River Phoenix (1970-1993) is the great, unfulfilled acting talent of his generation. The immensely talented, almost unearthly beautiful American actor died of an overdose on October 31, 1993 – 30 years ago today – on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. He was only 23 years old. Without his untimely, tragic death, Phoenix would most likely have become a similar star to his approximate peers Matt Damon (53) or Leonardo DiCaprio (48).
Phoenix’s childhood and youth were more than unusual. The older brother of Oscar winner and “Joker” star Joaquin Phoenix (48) grew up in a veritable hippie family along with his other siblings Rain (50), Liberty (47) and Summer Phoenix (44). As members of the controversial “Children of God” cult, they spent much of the 1970s in Venezuela. Afterwards, parents Arlyn Phoenix (78) and John Lee Bottom (1947-2015) traveled all over the United States with their extended family.
In order to get money for food and accommodation, River Phoenix and his sister Rain began performing as street musicians when they were very young. Certainly not a bad school for a future Hollywood star, but certainly anything but a completely sheltered childhood.
The Phoenix family moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s. The artist agent Iris Burton (1930-2008) discovered River Phoenix and his siblings playing music on the street and signed them. River began working as an actor. After appearing in commercials and TV productions, he played his first leading role alongside Ethan Hawke (52) in the 1980s teen film “Explorers – A Fantastic Adventure” (1985).
Immediately afterwards he took on one of the four main roles in Rob Reiner’s (76) coming-of-age classic “Stand by Me – The Secret of a Summer” (1986). During most of the filming, Phoenix was just 14 years old. The film based on a novella by Stephen King (76) made him a teen star – with everything that entailed, especially in Hollywood at the time.
Phoenix then went from success to success. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in “Running on Empty” (original title: “Running on Empty”, 1988), making him, to this day, the sixth youngest person ever nominated for an Oscar in this category Actor.
A year later, Phoenix appeared as a young Indiana Jones in the prologue to the third Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). He delivered probably the best performance of his career in 1991 alongside Keanu Reeves (59) in Gus Van Sant’s (71) fascinating art house masterpiece “My Own Private Idaho” (1991). At the Venice Film Festival in 1991, Phoenix received the “Best Actor” award for his portrayal of the narcoleptic street boy Mike Waters.
With the latter role in particular, the mime was finally able to free himself from his image as a teenage heartthrob. In the 1990s, which were so rich in filmmaking, Phoenix would certainly have appeared in a number of large-scale productions by the Hollywood dream factory – and, following “My Own Private Idaho”, possibly in a number of exciting arthouse and independent films.
Although much of this is pure speculation in retrospect, before his death Phoenix had already signed for the role of the reporter in “Interview with a Vampire” (1994), later played by Christian Slater (54). He also showed great interest in the title role, which was ultimately taken over by Leonardo DiCaprio, in the drama “Jim Carroll – In the Streets of New York” (1995) and is even said to be James Cameron’s (69) favorite for the lead role in “Titanic”, which was also later played by DiCaprio. (1997).
However, that never happened because Phoenix collapsed in front of Johnny Depp’s (60) nightclub “The Viper Room” in the early hours of October 31, 1993. His brother Joaquin Phoenix desperately called 911 and begged the rescuers with the words “He has Seizures! Please come here, please, because he is dying, please” for help.
In complete cardiac arrest and with no pulse or blood pressure, Phoenix was rushed to nearby Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and pronounced dead at 1:51 a.m. The autopsy result was death from mixed intoxication.
