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River Phoenix

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.

Child Star

2024

as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Joaquin Phoenix: An Actor of Extremes

2024

as Self - Actor (archive footage)

Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones & Harrison Ford

2023

as Self (archive footage)

Showbiz Kids

2020

as Self (archive footage)

Too Young To Die: River Phoenix

2014

as Self (archive footage)

Dark Blood

2012

as Boy

Too Young to Die

2012

as Self (archive footage)

My Own Private River

2012

as Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage)

The Making of ‘My Own Private Idaho’

2005

as Self

The Phoenix Portal

2005

as Wolfgang Müller / Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage)

The Making of ‘Sneakers’

2003

as Self

Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand by Me

2000

as Self (archive footage)

This Road Will Never End

1996

as Self (archive footage)

Truth or Dairy

1994

as Self (archive footage)

The Thing Called Love

1993

as James Wright

Silent Tongue

1993

as Talbot Roe

Sneakers

1992

as Carl

Flea Master Session

1992

as Self

Dogfight

1991

as Eddie Birdlace

My Own Private Idaho

1991

as Michael "Mike" Waters

Evolution's End?

1991

as Self

I Love You to Death

1990

as Devo Nod

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

1989

as Young Indy

Running on Empty

1988

as Danny Pope

A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon

1988

as Jimmy Reardon

Little Nikita

1988

as Jeff Grant

The Mosquito Coast

1986

as Charlie Fox

Circle of Violence: A Family Drama

1986

as Chris Benfield

Stand by Me

1986

as Chris Chambers

Explorers

1985

as Wolfgang Müller

Surviving

1985

as Philip Brogan

Robert Kennedy & His Times

1985

as Robert Kennedy Jr.

It's Your Move

1984

Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia

1984

as Brian Ellsworth

Celebrity

1984

as Jeffie - Age 11

Family Ties

1982

as Eugene Forbes

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

1982

as Guthrie McFadden

Hotel

1982

River Phoenix Ocean Spray Commercial

1982

as Self