Age, Biography, and Wiki
River Jude Phoenix (formerly Bottom) was born on August 23, 1970, and died on October 31, 1993, at the age of 23. He was an American actor known for his early work as a child actor and for his transition into leading roles in critically acclaimed films. Phoenix’s family was itinerant, and he was the older brother of siblings Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer Phoenix. He began his acting career at just 10 years old, starring in commercials and television before moving on to film.
River Phoenix became one of the most celebrated actors of his generation, earning numerous accolades, including the Volpi Cup and the Independent Spirit Award. His standout performances in films like Stand by Me (1986), Running on Empty (1988), and My Own Private Idaho (1991) solidified his status as a preeminent talent in Hollywood.
| Occupation | Political Activists |
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| Date of Birth | 23 August 1970 |
| Age | 54 Years |
| Birth Place | Madras, Oregon, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Leo |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 31 October, 1993 |
| Died Place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Despite his prominence, detailed information about River Phoenix’s height, weight, and body measurements is not widely documented in public records. However, various sources describe him as being of average build, with a height commonly listed as approximately 5’10” (178 cm). His slim physique and youthful appearance were notable features during his career.
Aleka's Attic disbanded in 1992, but Phoenix continued writing and performing. While working on the film The Thing Called Love in 1993, Phoenix wrote and recorded the song "Lone Star State of Mine", which he performs in the movie. The song was not included on the film's soundtrack album. In 1996, the Aleka's Attic track "Note to a Friend" was released on the 1996 benefit album In Defense of Animals; Volume II and featured Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass. Phoenix had collaborated with friend John Frusciante after his first departure from Red Hot Chili Peppers and the songs "Height Down" and "Well I've Been" were released on Frusciante's second solo album Smile from the Streets You Hold in 1997. Phoenix was an investor in the original House of Blues (founded by his good friend and Sneakers co-star Dan Aykroyd) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which opened its doors to the public after serving a group of homeless people on Thanksgiving Day 1992.
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Dating & Relationship Status
River Phoenix was known to be intensely private about his personal life. He was reportedly in a relationship with actress Martha Plimpton for several years during the late 1980s. Their relationship was widely publicized in the media at the time. There is no publicly known information indicating that Phoenix was married or had children before his untimely death in 1993.
Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix and Summer Phoenix. He began his acting career at age 10 in television commercials. His early film roles include Explorers (1985), Stand by Me (1986) and The Mosquito Coast (1986). Phoenix made a transition into more adult-oriented roles earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the Sidney Lumet drama Running on Empty (1988). He earned the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his performance as Michael Waters, a gay hustler in search of his estranged mother in the Gus Van Sant drama My Own Private Idaho (1991).
He had four younger siblings: Rain (born 1972), Joaquin (born 1974), Liberty (born 1976) and Summer (born 1978), as well as a paternal half-sister, Jodean (born 1964). Phoenix's parents named him after the river of life from the Hermann Hesse novel Siddhartha, and he received his middle name from the Beatles' song "Hey Jude". In an interview with People, Phoenix described his parents as "hippieish".
His father, John Lee Bottom, was a lapsed Catholic from Fontana, California, of English, German and French ancestry. In 1968, Phoenix's mother travelled across the United States. While hitchhiking in California, she met John Lee Bottom. They got married on September 13, 1969, less than a year after meeting.
Phoenix had a significant role in Rob Reiner's popular coming-of-age film Stand by Me (1986), which made him a household name at 16. Filming started on June 17, 1985, and ended in late August 1985, making Phoenix 14 for most (if not all) of the movie. The Washington Post opined that Phoenix gave the film its "centre of gravity". Phoenix commented: "The truth is, I identified so much with the role of Chris Chambers that if I hadn't had my family to go back to after the shoot, I'd have probably had to see a psychiatrist." Later that year, Phoenix completed Peter Weir's The Mosquito Coast (1986), playing the son of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren's characters. "He was obviously going to be a movie star," observed Weir. "It's something apart from acting ability. Laurence Olivier never had what River had." During the five-month shoot in Belize, Phoenix began a romance with co-star Martha Plimpton, a relationship which continued in some form for many years. Phoenix was surprised by the poor reception for the film, feeling more secure about his work in it than he had in Stand by Me.
His sixth feature film was Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty (1988), for which the 18-year-old Phoenix received National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and nominations for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award, becoming the sixth-youngest Academy Award nominee in the category. Phoenix jumped to his feet during the ceremony when Kevin Kline beat him to the Oscar. "I had to stop River from running to hug Kevin," recalled his mother Arlyn. "It never crossed his mind that he hadn't won". In 1989, he portrayed a young Indiana Jones in the prologue of the box-office hit Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the third installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford.
Phoenix was photographed by Bruce Weber for Vogue and was spokesperson for a campaign for Gap in 1990. He starred with Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Joan Plowright and Keanu Reeves in the 1990 comedy film I Love You to Death. Phoenix had met Reeves while Reeves was filming the 1989 film Parenthood with Phoenix's brother, Joaquin, and girlfriend, Martha Plimpton; however, Phoenix had reportedly auditioned for Bill in Reeves' then-current film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure before the role was taken by Alex Winter.
He teamed up with Robert Redford and again with Sidney Poitier for the conspiracy/espionage thriller Sneakers (1992). A month later, he began production on Sam Shepard's art-house ghost western Silent Tongue (which was released in 1994). He was beaten out for the role of Paul by Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It. Phoenix then starred in Peter Bogdanovich's country music-themed film, The Thing Called Love (1993), the last completed picture before his death. He began a relationship with co-star Samantha Mathis on the set.
Phoenix was a dedicated animal rights and environmental activist. He was a vegan from the age of seven. He was a prominent spokesperson for PETA and won their Humanitarian Award in 1992 for his fund-raising efforts. His first girlfriend Martha Plimpton recalled: "Once when we were fifteen, River and I went out for a fancy dinner in Manhattan, and I ordered soft-shell crabs. 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 pain that I was eating an animal, that he hadn't impressed on me what was right."
In February 1986, during the filming of The Mosquito Coast, Phoenix, then 15, began a romance with his co-star Martha Plimpton. They had met a year earlier but initially disliked each other. They also co-starred in the 1988 film Running on Empty before the relationship ended in June 1989 due to Phoenix's drug use. The two maintained a close friendship until his death. Plimpton later stated, "When we split up, a lot of it was that I had learned that screaming, fighting and begging wasn't going to change him. He had to change himself, and he didn't want to yet."
Pink, a roman à clef by director Gus Van Sant, asserts that Phoenix was not a regular drug user but only an occasional one, and that the actor had a more serious problem with alcohol. Phoenix had always tried to hide his addictions because he feared that they might ruin his career as they did his relationship with Plimpton.
In Bob Forrest's book, Running with Monsters, he wrote that Phoenix spent the days preceding his death on a drug binge with John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Phoenix and Frusciante were consuming cocaine and heroin and had not slept for several days. On the evening of October 30, 1993, Phoenix arrived with his girlfriend Samantha Mathis, his brother Joaquin, and sister Rain at The Viper Room, a Hollywood nightclub partly owned by Johnny Depp. Phoenix was to perform with the band P, which 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 Forrest 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 the latter declined, saying he was feeling better. A few moments later, Forrest said that a commotion erupted in the club and he went outside to find Mathis screaming as her boyfriend was lying on the sidewalk having convulsions. Unable to determine whether or not his older brother was breathing, Joaquin called 911. Rain proceeded to give her brother mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Years later, Samantha Mathis said that during her relationship with Phoenix, she had known him to be sober. However, Mathis added that in the moments just before his death, she "knew something was going on." She said, "I didn't see anyone doing drugs [that night] but he was high in a way that made me feel uncomfortable". She also said that "the heroin that killed him didn't happen until he was in the Viper Room." Mathis went to the restroom; on her way back to the table, she saw Phoenix scuffling with another man. The bouncers removed both men from the club. Mathis shouted at the other man, "What have you done? What are you on?" Another person responded, "Leave him alone, you're spoiling his high." By that time, Phoenix had fallen to the ground and begun to convulse.
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Net Worth and Salary
At the time of his death in 1993, River Phoenix had an estimated net worth of $5 million. This fortune was accumulated from his successful film career, which included prominent roles in major Hollywood productions and critically acclaimed independent films. While his salary for individual films was not disclosed in detail, he was reportedly paid in line with rising stars of the era, with significant earnings from both mainstream and arthouse projects.
* Phoenix was due to begin work on Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire (1994) two weeks after his death. He was to play the part of Daniel Molloy, the interviewer, which then went to Christian Slater, who donated his entire $250,000 salary to two of Phoenix's favorite charitable organizations: Earth Save and Earth Trust. The film has a dedication to Phoenix after the end credits.
Although Phoenix's movie career was generating most of the income for his family, it has been stated by close friends and relatives that his true passion was music. Phoenix was a singer, songwriter and accomplished guitarist. He had begun teaching himself guitar at age five and had stated in an interview for E! in 1988 that his family's move to Los Angeles when he was nine was so that he and his sister "could become recording artists. I fell into commercials for financial reasons and acting became an attractive concept". Before securing an acting agent, Phoenix and his siblings tried to forge a career in music by playing cover versions on the streets of the Westwood district of LA, often being moved along by police because gathering crowds would obstruct the sidewalk. From the first fruits of his film success, Phoenix saved $650 to obtain his prized possession: a guitar with which he wrote what he described as "progressive, ethereal folk-rock".
Career, Business, and Investments
River Phoenix’s career began in television, notably with the series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He quickly transitioned to film, starring in Explorers (1985), then in classics such as Stand by Me (1986), The Mosquito Coast (1986), and Running on Empty (1988), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His performance in My Own Private Idaho (1991) earned him the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
He was also a musician and activist, supporting animal rights and environmental causes. There is little public information about business ventures or investments outside of his entertainment career.
Phoenix started doing commercials for Mitsubishi, Ocean Spray and Saks Fifth Avenue, and soon afterward he and the other children were signed by Paramount Pictures casting director Penny Marshall. River and Rain were assigned immediately to a show called Real Kids as audience warm-up performers. In 1980, Phoenix began to fully pursue his career as an actor, making his first appearance on a TV show called Fantasy singing with his sister Rain. In 1982, Phoenix was cast in the short-lived CBS television series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, in which he starred as youngest brother Guthrie McFadden. Phoenix arrived at the auditions with his guitar and promptly burst into a convincing Elvis Presley impersonation, charming the show producer. By this age, Phoenix was also an accomplished tap dancer.
Around this time, Phoenix was approached by George Lucas to reprise his role of a younger Indiana Jones for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, a spin-off television series produced by the ABC that served as a prequel to the Indiana Jones films. However, Phoenix declined to reprise the role due to having started his career in different sitcoms and struggled hard to get out from the television medium, not being willing to return to it. The role of a younger Indy was eventually filled by Corey Carrier and Sean Patrick Flannery, respectively.
Before his death, Phoenix's image—one he bemoaned in interviews—had been of a clean and attractive role model. Phoenix spoke often of his firm opposition to all forms of oppression and affirmatively espoused beliefs in compassion that reach across narrow boundaries including racial, national, and species. For example, the actor declined a lucrative advertising gig that would have required him to wear the skin of a tortured cow which led his peers to endorse Phoenix's image as a courageous role model. Phoenix's compassion for all beings was evident, and he was widely regarded "as the model of good health, clean living, and professional dedication—a cleaned-up '90s James Dean. He was known as a vegan, or ultra-vegetarian, who would not eat meat or dairy products or wear leather." His death was unexpected and elicited widespread media coverage. Phoenix was described by one writer as "the vegan James Dean", and comparisons were made regarding the youth and sudden deaths of both actors.
Phoenix has been ranked on a number of lists recognizing his talent and career. He was listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1986" in "John Willis' Screen World" (2004). Phoenix was voted at No. 64 on a "Greatest Movie Stars of All Time" poll by Channel 4 television in the UK. The poll was made up wholly of votes from prominent figures of the acting and directing communities. He was ranked No. 86 in Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in 1997.
Social Network
River Phoenix’s career and life predate the era of social media. As such, there are no official social media profiles or online presence associated with him. However, numerous fan communities, tribute pages, and archival accounts exist on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, dedicated to preserving his legacy and sharing his work.
In October 1984, Phoenix secured the role of geeky boy-scientist Wolfgang Müller in Joe Dante's big-budget science-fiction film Explorers alongside Ethan Hawke, and production began soon after. Released in the summer of 1985, this was Phoenix's first major motion picture role. In October 1986, Phoenix co-starred alongside Tuesday Weld and Geraldine Fitzgerald in the acclaimed CBS television movie Circle of Violence: A Family Drama, which told a story of domestic elder abuse. This was Phoenix's last television role before achieving film stardom.
* When Gus Van Sant was asked in Interview magazine, "You were going to do a movie with River about Andy Warhol, right?", he said, "Yeah. River kind of looked like Andy in his younger days. But that project never really went forward."
After Phoenix's death, the club became a makeshift shrine with fans and mourners leaving flowers, pictures, and candles on the sidewalk and graffiti messages on the walls of the venue. A sign was placed in the window that read, "With much respect and love to River and his family, The Viper Room is temporarily closed. Our heartfelt condolences to all his family, friends and loved ones. He will be missed." The club remained closed for a week. Depp continued to close the club every year on October 31 until selling his share in 2004.
With the song Halloween on the album Storm Hymnal: Gems from the Vault, the band Grant Lee Buffalo paid homage to River Phoenix. The lyrics in the refrain are: You were like my own James Byron Dean/ Private Idaho was my East of Eden/ Hit me like a stone when I heard you passed/ On Halloween.
Education
River Phoenix’s early life was marked by frequent travels and a unique, non-traditional upbringing. He did not attend conventional schools for most of his childhood. Instead, he was homeschooled by his parents or received sporadic schooling due to his family’s itinerant lifestyle. His education was unconventional and shaped by his early entry into the entertainment industry.
Phoenix's family moved cross country when he was very young. Phoenix has stated that they lived in a "desperate situation." Phoenix often played guitar while he and his sister sang on street corners for money and food to support their ever-growing family. Phoenix never attended formal school. Screenwriter Naomi Foner later commented, "He was totally, totally without education. I mean, he could read and write, and he had an appetite for it, but he had no deep roots into any kind of sense of history or literature." Filmmaker George Sluizer claimed Phoenix was dyslexic.
