Phoenix, River

▪ 1994

      U.S. actor (b. Aug. 23, 1970, Madras, Ore.—d. Oct. 31, 1993, Los Angeles, Calif.), secured a reputation as a promising young star with his intense portrayal of a tough youth in the 1986 film Stand by Me, about a group of boys who find a corpse in the woods. After debuting in Explorers (1985), Phoenix earned plaudits for his roles in such films as The Mosquito Coast (1986), Little Nikita (1988), A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). He received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his stirring performance as a gifted son of two anti-Vietnam War radicals on the lam in Running on Empty (1988). In My Own Private Idaho (1991) he portrayed a male hustler, and in Sneakers (1992) he appeared as a computer hacker. He was the son of Children of God missionaries, who named him River. His siblings included a brother named Leaf and sisters Summer, Liberty, and Rain. Phoenix was finishing the filming of Dark Blood when he collapsed and died of a massive drug overdose outside a Sunset Strip nightclub.

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