Before his tragic death, beloved actor River Phoenix led a one-of-a-kind life.
He was universally adored by fans and colleagues and, if not for a tragic incident,
many believe he would have continued to act, play music, and create an affecting body of work.
River Phoenix was not the late star's original last name. It was Bottom.
As in River Bottom. He arrived on August 23, 1970 on a peppermint farm in Madras, Oregon, according
to USA Today. As Biography recounted, John Lee Bottom and Arlyn Dunetz named their firstborn:
"After the river of life in Hermann Hesse's book 'Siddhartha.'"
Continuing with the nature theme, the Bottoms named two of their other children Rain and
Summer. Early on, Joaquin used the nom de plume Leaf, while his other sister was named Liberty.
After the youngest Bottom, Summer, came into the world in 1979, the parents decided to forego
John's surname, and instead picked Phoenix. The Guardian reported the name was chosen:
"[Because of] its connotations of a magical bird rising up out of the ashes."
Starting in the early 1970s, River Phoenix traveled the world with his
former fruit-picking parents, who had then become missionaries for Children of God,
a new church existing under the tutelage of controversial founder David Berg.
As a 13-year-old Joaquin Phoenix told a reporter in 1987:
"We kinda miss [having a normal childhood] sometimes, missing our friends, but
when we go some place we get to meet other people."
River's parents were described as "traveling counter-cultural hippies" by The Guardian,
and they were said to embrace their new religion with gusto,
before ultimately realizing that the Children of God was, in fact, a cult with despicable leanings.
The cult was a traumatic time for River Phoenix. After, quote,
"block[ing] out" the experience for years, he told Details magazine that
he was sexually assaulted when he was only four years old. This was not an isolated experience,
since the Children of God creed encouraged incest as well as pedophilia.
According to Esquire magazine, though,
River rarely talked about Children of God. At one point, however, he did say of the cult:
"They're disgusting. They're ruining people's lives."
Eventually, Arlyn and John Phoenix realized just how dangerous the cult was,
so they decided to break away. River Phoenix and the rest of his family
left Venezuela and hid on a freighter, according to Cosmopolitan magazine.
The magazine said the Phoenix clan made it to the United States — but not before crew
members realized the family was on board. And when they got to Florida, they stayed
with Arlyn Phoenix's parents for a time in the Sunshine State, but that would soon change.
The New York Times wrote in 1989:
"River and his sister Rainbow won so many local talent contests that they
were written about in The St. Petersburg Times. A copy of the article found its
way to the casting department at Paramount Pictures, and the family
received a letter saying the children could be interviewed if they were ever in Los Angeles."
And so, the family relocated to Hollywood with stars in their eyes.
"We had come out to Los Angeles to make it. And at the time I was nine years old."
As a young kid, River Phoenix played music on the street for money with little sister Rain Phoenix.
Biographer Gavin Edwards told NPR:
"So at an early age, River was busking on street corners, trying to spread the word and proselytize
for the cult. But if he didn't bring home enough loose change that day, the family wasn't going
to eat. So it was a lot of weight in a lot of different ways, on a very young child."
Calling her brother something of a guitar prodigy, Rain shared with The Guardian that she and River:
"Spent a lot of time singing round the fire at home after dinner,
making little four-track demos in our room, or when we would be round at people's houses,
we'd just break out the guitar and start singing."
Eventually, their musicianship would catapult the
family into the spotlight. As the Independent newspaper recounted:
"[The family] ended up in LA, where Phoenix and his
siblings were spotted by talent agent Iris Burton while busking on a street corner."
When Burton died in 2008, the Los Angeles Times mentioned her
connection to the Phoenix family in her obituary, noting that she spotted them:
"Singing for spare change in Westwood. She soon represented all four."
Though he found great success as an actor, music remained his passion. Per the Chicago Tribune,
a young River saved up to buy a $650 guitar, when his film career started to take off.
River Phoenix's big break was as a regular on the TV reboot of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Starting at age 11, the eldest Phoenix sibling played Guthrie McFadden for 22 episodes. Later,
he was cast in episodes of Family Ties, The Love Boat, and Hotel.
Then, not very long after breaking into show business, Phoenix moved on to making movies.
Before his death, he took part in a number of films – My Own Private Idaho,
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Dogfight and The Thing Called Love
among them – and was on Hollywood's radar because of his stellar work.
Vogue magazine said that after acting in Stand By Me, River's performance as Chris Chambers:
"Marked him as one of the most talented and promising actors in Hollywood."
"See you."
"Not if I see you first."
This Phoenix brother had been an Oscar nominee for his role
as Danny Pope in Running on Empty when he was 17. Though he did not
take home the trophy at the 1989 Academy Awards, it was still a shining moment.
At the time, Phoenix was at work on the film I Love You to Death with Kevin Kline. Kline was
on hand for the same Oscars as Phoenix, as he had also been up for the Supporting Actor award
for his role in A Fish Called Wanda. When Kline won, Phoenix cheered on his co-star with gusto.
In a 1995 Esquire interview, longtime vegan River Phoenix's former girlfriend Martha Plimpton
said she once ordered soft-shell crab when they were out together, and it hit her date hard.
She said:
"He left the restaurant and walked around on Park Avenue, crying. I went out, and he said,
'I love you so much. Why?' He had such a pain that I was eating an animal,
that he hadn't impressed on me what was right."
Fighting for animal rights was a huge part of
Phoenix's life. As he told The New York Times in 1989:
"When I was old enough to realize all meat was killed,
I saw it as an irrational way of using our power, to take a weaker thing and mutilate it.
It was like the way bullies would take control of younger kids in the schoolyard."
He joined PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and even performed in
a PSA for the organization. As Vogue recalled, PETA declared Phoenix the
Humanitarian of the Year in 1992. And he really put his money where his mouth was.
As CR Fashion Book recounted:
"Most notably, as a testament to his environmentalism,
Phoenix once bought 800 acres of rainforest on the border of Costa Rica and Panama,
as well as created a non-profit to save endangered species."
River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves were introduced to each other by Joaquin Phoenix,
who had appeared in Parenthood with the older actor. River and Keanu would become
friends while working together on Love You to Death and My Own Private Idaho.
When Interview magazine asked Reeves whether or
not he was the first to sign on for the movie, he replied:
"No. We were always together."
In the same interview, River remembered that he and Keanu
were driving around Los Angeles discussing the script. He said:
"[We were] talking really fast about the whole idea. We said,
'OK, I'll do it if you do it. I won't do it if you don't.' We shook hands. That was it."
"If I had a normal family and a good upbringing, then I would have been a well-adjusted person."
When River died, Reeves — who was making the movie
Speed — was hit hard. He said to People magazine in 2019:
"Meeting River was a revelation. As a person and an artist. His generous
heart and shining spirit along with an intelligence, curiosity, wit,
and humor inspired. He was there. He tried. He was trying. A beautiful exceptional soul. Light."
Born just four years after River Phoenix, child star turned Oscar winner Leonardo
DiCaprio looked up to the Stand By Me star early in his career. As he shared with Esquire in 2019:
"I grew up revering River Phoenix as the great actor of my generation,
and all I ever wanted was to have just an opportunity to shake his hand."
"Gimme some skin."
While they never got a chance to strike up a friendship, the two did cross paths.
DiCaprio recalled to the publication seeing Phoenix at a party the night the My Own
Private Idaho actor died, but Phoenix left for The Viper Room before they could meet.
"It was almost as if — I don't know how to describe it, but it's this existential thing
where I felt like he disappeared in front of my very eyes, and the tragedy that I
felt afterward of having lost this great influence for me and all of my friends."
Not long before his death, River Phoenix had been plucked for a juicy part in the film
adaptation of Anne Rice's novel, "Interview with the Vampire," alongside Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
Pitt said in Entertainment Weekly magazine:
"We lost River. Literally a week before he was supposed to come in,
he passed away. It was a horrible moment."
As EW reported in 1993, there was a frantic talent search following Phoenix's unfortunate passing,
and actors Stephen Dorff, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christian Slater all became frontrunners.
Slater ultimately won the part of Daniel Malloy, but he didn't fully relish the experience.
When Yahoo Entertainment asked Slater about the role in 2018,
he didn't gloss over the heavy circumstances. He said:
"It was awkward. It was uncomfortable. It was hard. How to replace somebody that died in that
way, and somebody that I admired greatly. [I] didn't feel right taking money for it."
Slater gave what he made from the movie to charities
and organizations that Phoenix was involved with. Meanwhile,
the credits for Interview with the Vampire include a dedication to the late River Phoenix.
The night River Phoenix died, he had, quote,
"hastily gulped [a] speedball" inside Johnny Depp's The Viper Room, according to LA Weekly.
As Gavin Edwards recounted in "Last Night at the Viper Room:
River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind," after the provider of the drink
apparently said it would make the actor, quote, "feel fabulous," River demanded:
"What did you give me? What the f--k is in it?"
He was soon convulsing on a Sunset Boulevard sidewalk.
Rain Phoenix and River's girlfriend,
Samantha Mathis, were also at the scene as the revered actor lay on the cement.
While Mathis said she knew something was wrong that night, she told The Guardian:
"[I] didn't understand. I didn't see anyone doing drugs but he was high in a way that
made me feel uncomfortable — I was in way over my head."
Joaquin Phoenix called 911 and his brother was taken to the hospital,
but it was too late. As LA Weekly wrote:
"[He was] in full cardiac arrest for 20 minutes."
River died shortly thereafter. River Phoenix was gone,
leaving behind a legacy of top films, memories, and loved ones.
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