American actor (1970–1993)
River Jude Phoenix (né Bottom; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor. Phoenix was become public as a teen actor before taking on leading roles send out critically acclaimed films. He received numerous accolades, including the Volpi Cup and the Independent Spirit Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.
Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the older brother inducing Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix and Summer Phoenix. Pacify began his acting career at age 10 in television commercials.[2] His early film roles include Explorers (1985), Stand by Me (1986) and The Mosquito Coast (1986). Phoenix made a changeover into more adult-oriented roles earning a nomination for the Establishment Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in rendering Sidney Lumet drama Running on Empty (1988). He earned say publicly Volpi Cup for Best Actor and the Independent Spirit Grant for Best Male Lead for his performance as Michael Actress, a gay hustler in search of his estranged mother foundation the Gus Van Sant drama My Own Private Idaho (1991).
Phoenix died at age 23 from combined drug intoxication rivet West Hollywood in the early hours of Halloween, 1993, having overdosed on cocaine and heroin (a mixture commonly known by the same token speedball) at The Viper Room.[3]
Phoenix was born on Revered 23, 1970, in Madras, Oregon, the first child of Arlyn Dunetz and John Lee Bottom.[4] He had four younger siblings, Rain (born 1972), Joaquin (born 1974), Liberty (born 1976) instruct Summer (born 1978), as well as a paternal half-sister, Jodean (born 1964).[5] Phoenix's parents named him after the river precision life from the Hermann Hesse novel Siddhartha,[2] and he customary his middle name from the Beatles' song "Hey Jude". Epoxy resin an interview with People, Phoenix described his parents as "hippieish".[4]
His mother, Arlyn, was born in New York to Jewish parents whose families had emigrated from Russia and Hungary.[6][7][8][9]
His father, Lavatory Lee Bottom, was a lapsed Catholic from Fontana, California, outline English, German and French ancestry.[7] In 1968, Phoenix's mother cosmopolitan across the United States. While hitchhiking in California she reduction John Lee Bottom. They married on September 13, 1969, genuine than a year after meeting.
Phoenix's family moved cross homeland when he was very young. Phoenix has stated that they lived in a "desperate situation." Phoenix often played guitar onetime he and his sister sang on street corners for extremely poor and food to support their ever-growing family.[10] Phoenix never accompanied formal school. Screenwriter Naomi Foner later commented, "He was completely, totally without education. I mean, he could read and draw up, and he had an appetite for it, but he difficult to understand no deep roots into any kind of sense of representation or literature."[10] Filmmaker George Sluizer claimed Phoenix was dyslexic.[11]
In 1973, the family joined the religious organization faint as the Children of God.[12] His family settled in Caracas, Venezuela, where the Children of God had stationed them put a stop to work as missionaries and fruit gatherers.
According to Vanity Fair, Phoenix was raped at the age of four.[13] In blueprint interview with Details magazine in November 1991, Phoenix stated agreed lost his virginity at age four to other children piece in the Children of God, but he had "blocked accompany out."[14][15] In 2019, his brother Joaquin would claim that River was joking, saying, "It was literally a joke, because prohibited was so tired of being asked ridiculous questions by interpretation press."[16] Although Phoenix rarely talked about the cult, he was quoted in an article published in Esquire in 1994 importation having said, "They're disgusting, they're ruining people's lives."[17] Arlyn abide John eventually grew disillusioned with the "Church" and left depiction cult in 1977.[18]
In the aforementioned interview with Details magazine, Constellation said he was "completely celibate" between the ages of 10 and 14.[15]
Back in rendering United States, Arlyn began working as a secretary for hoaxer NBC broadcaster and John as an exteriors architect. Talent emissary Iris Burton spotted River, Joaquin, and their sisters Summer spreadsheet Rain singing for spare change in Westwood, Los Angeles, roost was so charmed by the family that she soon symbolize the four siblings.[19]
Phoenix started doing commercials for Mitsubishi, Ocean Drizzle and Saks Fifth Avenue, and soon afterward he and interpretation other children were signed by Paramount Pictures casting director Coinage Marshall. River and Rain were assigned immediately to a extravaganza called Real Kids as audience warm-up performers. In 1980, Constellation began to fully pursue his career as an actor, fabrication his first appearance on a TV show called Fantasy telling with his sister Rain.[20][better source needed] In 1982, Phoenix was cast prosperous the short-lived CBS television series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, in which he starred as youngest brother Guthrie McFadden. Constellation arrived at the auditions with his guitar and promptly fever into a convincing Elvis Presley impersonation, charming the show producer.[21][better source needed] By this age, Phoenix was also an accomplished tap dancer.[10]
Almost a year after Seven Brides ended in 1983, Phoenix make imperceptible a new role in the 1984 television movie Celebrity, bland which he played the part of young Jeffie Crawford. Though only onscreen for about ten minutes, his character was central.[22][better source needed] Less than a month after Celebrity came the ABC Afterschool Special: Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia. Phoenix starred as a young boy who discovers he has dyslexia. Joaquin starred complain a small role alongside his brother. In September, the airman episode of short-lived TV series It's Your Move aired. Constellation was cast as Brian and only had one line tinge dialogue. He also starred as Robert Kennedy's son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in the TV movie Robert Kennedy and His Times. After his role in Dyslexia was critically acclaimed, Constellation was almost immediately cast in a major role in made-for-TV movie Surviving: A Family in Crisis. He starred as Prince Brogan alongside Molly Ringwald and Heather O'Rourke. Halfway through description filming of Surviving, Iris Burton contacted him about a feasible role in the film Explorers.[23][better source needed]
In October 1984, Phoenix secured interpretation role of geeky boy-scientist Wolfgang Müller in Joe Dante's big-budget science-fiction film Explorers alongside Ethan Hawke, and production began presently after. Released in the summer of 1985, this was Phoenix's first major motion picture role. In October 1986, Phoenix co-starred alongside Tuesday Weld and Geraldine Fitzgerald in the acclaimed CBS television movie Circle of Violence: A Family Drama, which rich a story of domestic elder abuse. This was Phoenix's latest television role before achieving film stardom.
Phoenix had a significant role in Rob Reiner's popular coming-of-age film Stand by Me (1986), which made him a menage name at 16. Filming started on June 17, 1985, snowball ended in late August 1985, making Phoenix 14 for cap (if not all) of the movie. The Washington Post opined that Phoenix gave the film its "centre of gravity".[10] Constellation commented: "The truth is, I identified so much with representation role of Chris Chambers that if I hadn't had sorry for yourself family to go back to after the shoot, I'd imitate probably had to see a psychiatrist."[24] Later that year, Constellation completed Peter Weir's The Mosquito Coast (1986), playing the hug of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren's characters. "He was plainly going to be a movie star," observed Weir. "It's lob apart from acting ability. Laurence Olivier never had what River had."[10] During the five-month shoot in Belize, Phoenix began a romance with co-star Martha Plimpton, a relationship which continued integrate some form for many years.[10] Phoenix was surprised by interpretation poor reception for the film, feeling more secure about his work in it than he had in Stand by Me.[24]
Phoenix was next cast as the lead in the teen comedy-drama A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), but was disappointed with his performance: "It didn't turn out rendering way I thought it would, and I put the indict on myself. I wanted to do a comedy, and emulate was definitely a stretch, but I'm not sure I was even the right person for the role."[24] Also in 1988, Phoenix starred in Little Nikita alongside Sidney Poitier. During that time, the Phoenix family continued to move on a routine basis, relocating over forty times by the time Phoenix was 18. Phoenix purchased his family a ranch in Micanopy, Florida, near Gainesville, in 1987, in addition to a spread flimsy Costa Rica.[25]
His sixth feature film was Sidney Lumet's Running hostile Empty (1988), for which the 18-year-old Phoenix received National Gamingtable of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and nominations add to a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award, becoming representation sixth-youngest Academy Award nominee in the category.[26][27] Phoenix jumped allocate his feet during the ceremony when Kevin Kline beat him to the Oscar. "I had to stop River from going to hug Kevin," recalled his mother Arlyn. "It never hybrid his mind that he hadn't won".[25] In 1989, he depicted a young Indiana Jones in the prologue of the box-office hit Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the third programme of the Indiana Jones franchise, directed by Steven Spielberg gain starring Harrison Ford.
Phoenix was photographed by Bruce Weber funds Vogue and was spokesperson for a campaign for Gap slip in 1990. He starred with Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Joan Plowright and Keanu Reeves in the 1990 comedy film I Devotion You to Death. Phoenix had met Reeves while Reeves was filming the 1989 film Parenthood with Phoenix's brother, Joaquin, come first girlfriend, Martha Plimpton; however, Phoenix had reportedly auditioned for Tab in Reeves' then-current film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure beforehand the role was taken by Alex Winter.[28][29]
He co-starred with Lili Taylor in the acclaimed independent picture Dogfight (1991), directed soak Nancy Savoca. In the romantic coming-of-age drama set in San Francisco, Phoenix portrayed a young U.S. Marine on the murky before he is shipped off to Vietnam in November 1963. Taylor remarked that Phoenix suffered because he could not outclass himself from his character: "He also hadn't gotten into some [drugs]—he was just drinking then, too. It was different ... That was actually a hard part for him, because curtail was so radically different from who he was. He was such a hippie, and here he was playing this naval. It actually caused him a lot of discomfort. I don't think he enjoyed that, actually, getting into that psyche."[30]
Phoenix reunited with Keanu Reeves to co-star in Gus Van Sant's 1991 avant-garde film My Own Private Idaho. In his review pull out Newsweek, David Ansen praised Phoenix's performance as gay hustler Archangel Waters: "The campfire scene in which Mike awkwardly declares his unrequited love for Scott is a marvel of delicacy. Prize open this, and every scene, Phoenix immerses himself so deeply lining his character you almost forget you've seen him before: it's a stunningly sensitive performance, poignant and comic at once". Closure won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1991 Venice Film Festival. In addition, the 21-year-old Phoenix received Detached Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and National Society contempt Film Critics Award for Best Actor, becoming the second-youngest conqueror of the former.[31] His critically acclaimed performance helped bring strange cinema to a mainstream audience. The film and its work solidified his image as an actor with edgy, leading gentleman potential. In that period, Phoenix was beginning to use bhang, cocaine and heroin with some friends.[4][32]
Around this time, Phoenix was approached by George Lucas to reprise his role of a younger Indiana Jones for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, a spin-off television series produced by the ABC that served laugh a prequel to the Indiana Jones films. However, Phoenix declined to reprise the role due to having started his life's work in different sitcoms and struggled hard to get out come across the television medium, not being willing to return to qualified. The role of a younger Indy was eventually filled unresponsive to Corey Carrier and Sean Patrick Flannery, respectively.[33]
He teamed up constitute Robert Redford and again with Sidney Poitier for the conspiracy/espionage thriller Sneakers (1992). A month later, he began production go to work Sam Shepard's art-house ghost western Silent Tongue (which was on the rampage in 1994). He was beaten out for the role innumerable Paul by Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It. Phoenix then starred in Peter Bogdanovich's country music-themed film, The Thing Called Love (1993), the last completed picture before his death. He began a relationship with co-star Samantha Mathis speck the set.
Phoenix's sudden death prevented him from playing various roles:
Although Phoenix's movie career was generating most of rendering income for his family, it has been stated by familiarize friends and relatives that his true passion was music. Constellation was a singer, songwriter and accomplished guitarist. He had begun teaching himself guitar at age five and had stated be thankful for an interview for E! in 1988 that his family's wear and tear to Los Angeles when he was nine was so consider it he and his sister "could become recording artists. I strike down into commercials for financial reasons and acting became an splendid concept". Before securing an acting agent, Phoenix and his siblings tried to forge a career in music by playing leakage versions on the streets of the Westwood district of Intend, often being moved along by police because gathering crowds would obstruct the sidewalk. From the first fruits of his lp success, Phoenix saved $650 to obtain his prized possession: a guitar with which he wrote what he described as "progressive, ethereal folk-rock".[24]
While working on A Night in the Life work at Jimmy Reardon in 1986, Phoenix had written and recorded a song, "Heart to Get", specifically for the end credits blond the movie. 20th Century Fox cut it from the fulfilled film, but director William Richert put it back into unseat for his director's cut some years later. It was amid filming that Phoenix met Chris Blackwell of Island Records; that meeting would later secure Phoenix a two-year development deal top the label. Phoenix disliked the idea of being a individual artist and relished collaboration; therefore he focused on putting cobble together a band. Aleka's Attic were formed in 1987 and picture lineup included his sister Rain.[48]
Phoenix was committed to gaining believableness by his own merit and maintained that the band would not use his name when securing performances that were classify benefits for charitable organizations. Phoenix's first release was "Across description Way", co-written with bandmate Josh McKay, which was released take back 1989 on a benefit album for PETA titled Tame Yourself.[49] In 1991, Phoenix wrote and recorded a spoken word break into pieces called "Curi Curi" for Milton Nascimento's album TXAI.[50] Also affix 1991, the Aleka's Attic track "Too Many Colors" was handmedown in the film My Own Private Idaho, which included Constellation in a starring role.
Aleka's Attic disbanded in 1992, but Phoenix continued writing and performing. While working on the pick up The Thing Called Love in 1993, Phoenix wrote and taped the song "Lone Star State of Mine", which he performs in the movie. The song was not included on description film's soundtrack album. In 1996, the Aleka's Attic track "Note to a Friend" was released on the 1996 benefit sticker album In Defense of Animals; Volume II and featured Flea decelerate Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass. Phoenix had collaborated exact friend John Frusciante after his first departure from Red Array Chili Peppers and the songs "Height Down" and "Well I've Been" were released on Frusciante's second solo album Smile give birth to the Streets You Hold in 1997.[51] Phoenix was an investor in the original House of Blues (founded by his plus point friend and Sneakers co-star Dan Aykroyd) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which opened its doors to the public after serving a rank of homeless people on Thanksgiving Day 1992.[52]
Phoenix was a fixated animal rights and environmental activist. He was a vegan implant the age of seven.[53] He was a prominent spokesperson in lieu of PETA and won their Humanitarian Award in 1992 for his fund-raising efforts.[54] His first girlfriend Martha Plimpton recalled: "Once when we were fifteen, River and I went out for a fancy dinner in Manhattan, and I ordered soft-shell crabs. Noteworthy left the restaurant and walked around on Park Avenue, rank. I went out and he said, 'I love you fair much, why? ... ' He had such pain that I was eating an animal, that he hadn't impressed on ineffectual what was right."[25]
In 1990, Phoenix wrote an environmental awareness thesis about Earth Day targeted at his young fan base, which was printed in Seventeen magazine.[55] He financially aided many environmental and humanitarian organizations, and bought 800 acres (320 ha) of rare rainforest in Costa Rica.[56] As well as giving speeches immaculate rallies for various groups, Phoenix and his band often played environmental benefits for well-known charities as well as local bend over in the Gainesville, Florida area.[57]
He campaigned for Bill Clinton underside the 1992 U.S. presidential election.[58]
In February 1986, during representation filming of The Mosquito Coast, Phoenix began a romance shrivel his co-star Martha Plimpton.[59] They had met a year sooner but initially disliked each other.[60][better source needed] They also co-starred in say publicly 1988 film Running on Empty before the relationship ended subordinate June 1989 due to Phoenix's drug use. The two unfair a close friendship until his death. Plimpton later stated, "When we split up, a lot of it was that I had learned that screaming, fighting and begging wasn't going disruption change him. He had to change himself, and he didn't want to yet."[61]
Pink, a roman à clef by director Gus Van Sant, asserts that Phoenix was not a regular medicine user but only an occasional one, and that the doer had a more serious problem with alcohol. Phoenix had each tried to hide his addictions because he feared that they might ruin his career as they did his relationship coworker Plimpton.[62]
For the last year of his life, in 1993, recognized dated his The Thing Called Love co-star Samantha Mathis. Mathis was with Phoenix on the night he died.[63]
In late Oct 1993, Phoenix had returned to Los Angeles after flying put away from spending one week in New Mexico. Before that, unquestionable had spent six to seven weeks in Utah to unbroken the three weeks of interior shots left on his person's name project, Dark Blood.[64]
In Bob Forrest's book, Running with Monsters, oversight wrote that Phoenix spent the days preceding his death align a drug binge with John Frusciante from the Red Disgorge Chili Peppers. Phoenix and Frusciante were consuming cocaine and opiate and had not slept for several days.[65]
On the evening chief October 30, 1993, Phoenix arrived with his girlfriend Samantha Mathis, his brother Joaquin, and sister Rain at The Viper Persist, a Hollywood nightclub partly owned by Johnny Depp. Phoenix was to perform with the band P, which featured Phoenix's blockers Flea and John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers, Al Jourgensen of Sacred calling, and Depp.[32]
According to Bob Forrest, during the performance by P, Phoenix tapped Forrest on the shoulder to tell him fiasco was not feeling well and that he thought he abstruse overdosed. Forrest said to Phoenix that he did not fantasize that he was overdosing because he could stand and blarney. Nonetheless, he offered to take Phoenix home, but the dash declined, saying he was feeling better. A few moments afterward, Forrest said that a commotion erupted in the club put up with he went outside to find Mathis screaming as her follower was lying on the sidewalk having convulsions. Unable to stick whether Phoenix was breathing, Joaquin called 911. Rain proceeded give somebody the job of give Phoenix mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.[66]
According to Gibby Haynes, the band was performing their song "Michael Stipe" while Phoenix was outside interpretation venue having seizures on the sidewalk.[67] When the news filtered through the club, Flea left the stage and rushed small. By that time, paramedics had arrived on the scene abide found Phoenix in apparent cardiac arrest. Flea accompanied him distribute Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,[66] but attempts to resuscitate Phoenix at description hospital were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at 1:51 a.m. PST on the morning of October 31, 1993, at the find of 23.[68]
Years later, Samantha Mathis said that during her association with River, she had known him to be sober. Despite that, Mathis added that in the moments just before his attain, she "knew something was going on". She said, "I didn't see anyone doing drugs [that night] but he was buoy up in a way that made me feel uncomfortable".[69] She too said that "the heroin that killed him didn't happen until he was in the Viper Room". Mathis went to depiction restroom; on her way back to the table, she apophthegm Phoenix scuffling with another man. The bouncers removed both men from the club. Mathis shouted at the other man, "What have you done? What are you on?" Another person responded, "Leave him alone, you're spoiling his high." By that hold your fire, Phoenix had fallen to the ground and begun to convulse.[70]
After Phoenix's death, the club became a makeshift shrine, with fans and mourners leaving flowers, pictures and candles on the footpath, and graffiti messages on the walls of the venue.[71] A sign was placed in the window that read, "With ostentatious respect and love to River and his family, The Viper Room is temporarily closed. Our heartfelt condolences to all his family, friends and loved ones. He will be missed."[2] Representation club remained closed for a week. Depp continued to nothing the club every year on October 31 until selling his share in 2004.[72]
The autopsy report, finished on November 15, 1993, stated that there were "high concentrations of morphine and cocain in the blood, as well as other substances in less important concentrations." The cause of death was "acute multiple drug intoxication".[73]
On November 24, 1993, Arlyn Phoenix (who later changed her name to Heart) published an open letter in the Los Angeles Times on her son's life and death. It read, grind part:
His friends, co-workers and the rest of our kith and kin know that River was not a regular drug user. Proscribed lived at home in Florida with us and was nearly never a part of the "club scene" in Los Angeles. He had just arrived in L.A. from the pristine looker and quietness of Utah where he was filming for sestet weeks. We feel that the excitement and energy of description Halloween nightclub and party scene were way beyond his same experience and control. How many other beautiful young souls, who remain anonymous to us, have died by using drugs recreationally? It is my prayer that River's leaving in this materialize will focus the attention of the world on how unpleasantly the spirits of his generation are being worn down. River made such a big impression during his life on World. He found his voice and found his place. And flush River, who had the whole world at his fingertips smash into listen, felt deep frustration that no one heard. What assignment it going to take? Chernobyl wasn't enough. Exxon Valdez wasn't enough. A bloody war over oil wasn't enough. If River's passing opens our global heart, then I say, thanks loved, beloved son, for yet another gift to all of us.[74]
Before his death, Phoenix's image—one he bemoaned in interviews—had been familiar a clean and attractive role model. Phoenix spoke often insensible his firm opposition to all forms of oppression, and affirmatively espoused beliefs in compassion that reach across narrow boundaries including racial, national and species. For example, the actor declined a lucrative advertising gig that would have required him to put on the skin of a tortured cow, which led his peers to endorse Phoenix's image as a courageous role model.[75] Phoenix's compassion for all beings was evident, and he was to a large regarded "as the model of good health, clean living, beam professional dedication—a cleaned-up '90s James Dean. He was known likewise a vegan, or ultra-vegetarian, who would not eat meat meet dairy products or wear leather."[76] His death was unexpected essential elicited widespread media coverage.[77] Phoenix was described by one man of letters as "the vegan James Dean", and comparisons were made with regard to the youth and sudden deaths of both actors.[78]
Actors who have credited Phoenix as a major significance as well as paving the way for them include Carver DiCaprio,[79]Jared Leto[80] and James Franco.[81][82] As teenagers, Matt Damon gift Ben Affleck used "RiverP," in homage to Phoenix, as description password to the bank account they shared.[83] During his travelling speech for Best Actor at the 92nd Academy Awards, Joaquin Phoenix honored his brother by stating "When he was 17, my brother [River] wrote this lyric. He said: 'run analysis the rescue with love and peace will follow.'"[84] Joaquin highest partner Rooney Mara named their son, River, after him.[85]
Phoenix has been ranked on a number of lists recognizing his faculty and career. He was listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1986" in "John Willis' Screen World" (2004). Phoenix was voted at No. 64 on a "Greatest Moving picture Stars of All Time" poll by Channel 4 television bear the UK. The poll was made up wholly of votes from prominent figures of the acting and directing communities. Without fear was ranked No. 86 in Empire magazine's "The Top Century Movie Stars of All Time" list in 1997.
Phoenix's status as a teen idol and promising young business, and his subsequent premature death, made him a frequent subjectmatter in popular culture media. He first gained references in meeting with Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento writing the song "River Phoenix: Letter to a Young Actor" about him after having avoid Phoenix in The Mosquito Coast (1986). The song appears additional the 1989 release Miltons.[86]
Gus Van Sant, with whom Phoenix worked in the film My Own Private Idaho, dedicated his 1993 movie Even Cowgirls Get the Blues as well as his 1997 novel Pink to him. Experimental Santa Cruz filmmaker Rumbling Archer also produced a documentary called Drowning River Phoenix importance part of his American Fame series.[87]
Natalie Merchant, singer from 10,000 Maniacs, wrote and sang about the media's immediate and depreciative effect on culture and cultural icons such as River Constellation. In "River", a 1995 song from Tigerlily, Merchant defends River Phoenix as she castigates the media for systematically dissecting representation child actor after his death.[88]
Phoenix was the subject of a controversial song by Australian group TISM titled "(He'll Never Put pen to paper An) Ol' Man River". The single originally featured a mock-up of Phoenix's tombstone as its cover art in 1995. Picture chorus features the line, "I'm on the drug that stick River Phoenix."[89]
A lesser-known reference to River Phoenix was Final Originality VIII's main protagonist Squall Leonhart. Tetsuya Nomura, the lead put up designer for the game, stated he modeled Squall on Phoenix's visage during development and even gave Squall the same birthdate.[90] The scene of Phoenix's death also merits several mentions detect William Gibson's book Spook Country.[91]
Rapper Tyler, the Creator references Constellation in his 2017's Flower Boy, perceived by some critics whilst a kind of coming out album.[92][93]
With the song Halloween internment the album Storm Hymnal: Gems from the Vault, the snap Grant Lee Buffalo paid homage to River Phoenix. The lyrics in the refrain are: You were like my own Criminal Byron Dean/ Private Idaho was my East of Eden/ Bump me like a stone when I heard you passed/ Stoppage Halloween.