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River Phoenix
Metolius, Oregon USA
River Jude Phoenix (née Bottom; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, musician, and activist. Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the oldest brother o…
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River Jude Phoenix (née Bottom; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, musician, and activist. Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the oldest brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. He had no formal schooling, but he showed an instinctive talent for the guitar, and he played and sang on the streets for money. He began his acting career at age 10 in a handful of television commercials. He starred in the science fiction adventure film Explorers (1985) and had his breakthrough 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 fought heroin addiction and died at age 23 from combined drug intoxication in West Hollywood in the early hours of Halloween, 1993, after unknowingly ingesting cocaine and heroin (a mixture commonly known as a speedball) at The Viper Room.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2026
Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2024
Joaquin Phoenix: An Actor of Extremes
Movie Self - Actor (archive footage)
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2023
Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2020
Showbiz Kids
Movie Self
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2012
Dark Blood
Movie Boy
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2012
Too Young to Die
TV show Self (archive footage)
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2012
My Own Private River
Movie Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage)
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2006
Final 24: River Phoenix
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2005
The Phoenix Portal
Movie Wolfgang Müller / Michael "Mike" Waters (archive footage)
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2003
Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2003
101 Most Shocking Moments in Entertainment
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2003
The Making of ‘Sneakers’
Movie Self
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2000
Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand by Me
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1996
This Road Will Never End
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1994
Interview with the Vampire
Movie In Memory Of
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1994
Silent Tongue
Movie Talbot Roe
More credits
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1994
Truth or Dairy
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1993
The Thing Called Love
Movie James Wright
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1992
Sneakers
Movie Carl
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1992
Flea Master Session
Movie Self
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1991
Dogfight
Movie Eddie Birdlace
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1991
My Own Private Idaho
Movie Mike Waters
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1991
Evolution's End?
Movie Self
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1990
I Love You to Death
Movie Devo Nod
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1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Movie Young Indy
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1988
Running on Empty
Movie Danny Pope
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1988
Little Nikita
Movie Jeff Grant
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1988
A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon
Movie Jimmy Reardon
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1986
The Mosquito Coast
Movie Charlie Fox
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1986
Circle of Violence: A Family Drama
Movie Chris Benfield
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1986
Stand by Me
Movie Chris Chambers
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1985
Explorers
Movie Wolfgang Müller
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1985
Surviving
Movie Philip Brogan
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1985
Robert Kennedy & His Times
TV show Robert Kennedy Jr.
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1984
It's Your Move
TV show Brian
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1984
Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia
Movie Brian Ellsworth
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1984
Celebrity
TV show Young Jeffie Crawford
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1982
Family Ties
TV show Eugene Forbes
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1982
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
TV show Guthrie McFadden
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1982
Hotel
TV show
