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River Phoenix

Actor
Born August 23, 1970Died October 31, 1993 (23 years)
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

  • Stand by Me
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  • My Own Private Idaho
  • Sneakers
  • Explorers
  • Running on Empty
  • The Mosquito Coast
  • Dogfight
  • The Thing Called Love
  • I Love You to Death
  • A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon
  • Little Nikita
  • Dark Blood
  • Silent Tongue
  • Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Filmography

2017
The Green Fog · as Eddie Birdlace
2012
Dark Blood · as Boy
2012
My Own Private River · as Michael "mike" Waters (archive Footage)
2007
Here's Looking at You, Boy · as Mike Waters
1993
The Thing Called Love · as James Wright
1993
Silent Tongue · as Talbot Roe
1992
Sneakers · as Carl
1991
Dogfight · as Eddie Birdlace
1991
My Own Private Idaho · as Michael "mike" Waters
1990
I Love You to Death · as Devo Nod
1989
1988
Running on Empty · as Danny Pope
1988
Little Nikita · as Jeff Grant
1988
1986
The Mosquito Coast · as Charlie Fox
1986
1986
Stand by Me · as Chris Chambers
1985
Explorers · as Wolfgang Müller
1985
Surviving · as Philip Brogan
1985
Robert Kennedy and His Times (TV Series) · as Robert Kennedy Jr.
1984
It's Your Move (TV Series)
1984
Celebrity (1984) (TV Series) · as Jeffie - Age 11
1983
Hotel (TV Series)
1982
Family Ties (TV Series) · as Eugene Forbes
1982
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (TV Series) · as Guthrie Mcfadden
1972
The ABC Afterschool Special (TV Series) · as Brian Ellsworth

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