Personal Info
Known For:
Acting
Birthday:
August 23, 1970
Place of Birth:
Metolius, Oregon USA
Social Media
River Phoenix
Biography
River Jude Phoenix (né Bottom) 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.
Known For
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Joaquin Phoenix: An Actor of Extremes | Self - Actor (archive footage) |
| 2023 | Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones & Harrison Ford | Self (archive footage) |
| 2020 | Showbiz Kids | Self (archive footage) |
| 2012 | My Own Private River | Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage) |
| 2012 | Dark Blood | Boy |
| 2006 | Final 24: River Phoenix | Self (archive footage) |
| 2005 | The Phoenix Portal | Wolfgang Müller / Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage) |
| 2005 | The Making of ‘My Own Private Idaho’ | Self |
| 2003 | The Making of ‘Sneakers’ | Self |
| 2003 | Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy | Self (archive footage) |
| 2003 | 101 Most Shocking Moments in Entertainment | |
| 2000 | Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand by Me | Self (archive footage) |
| 1996 | This Road Will Never End | Self (archive footage) |
| 1994 | Truth or Dairy | Self (archive footage) |
| 1993 | The Thing Called Love | James Wright |
| 1993 | Silent Tongue | Talbot Roe |
| 1992 | Sneakers | Carl |
| 1992 | Flea Master Session | Self |
| 1991 | My Own Private Idaho | Mike Waters |
| 1991 | Dogfight | Eddie Birdlace |
| 1991 | Evolution's End? | Self |
| 1990 | I Love You to Death | Devo Nod |
| 1989 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade | Young Indy |
| 1988 | Little Nikita | Jeff Grant |
| 1988 | A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon | Jimmy Reardon |
| 1988 | Running on Empty | Danny Pope |
| 1986 | Stand by Me | Chris Chambers |
| 1986 | The Mosquito Coast | Charlie Fox |
| 1986 | Circle of Violence: A Family Drama | Chris Benfield |
| 1985 | Explorers | Wolfgang Müller |
| 1985 | Surviving | Philip Brogan |
| 1984 | Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia | Brian Ellsworth |
| Year | TV Show | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Too Young to Die | Self (archive footage) |
| 1985 | Robert Kennedy & His Times | Robert Kennedy Jr. |
| 1984 | It's Your Move | |
| 1984 | Celebrity | Jeffie - Age 11 |
| 1982 | Family Ties | Eugene Forbes |
| 1982 | Hotel | |
| 1982 | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers | Guthrie McFadden |