River Phoenix

At 23 years old, River Phoenix has this physical status:

River Jude Phoenix (né bottom; 1980 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, singer, and animal activist.

He was the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. Phoenix's career spanned 24 films and television appearances, and his ascension to fame gave him his status as a "teen idol."

He began his acting career at the age of ten in television commercials.

He appeared in the science fiction adventure film Explorers (1985) and was playing his first role in Stand by Me, a coming-of-age film based on Stephen King's novella The Body.

Phoenix made a change to more adult-oriented roles with Running on Empty (1988), as the son of fugitive parents in a well-received performance that earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and My Own Private Idaho (1991), playing a gay hustler in search of his estranged mother.

Phoenix earned a Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, as well as Best Actor from the National Society of Film Critics for his role in the latter. Following a drug overdose on the sidewalk outside West Hollywood's nightclub The Viper Room at the age of 23, Phoenix died of mixed drug intoxication on October 31, 1993.

At the time of his death, Phoenix was participating in Dark Blood, a 2012 release that was first released in Arizona.

Early life

Phoenix was born in Madras, Oregon, on August 23, 1970, the first child of Arlyn Dunetz and John Lee Bottom. He was named after the river of life from Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, and he took his middle name from the Beatles' song "Hey Jude." Phoenix's parents were described as "hippieish" in a People interview. His mother was born in New York to Jewish parents whose families had emigrated from Russia and Hungary. His father, a lapsed Catholic from Fontana, California, of English, German, and French descents, was a lapsed Catholic. In 1968, Phoenix's mother travelled around the United States. While hitchhiking in California, she met John Lee Bottom. They married on September 13, 1969, less than a year after meeting.

When he was young, Phoenix's family immigrated across the country. Phoenix has said that they were in a "desperate situation." Phoenix often played guitar while his brother and sister sang on street corners for money and food to help their ever-growing family. Phoenix had never attended formal school. "He was absolutely, completely without education," screenwriter Naomi Foner later said. I mean, he could read and write, and he had an appetite for it, but he had no deep roots in any kind of historical or literature. Phoenix, according to George Sluizer, was dyslexic.

The family was involved in the Children of God movement in 1973. His family lived in Caracas, Venezuela, where the Children of God had sent them to serve as missionaries and fruit gatherers. Phoenix was assaulted at the age of four, according to Vanity Fair. Phoenix claimed he lost his virginity at age four while in the Children of God but had "blocked it out" in an interview with Details magazine in November 1991. Although Phoenix seldom spoke about the cult, he was quoted in an article published in Esquire in 1994 as saying, "They're disgusting, they're ruining people's lives." River was joking, according to Joaquin, "It was a complete and complete joke." It was just fucking with the media. It was actually a joke because he was so sick of being asked silly questions by the media." With the "Church," Arlyn and John became disillusioned.

Personal life

Phoenix began a romance with his co-star Martha Plimpton in February 1986, during the filming of The Mosquito Coast. They had met a year ago but they had not liked one another at the time. They co-starred in the 1988 film Running on Empty before the friendship came to an end in June 1989 due to Phoenix's opioid use. Both men had a close relationship before his death. "A lot of it was that screaming, fighting, and begging wasn't going to change him," Plimpton later said. He needed to change himself, but he didn't want to yet," says the author.

Phoenix was not a regular drug user, but only an occasional one, according to director Gus Van Sant, and that the actor had a more serious problem with alcohol. Phoenix had always tried to mask his addictions because he feared that they would end his career if they did not work with Plimpton.

Samantha Mathis, a co-star on The Thing Called Love co-star, dated him for the last year of his life in 1993. Mathis died on the night he died while in Phoenix.

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Acting career

Arlyn, who hails from the United States, began as a secretary for a NBC broadcaster and John as an exteriors architect. Iris Burton, a talent agent, discovered River, Joaquin, and their sisters Summer and Rain performing for spare change in Westwood, Los Angeles, and was so impressed by the family that she immediately represented the four siblings.

Phoenix began doing commercials for Mitsubishi, Ocean Spray, and Saks Fifth Avenue, and Paramount Pictures casting director Penny Marshall followed him shortly thereafter. As audience warm-up performers, River and Rain were immediately assigned to a show called Real Kids. Phoenix began fully pursuing his acting career in 1980, with his sister Rain appearing on a TV show called Fantasy. Phoenix was cast in the short-lived CBS television series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, in which he appeared as youngest brother Guthrie McFadden. Phoenix arrived with his guitar and immediately burst into a vivacious Elvis Presley impersonation, delighting the show producer. Phoenix was also a natural tap dancer by this age.

Phoenix found a new role in the 1984 television film Celebrity, in which he appeared as young Jeffie Crawford, almost a year after Seven Brides ended in 1983. Despite being on screen for about ten minutes, his role was pivotal. Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia: Less than a month after Celebrity appeared on ABC Afterschool Special: Backwards. Phoenix performed as a young boy who discovers he has dyslexia. Joaquin appeared in a small role alongside his brother in a small film. The pilot episode of short-lived TV show It's Your Move premiered in September. Phoenix was played as Brian, but there was only one line of dialogue. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Robert Kennedy's son, appeared in Robert Kennedy's television show Robert Kennedy Jr. and His Times. Phoenix was almost immediately cast in the made-for-TV film Surviving: A Family in Crisis, after his role in Dyslexia was critically acclaimed. He appeared as Philip Brogan alongside Molly Ringwald and Heather O'Rourke. Iris Burton, a halfway through the filming of Surviving, contacted him about a potential role in the film Explorers.

Phoenix obtained the role of geeky boy-scientist Wolfgang Müller in Joe Dante's big-budget science-fiction film Explorers, alongside Ethan Hawke, in October 1984, and production began shortly after. This was Phoenix's first major motion picture role, first published in 1985. Phoenix co-starred with Tuesday Weld and Geraldine Fitzgerald in the celebrated CBS television film Circle of Violence: A Family Story, which told a tale of domestic elder abuse in October 1986. This was Phoenix's last television appearance before achieving film stardom.

Phoenix appeared in Rob Reiner's hit coming-of-age film Stand by Me (1986), which made him a household name at 16. Filming began in 1985 and ended in late August 1985, making Phoenix 14 for the majority (but not all) of the film. Phoenix gave the film its "centre of gravity," according to the Washington Post. "I've got so much with Chris Chambers that I'd have to go back to before the shooting that I never had"; "I'd have certainly had to see a psychiatrist," Phoenix said. Phoenix completed Peter Weir's The Mosquito Coast (1986), playing the son of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren's character. Weir: "He was obviously going to be a movie star." "It's something other than acting skills." Laurence Olivier never had what River had never had" advocacity. Phoenix began a five-month gun fight in Belize with co-star Martha Plimpton, a friendship that has lasted in some form for many years. Phoenix was surprised by the poor reception for the film, feeling more confident about his role in it than he had in Stand by Me.

Phoenix was next to lead in the teen comedy comedy A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), but he was dissatisfied with his performance: "It didn't turn out the way I expected," he said, and I blamed myself." I wanted to do a comedic act, but I'm not sure I was the right person for the job." Phoenix appeared in Little Nikita alongside Sidney Poitier in 1988. During this period, the Phoenix family continued to move on a regular basis, relocating more than forty times by the time Phoenix was 18. In 1987, Phoenix bought his family a ranch in Micanopy, Florida, near Gainesville, Florida, in comparison to a spread in Costa Rica.

Running on Empty (1988), Sidney Lumet's sixth feature film, earned the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award, becoming the sixth youngest Academy Award nominee in the category. When Kevin Kline defeated him to the Oscar, Phoenix leapt to his feet. "I had to prevent River from running to hug Kevin," his mother Arlyn said. "It never crossed his mind that he hadn't won." In 1989, he portrayed a young Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones' box-office hit Indiana Jones and Steven Spielberg's Last Crusade.

Bruce Weber was a photographer for Vogue and was a spokesperson for Gap's campaign in 1990. In the 1990 comedy film I Love You to Death, Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Joan Plowright, and Keanu Reeves appeared alongside Keanu Reeves, Tracey Ullman, Tracy Ullman, Joan Plowright, and Keanu Reeves. While Reeves was filming the 1989 film Parenthood with Phoenix's brother, Joaquin, and girlfriend Martha Plimpton, it was reported that Phoenix had auditioned for Bill in Reeves' then-current film Bill & Ted's Wonderful Adventure before the role was taken by Alex Winter;

In the acclaimed independent film Dogfight (1991), directed by Nancy Savoca, he co-starred Lili Taylor. On the night, Phoenix portrayed a young American Marine before he is sent off to Vietnam in November 1963. "He also didn't get into any [drugs]" when Phoenix was struggling because he could not distance himself from his character: "He also wasn't able to get into [drugs]; he was just drinking then, too." It was different... It was certainly a difficult part for him because it was so different from who he was. He was such a hippie, and here he was playing this marine. It caused him a lot of pain. I don't think he enjoyed it, but it did get me into the "ethical mindset."

Phoenix reunited with Keanu Reeves to co-star in Gus Van Sant's 1991 avant-garde film My Own Private Idaho. David Ansen praised Phoenix's results as gay hustler Michael Waters: "The campfire scene in which Mike incoherently confesses his inexortive love for Scott is a marvel of delicacy." Phoenix sinks so deeply into his character in this and every scene that you'll never forget you've never seen him before: it's a brilliantly moving performance, poignant and comedic at the same time." At the 1991 Venice Film Festival, he received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. In addition, the 21-year-old Phoenix received the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, making him the second-youngest winner of the competition. His critically acclaimed role in queer cinema attracted a large audience. The film and its success solidified his reputation as an actor with edgy and leading man potential. Some of my friends were using marijuana, cocaine, and opium with some others in that period.

For the sci-espionage film Sneakers (1992), he worked with Robert Redford and then with Sidney Poitier. Silent Tongue, Sam Shepard's art-house ghost western (which was released in 1994), began production a month later. Brad Pitt was defeated for the role of Paul in A River Runs Through It. Phoenix appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's country music-themed film The Thing Called Love (1993), the last completed picture before his death. On the set, he began a relationship with co-star Samantha Mathis.

Because of Phoenix's sudden death, he was unable to appear in many roles:

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