William Fraker's maternal grandmother brought his mother and aunt to Los Angeles riding a mule all the way from Mazatlan, Mexico, in 1910. She became a photographer for Monroe Studios in downtown Los Angeles and taught her son-in-law, William's father, how to take pictures, who later became a still photographer for Columbia Pictures, where he ran the gallery at the studio from 1927 until 1934, when he died at an early age following a bout with pneumonia. His uncle, Bud Fraker, was also a still photographer for Columbia Pictures, and later for Paramount Pictures.