River Phoenix: Death that shaped a Hollywood generation
River Phoenix should have been turning 50 on August 23, 2020 — instead the young star died of a drug overdose in 1993, aged 23. But the ripple effects of his death helped shaped Hollywood careers, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp and his Oscar-winning brother Joaquin.
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August 23, 2020 should have been River Phoenix’s 50th birthday. It should have been celebrated with a considerable movie CV under his belt, a handful of major awards to his name and an unchallengeable status as one of Hollywood’s most respected actors.
A star in the same galaxy as Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp and his Oscar-winning brother Joaquin.
But all that promise of what might have been vanished when the young actor died of a drug overdose on a footpath outside a nightclub in 1993 with some of the most important people in his life right by his side.
His underage brother Joaquin, who still went by the name Leaf, called 911 telling them to hurry, “he’s dying”. His little sister, Rain, with whom he shared a love of music and formed a band, was attempting to resuscitate him. And his girlfriend, actor Samantha Mathis, whom he’d met on the set of his last movie, The Thing Called Love, was screaming on Sunset Boulevard.
The other side of Phoenix’s life — his celebrity life — was inside The Viper Room. There were Red Hot Chili Peppers band members, John Frusciante and Flea, with whom he’d been staying in Los Angeles while on a short break from filming in Utah and with whom he’d reportedly been on a drug binge over the last few days.
And there was fellow hot young actor Johnny Depp, who was a part-owner of The Viper Room and shared a love of music with Phoenix.
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In the early morning hours of October 31, 1993, as one of Hollywood’s most promising actors fought for his life on a grimy West Hollywood footpath, those two sides of his life collided.
The resulting shockwaves would shape the lives of his loved ones and many of his acting peers while also serving as a warning to other young Hollywood hopefuls.
Sometimes labelled the James Dean of his generation, River Phoenix was not an easy man to define.
Just as those two sides of his life that came together in his final moments, so he was a contradiction: a young man mature beyond his years; a talented actor and celebrity who shunned the limelight and ultimately, a drug taker who wanted to save the planet from ruin.
Born in 1970 to hippy parents who moved around a lot, he was the oldest of five talented children. He made his film debut in 1985 in Explorers alongside Ethan Hawke and the following year had his breakthrough role as the troubled but sensitive teen Chris Chambers in the coming of age flick, Stand By Me. It was the role that would make Phoenix a reluctant star and heart-throb.
He was just 15.
Stand By Me director Rob Reiner spoke about the sense of loss he felt in the years since Phoenix died and of how the world was robbed of a great star and talent.
“He was a brilliant, brilliant young actor … even dying when he did, he left some great performances — Running On Empty and My Own Private Idaho,” he said in 2016.
“He was like a James Dean. He could have gone on to become one of the greatest screen actors of all time.”
Phoenix has often been compared to Dean, who died at a similar age, 24, and Heath Ledger who went too soon at 28, but Australian Film Critics Association chairman Adam Ross argues he doesn’t match up to those two in the legacy stakes.
“Was he an amazing actor and a great rising star? Yes, he was,” Ross says.
“But by the time Dean died, he had left us Rebel Without A Cause, East Of Eden and Giant. And Ledger left us Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight.
“He was in a lot of films and had charisma but I feel he died too soon to have left a movie legacy.”
Perhaps, Ross says, his legacy had nothing to do with films.
“He seems to have understood that he could use his celebrity as a platform to talk about the things that were really important to him: agriculture, the environment and veganism, before those things were popular,” Ross says.
“He was the antithesis of the vapid pop star, he was a soulful, gentle guy and in a way he paved the way for actors to talk about important issues.”
A film legacy or not, his death left a gaping hole in Hollywood — both emotionally and talent-wise. Sunrise show business correspondent of 17 years, Nelson Aspen, believes his legacy is more of a cautionary tale.
“If someone with so much promise could be that quickly and sadly snuffed out, we were all vulnerable” says Aspen, who was a young actor working just steps from The Viper Room when Phoenix died.
“It was a wake-up call to our generation who had felt invulnerable. It’s not an exaggeration to say it was a moment of reckoning.”
For his immediate loved ones and many peers the ripple effect of his tragic death is still being felt.
THE BROTHER
JOAQUIN PHOENIX
When River died, Joaquin was only 19. He had experienced limited success in television and film, predominantly a role in Parenthood in 1989.
There is a three-year gap in his acting credits following his brother’s death after which he could have easily disappeared from Hollywood, leaving us without his stunning performances in Gladiator, Walk The Line and Joker, for which he won the Best Actor Academy Award this tear.
But in a 60 Minutes (US) interview earlier this year, Joaquin spoke candidly about his brother for the first time and credited River with leading him into acting and influencing his career to this day.
“He awakened something in me,” he said of the time River insisted they watch Raging Bull together.
“I feel like in virtually every movie that I made, there was a connection to River in some way.”
THE SISTER
RAIN PHOENIX
Two and a half years younger than River, Rain was by her brother’s side as he died. She always shared Phoenix’s passion for music, the two forming the band Aleka’s Attic in 1987.
On the night he died, River was meant to get up on stage with the band, P, that included Johnny Depp and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rain was keen to watch.
After his death, she channelled her grief into her music and continued to collaborate with the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Stipe of REM, connections she had formed with River.
She recently released an album dedicated to her brother.
THE GIRLFRIEND
SAMANTHA MATHIS
Mathis was a rising star in Hollywood w
hen she met and fell in love with Phoenix in the movie, The Thing Called Love. She was also with him the night he died.
Following his death Mathis continued to work, appearing in a string of decent movies including Little Women in 1995. But the death of her mother a few years later compounded her grief.
In her first public interview since Phoenix’s death in 2018, she said: “It was just too much loss. I had to stop. I stepped away from the business for two years. I fell apart.”
She abandoned the trajectory that could have put her on the same level as Winona Ryder and Uma Thurman and turned to charity work aligning herself with Amnesty International before returning to acting, but this time focusing more on the stage.
THE FRIEND
BOB FORREST
Forrest was considered one of Phoenix’s closest friends and was at The Viper Room on that infamous night.
A musician and self-confessed “junkie” at the time, Forrest has spoken about the lead-up to the night, stating Phoenix, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante and himself were on a two-day drug binge before Phoenix died.
It is clear the night had a profound effect on Forrest and could be the reason he got clean and went on to become a drug counsellor and co-founder of several recovery centres.
Ironically, he works alongside Dr Drew on the TV shows, Celebrity Rehab and Sober House.
THE ROCK STAR
JOHN FRUSCIANTE
The guitarist was a member of Red Hot Chili Peppers on and off over the years and recorded several albums with them including the hugely popular Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
Many people have pointed to Frusciante as being the one who gave Phoenix the “speedball” drink the night he died, a lethal combination of heroin and cocaine. And Frusciante has admitted to having a near life-threatening addiction to heroin at the time.
But in 1996, he checked into rehab and cleaned up his life. Ironically, it was Bob Forrest’s rehab centre at Las Encinas that helped him get clean.
The two men who admitted to having gone on a multi-day drug binge with Phoenix in the lead up to his death both received the help they needed to kick drugs.
Frusciante rejoined the Peppers in December 2019 and continues to enjoy a fruitful career.
THE PEER
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
There is much debate about whether Phoenix’s death left a gap into which Leonardo DiCaprio was able to step.
DiCaprio was just 18 when Phoenix died and by all accounts looked up to the older actor who moved in similar social circles.
DiCaprio was already a rising star having played alongside Robert DeNiro in This Boy’s Life followed by the critically-acclaimed What’s Eating Gilbert Grape with Johnny Depp. But DiCaprio also took over two important roles originally intended for Phoenix: The Basketball Diaries and Total Eclipse.
The two young actors not only shared a similar look with their boyish handsomeness, but they were going up for similar roles. Was there room for the two of them in Hollywood?
Today DiCaprio is an Oscar winner often lauded as the best actor of his generation. Like River Phoenix he is outspoken on the issues of social justice and the environment — although he has had both the time and superstar status to take his message to a wider audience than Phoenix could ever have dreamed of.
Another reminder of what might have been had Phoenix made it to his 50th birthday.
Originally published as River Phoenix: Death that shaped a Hollywood generation