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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.
In late October 1993, Phoenix had returned to Los Angeles after flying back from one week in New Mexico. Before that, he had spent six to seven weeks in Utah to complete the three weeks of interior shots left on his last project, Dark Blood. The film was finally completed in 2012.
In his book Running with Monsters Bob Forrest wrote that Phoenix spent the days preceding his death on a drug binge with John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Phoenix and John Frusciante were consuming cocaine and heroin and had not slept for several days.
On the evening of October 30, 1993, Phoenix arrived at The Viper Room, a Hollywood nightclub partly owned by Johnny Depp, with his girlfriend Samantha Mathis and his brother Joaquin and sister Rain. Phoenix was to perform with the band P. The band featured Phoenix's friends Flea and John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers, Al Jourgensen of Ministry, and Depp.
According to Bob Forrest, during the performance by P, Phoenix tapped him on the shoulder to tell him he was not feeling well and that he thought he had overdosed. Forrest said to Phoenix that he did not think that he was overdosing because he could stand and talk. Nonetheless, he offered to take Phoenix home, but Phoenix declined, saying he was feeling better. A few moments later, a commotion erupted in the club and Forrest went outside to find Mathis screaming as Phoenix was lying on the sidewalk having convulsions. Unable to determine whether Phoenix was breathing, Joaquin called 911. Rain proceeded to give Phoenix mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
According to Gibby Haynes, the band was performing their song "Michael Stipe" while Phoenix was outside the venue having seizures on the sidewalk. When the news filtered through the club, Flea left the stage and rushed outside. By that time, paramedics had arrived on the scene and found Phoenix turning cyanotic, suffering from cardiac arrest, and asystolic. They administered medication in an attempt to restart his heart.
When the ambulance arrived, Phoenix was still alive, and Flea accompanied him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Attempts to resuscitate Phoenix at the hospital were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at 1:51 a.m. PST on the morning of October 31, 1993, at the age of 23.
River Phoenix was cremated and his ashes were scattered at the family ranch in Micanopy, Florida.
6 дек 2022
