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Our study contributes to understanding the basic associations between childhood circumstances and adult health in several ways. First, we take advantage of a nationally representative survey of American men aged 45-59 years in 1966 -- the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men (NLS). These men are followed for a 24-year period, providing us with biographical information on socioeconomic achievement processes, lifestyle behaviors, and the timing and primary cause of death. Second, the survey contains measures of childhood circumstances that encompass theoretically important social origins of adult mortality -- the family of origin's socioeconomic circumstances, family status, residence in rural and urban communities, and nativity of both the respondent and his parents. The richness of information about both childhood and adulthood provides a sound base to examine the nature of the associations between childhood circumstances, adult circumstances, and adult mortality. To this end, we examine whether childhood circumstances have long-term associations with adult mortality, net of adult socioeconomic achievement and lifestyle. We also investigate the possible over-estimation of effects of adult socioeconomic factors in mortality research for which information on childhood circumstances was not available.