yard during World War II. His father had immigrated to the United States from Giovinazzo, Italy at age six and later worked as a carpenter and construction worker before joining the U.S. Navy during the war. Serving as a Sailor, he was with the D-Day fleet supporting the landing operations of Allied troops in Normandy, France, in 1944.