Appearances

Title	Role	Year	Approx. Age
Silent Tongue	Talbot Roe	1998	28
My Own Private Idaho	Mike Waters	1991	21
Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, A	Jimmy Reardon	1988	18
Little Nikita	Jeff Grant	1988	18
Stand By Me	Chris Chambers	1986	16
The Mosquito Coast	Charlie Fox	1986	16
Explorers	Wolfgang Muller	1985	15
Surviving	Philip Brogan	1985	15

"It was a hard ride" is all you can say to describe River's life... River Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom in Metolius, Oregon. His mother, Arlyn Sharon was born in the Bronx, his father, John Lee Bottom, was a lapsed Catholic from Fontana, California. In 1969 they joined the religious cult the Children of God, working as missionaries and fruit pickers in South America. Phoenix had four younger siblings: one brother, Joaquin, and three sisters, Rain, Summer, and Liberty. He also had an older half sister from his father's previous relationship, Jodene (who later changed her name to 'Trust').

In an interview with Details magazine in November 1991, Phoenix stated that he lost his virginity at age four while a part of the cult, the Children of God. The magazine quotes him as saying "But I've blocked it out... I was completely celibate from 10 to 14". His representatives reportedly pressured him to later recant the comment, claiming it was "a joke". In March 1994, Esquire magazine quoted River as speaking angrily of the group: "They're disgusting... they're ruining people's lives". After the family left the group and returned to the United States in 1977, they officially adopted the surname "Phoenix" on April 2, 1979 to reflect their rebirth to a new life.

River grew up in abject poverty; he and his sister provided income for the family singing on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela, where his parents were missionaries. Upon their return to the U.S.A in 1978, the family lived for a time with Phoenix's maternal grandparents in Florida before moving to California and eventually settling back in Florida in 1987.

River pursued a career in show business, encouraged by his parents. He had significant juvenile roles in Joe Dante's Explorers (1985); Rob Reiner's coming of age picture Stand By Me (1986) which first brought Phoenix to public prominence; Peter Weir's The Mosquito Coast (1986) where Phoenix played the son of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren; A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988); and Little Nikita (1988) with Sidney Poitier. In 1989, at the age of 18, Phoenix was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (as well as for a Golden Globe) and received the Best Supporting Actor honor from the National Board of Review for his role in Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty (1988), considered by critics to be one of River Phoenix's finest films.

At the suggestion of Harrison Ford, Phoenix portrayed the teenage Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and was offered the role of the young Indiana Jones in the upcoming TV series, which he turned down.

Phoenix met actor Keanu Reeves while Reeves was filming Parenthood with Phoenix's brother, Joaquin. Later he went on to star opposite Reeves in Gus Van Sant's avant-garde film My Own Private Idaho for which Phoenix won Best Actor honors at the Venice Film Festival, the National Society of Film Critics and the Independent Spirit Awards the film solidifying Phoenix's image as an actor with edgy, leading man potential. Generally regarded by critics at the time as the most promising young actor on the cusp of the '80s and '90s, River and younger brother Joaquin would later go on to become the first brothers in Hollywood history to be nominated for an Oscar in the acting categories.

Prone to spells of worsening depression and compulsivity, River hinted in interviews at having been abused by the members of the Children of God, the oft-investigated cult to which he had belonged as a small child. Although the details of the alleged mistreatment remain unclear, it has been strongly suggested that the experience played a key role in his descent into substance abuse towards the end of his life.

On October 31, 1993, Phoenix, age 23, collapsed from a drug overdose of heroin and cocaine (known as a speedball) outside the Viper Room, a Hollywood night club partially owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004. On the night of his death, River was to perform onstage with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but River went to the bathroom to take drugs with various friends and dealers. Upon leaving The Viper Room, he collapsed onto the sidewalk and began convulsing. His brother Joaquin, sister Rain and actress Samantha Mathis were at the scene.