Known For
Acting
Born
Aug 23, 1970
Died
Oct 31, 1993
Place of Birth
Metolius, Oregon USA
Credits
39 titles
River Phoenix
Biography
River Jude Phoenix (née Bottom; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, musician, and activist. Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the oldest brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. He had no formal schooling, but he showed an instinctive talent for the guitar, and he played and sang on the streets for money. He began his acting career at age 10 in a handful of television commercials. He starred in the science fiction adventure film Explorers (1985) and had his breakthrough role in 1986's Stand by Me, a coming-of-age film based on the novella The Body by Stephen King. Phoenix made a transition into more adult-oriented roles with Running on Empty (1988), playing Danny Pope, the son of fugitive parents in a well-received performance that earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (at age 18, he became the sixth-youngest nominee in the category), and My Own Private Idaho (1991), playing Michael Waters, a gay hustler in search of his estranged mother. For his performance in the latter, Phoenix garnered enormous praise and won a Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1991 Venice Film Festival as well as Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, becoming the second-youngest winner of the former. Phoenix fought heroin addiction and died at age 23 from combined drug intoxication in West Hollywood in the early hours of Halloween, 1993, after unknowingly ingesting cocaine and heroin (a mixture commonly known as a speedball) at The Viper Room.
Known For
Filmography
Joaquin Phoenix: An Actor of Extremes
Self - Actor (archive footage)
Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford
Self (archive footage)
Showbiz Kids
Self
Dark Blood
Boy
Too Young to Die
Self (archive footage)
My Own Private River
Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage)
Final 24: River Phoenix
Self (archive footage)
The Phoenix Portal
Wolfgang Müller / Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage)
Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy
Self (archive footage)
101 Most Shocking Moments in Entertainment
Self (archive footage)
The Making of ‘Sneakers’
Self
Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand by Me
Self (archive footage)
This Road Will Never End
Self (archive footage)
Interview with the Vampire
In Memory Of
Silent Tongue
Talbot Roe
Truth or Dairy
Self (archive footage)
The Thing Called Love
James Wright
Sneakers
Carl
Flea Master Session
Self
Dogfight
Eddie Birdlace
My Own Private Idaho
Mike Waters
Evolution's End?
Self
I Love You to Death
Devo Nod
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Young Indy
Running on Empty
Danny Pope
Little Nikita
Jeff Grant
A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon
Jimmy Reardon
The Mosquito Coast
Charlie Fox
Circle of Violence: A Family Drama
Chris Benfield
Stand by Me
Chris Chambers
Explorers
Wolfgang Müller
Surviving
Philip Brogan
Robert Kennedy & His Times
Robert Kennedy Jr.
It's Your Move
Brian
Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia
Brian Ellsworth
Celebrity
Young Jeffie Crawford
Family Ties
Eugene Forbes
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Guthrie McFadden
Hotel