time, “We had what I suppose people would call an understanding; we were close in some ways but not in others.”) But with typical teenage discomfort at the very existence of his parents, De Niro felt a kind of shame at the image his father cut with his wild hair, shabby artist’s wardrobe, and erratic schedule: “Most people I knew didn’t have ‘creative’ parents who lived in kind of grungy places and did odd jobs when they had to.”
Life with Mom wasn’t necessarily easier. In addition to running a makeshift business out of their home, Admiral continued to engage in artistic and, increasingly, political activities, and she had a private life of her own, dating and even living with men over the years during which she was raising her son. “Among the many who courted her favors,” remembered Larry Rivers, “were [artist and critic] Manny Farber and [critic] Clement Greenberg, causing the first of many one-rounders between these two.” Farber and Admiral had a relationship of several years’ duration, not long after which Farber started writing about movies for
ARTnews
and eventually emerged as one of the most influential film critics in the latter half of the century. * As uncomfortableas he may have been with his father’s unorthodox behavior, De Niro was rendered truly squeamish by his mother’s grown-up life, even if it was comparatively ordinary. Years later, as a famous actor, he was approached by Farber at a Hollywood gathering; the writer said hello and then asked, “Do you remember me? I used to go out with your mother. You have unbelievable eyes. Just like your father. You’re much more like your father than your mother.” De Niro, visibly appalled, said nothing and soon fled the party.
Not surprisingly, the lack of an intact home and the lure of the streets took a toll on De Niro’s academic performance. He had struggled through elementary school, so Admiral sent him to Elisabeth Irwin High School, an adjunct of the Little Red School House that included an intermediate school. As it was a private school and the young De Niro wasn’t particularly keen on succeeding in it, his mother decided to forgo paying tuition and enrolled him at New York’s famed (and public) High School of Music and Art, up in Harlem (where among his fellow students at the time would have been such diverse talents as Steven Bochco, Lola Falana, Billy Cobham, Carole Bayer Sager, Erica Jong, and the upperclassman Al Pacino). When
that
didn’t work out, it was back to private education at the Rhodes School (where James Caan was then enrolled). “I had a bad high school scene,” De Niro admitted later, particularly regretting his failure to hang on at Music and Art: “It was a good school. I should have stayed there.” His mother, though, knew exactly what the problem was: “His idea of high school was just not to show up,” she declared flatly.
H E WASN ’ T A troubled kid, exactly, but he was rudderless, and then an old urge resurfaced. He decided he would like to return to the Dramatic Workshop and resume his exploration of acting and the theater. Relieved to find her son interested in something positive—and, even more than that, something creative—Admiral once again made arrangements for him to attend classes.
This time he wouldn’t be the Cowardly Lion. As he was attending classes in lieu of regular schooling, he was thrown in with the adults and was expected to study and learn not only the nuts and bolts of theacting profession but the theory behind it. Plus there was an emphasis on self-exploration and self-revelation that wasn’t part of the children’s classes. On the very first day, he encountered, albeit somewhat comically, the sort of thing he’d be facing—and fearing—in the months and years ahead. “I went in,” he remembered, “and the director said to me, ‘Vy do you vant to be an acteh?’ I didn’t know how to answer, so I didn’t say anything. And he said, ‘To express
Life with Mom wasn’t necessarily easier. In addition to running a makeshift business out of their home, Admiral continued to engage in artistic and, increasingly, political activities, and she had a private life of her own, dating and even living with men over the years during which she was raising her son. “Among the many who courted her favors,” remembered Larry Rivers, “were [artist and critic] Manny Farber and [critic] Clement Greenberg, causing the first of many one-rounders between these two.” Farber and Admiral had a relationship of several years’ duration, not long after which Farber started writing about movies for
ARTnews
and eventually emerged as one of the most influential film critics in the latter half of the century. * As uncomfortableas he may have been with his father’s unorthodox behavior, De Niro was rendered truly squeamish by his mother’s grown-up life, even if it was comparatively ordinary. Years later, as a famous actor, he was approached by Farber at a Hollywood gathering; the writer said hello and then asked, “Do you remember me? I used to go out with your mother. You have unbelievable eyes. Just like your father. You’re much more like your father than your mother.” De Niro, visibly appalled, said nothing and soon fled the party.
Not surprisingly, the lack of an intact home and the lure of the streets took a toll on De Niro’s academic performance. He had struggled through elementary school, so Admiral sent him to Elisabeth Irwin High School, an adjunct of the Little Red School House that included an intermediate school. As it was a private school and the young De Niro wasn’t particularly keen on succeeding in it, his mother decided to forgo paying tuition and enrolled him at New York’s famed (and public) High School of Music and Art, up in Harlem (where among his fellow students at the time would have been such diverse talents as Steven Bochco, Lola Falana, Billy Cobham, Carole Bayer Sager, Erica Jong, and the upperclassman Al Pacino). When
that
didn’t work out, it was back to private education at the Rhodes School (where James Caan was then enrolled). “I had a bad high school scene,” De Niro admitted later, particularly regretting his failure to hang on at Music and Art: “It was a good school. I should have stayed there.” His mother, though, knew exactly what the problem was: “His idea of high school was just not to show up,” she declared flatly.
H E WASN ’ T A troubled kid, exactly, but he was rudderless, and then an old urge resurfaced. He decided he would like to return to the Dramatic Workshop and resume his exploration of acting and the theater. Relieved to find her son interested in something positive—and, even more than that, something creative—Admiral once again made arrangements for him to attend classes.
This time he wouldn’t be the Cowardly Lion. As he was attending classes in lieu of regular schooling, he was thrown in with the adults and was expected to study and learn not only the nuts and bolts of theacting profession but the theory behind it. Plus there was an emphasis on self-exploration and self-revelation that wasn’t part of the children’s classes. On the very first day, he encountered, albeit somewhat comically, the sort of thing he’d be facing—and fearing—in the months and years ahead. “I went in,” he remembered, “and the director said to me, ‘Vy do you vant to be an acteh?’ I didn’t know how to answer, so I didn’t say anything. And he said, ‘To express
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