Phoenix, River (1970-1993)

US film actor, He came to prominence in the teenage ‘rites of passage’ film Stand By Me (1986), and went on to create several telling screen portraits of disaffected youth, such as a narcoleptic rent boy in My Own Private Idaho (1991).

Phoenix's first big break in cinema came in Stand By Me, which revealed Phoenix as an actor of considerable sensitivity. This led to a rapid succession of roles, including Running on Empty (1988), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He played the youthful Indiana in the prologue to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). His final film was Silent Tongue (1993). He died after collapsing from a drug overdose outside a Los Angeles nightclub.

Born in Oregon, Phoenix spent part of his childhood in Venezuela, where his parents were missionaries for a religious cult named the Children of God. They subsequently moved to Florida and then to Los Angeles, where they devoted themselves to promoting acting careers for River and his siblings. He appeared in TV commercials and in the TV series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1982-83).

He formed the band Aleka's Attic, which included his sister Rain, and their single ‘Cross the Way’ appeared on the compilation album Tame Yourself (1989), released to benefit the organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). He was nicknamed ‘Rio’, Spanish for ‘river’.