Joel Schumacher (1939-2020) was a New Yorker through and through. His father passed away when he was only four years old, and he grew up in Long Island City with his mother, often taking himself out to explore nearby Queens and Manhattan while she worked gruelling hours to support them.
Joel Schumacher (left) and Gerard Butler promoting Phantom Of The Opera, 2004.
“The street was my education,” Schumacher told Vulture. “I was on my own.” However, this freedom to explore led young Joel into increasingly adult situations. By the time he turned nine he was drinking regularly, and by age ten he was smoking.