Leslie grew up in the beautiful Adirondack Hamlet of Saranac Lake (population 5000) in Upstate New York. The Town is famous for being the original site of the National Vaudeville Artists Lodge which later was renamed the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital. As a child, she used to play at the William Morris Playground. Little wonder, she knew that someday she too would be an entertainer.

Leslie took gymnastic and ballet classes and was performing on stage by the age of four. Later, she attended acting classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Herbert Berghof Studios in New York City. This is when she discovered acting to be too slow for her, action was what she desired and that meant becoming a stuntwoman.