River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix (né Bottom; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor and musician. Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. He had no formal schooling, but showed an instinctive talent for the guitar. He began his acting career at age 10 in television commercials. He starred in the science fiction adventure film Explorers (1985) and had his first notable 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 died at age 23 from combined drug intoxication in West Hollywood in the early hours of Halloween, 1993, having overdosed on cocaine and heroin (a mixture commonly known as speedball) at The Viper Room. Description above from the Wikipedia article River Phoenix, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Credits
- 2024 · Child Star as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 2024 · Joaquin Phoenix: An Actor of Extremes as Self - Actor (archive footage)
- 2023 · Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones & Harrison Ford as Self (archive footage)
- 2020 · Showbiz Kids as Self (archive footage)
- 2014 · Too Young To Die: River Phoenix as Self (archive footage)
- 2012 · Dark Blood as Boy
- 2012 · Too Young to Die as Self (archive footage)
- 2012 · My Own Private River as Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage)
- 2005 · The Making of ‘My Own Private Idaho’ as Self
- 2005 · The Phoenix Portal as Wolfgang Müller / Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage)
- 2003 · The Making of ‘Sneakers’ as Self
- 2000 · Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand by Me as Self (archive footage)
- 1996 · This Road Will Never End as Self (archive footage)
- 1994 · Truth or Dairy as Self (archive footage)
- 1993 · The Thing Called Love as James Wright
- 1993 · Silent Tongue as Talbot Roe
- 1992 · Sneakers as Carl
- 1992 · Flea Master Session as Self
- 1991 · Dogfight as Eddie Birdlace
- 1991 · My Own Private Idaho as Michael "Mike" Waters
- 1991 · Evolution's End? as Self
- 1990 · I Love You to Death as Devo Nod
- 1989 · Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as Young Indy
- 1988 · Running on Empty as Danny Pope
- 1988 · A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon as Jimmy Reardon
- 1988 · Little Nikita as Jeff Grant
- 1986 · The Mosquito Coast as Charlie Fox
- 1986 · Circle of Violence: A Family Drama as Chris Benfield
- 1986 · Stand by Me as Chris Chambers
- 1985 · Explorers as Wolfgang Müller
- 1985 · Surviving as Philip Brogan
- 1985 · Robert Kennedy & His Times as Robert Kennedy Jr.
- 1984 · It's Your Move as
- 1984 · Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia as Brian Ellsworth
- 1984 · Celebrity as Jeffie - Age 11
- 1982 · Family Ties as Eugene Forbes
- 1982 · Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as Guthrie McFadden
- 1982 · Hotel as
- 1982 · River Phoenix Ocean Spray Commercial as Self