PFor many of us it seems like yesterday, but instead Thirty years have passed since the death of River Phoenix, one of the most beloved actors of Generation X, who tragically passed away at just 23 years old after a drug overdose. Still an icon of beauty and style todaythe actor influenced a lot of American cinema in the Eighties and Nineties thanks to unforgettable and tormented roles. Just like his short, but very intense, existence.
River Phoenix, child prodigy
Eldest of five children of John Lee Bottom and Arlyn Sharon Dunetz, the name is given to it in homage to the “river of life” mentioned in novel by Hermann Hesse Siddhartha. Born in Oregon on August 23, 1970, River he grows up wandering, and without money, through various hippie communities in the country. And together sister Rain, two years younger, is forced to play on the streets to earn some extra money for the family. Shortly before the birth of his brother Joaquin, the Phoenix join the religious sect of the Children of God and work as missionaries around South America.
At the end of the Seventies, the family moved to Los Angeles and at 10 years old River was already on the sets of some commercials. Noticed by Penny Marshall, he gets a role in the television adaptation of Seven brides for seven brothers. Until the mid-eighties, the boy acted for TV and then in 1985 his first important role in the cinema in the movie Explorers by Joe Dante where he stars alongside a very young Ethan Hawke. It’s therethe beginning of a dazzling career.
I divo by chance
The next year ExplorersRiver gets the role that will definitively launch his career. That of Chris Chambers in Rob Reiner’s cult Stand by Me – Memory of a summer, in which the actor plays a difficult teenager, but who demonstrates great maturity, after he and a group of friends (including Ethan Hawke) find the body of a missing boy. «The truth is that I identified so much with the role of Chris Chambersif I hadn’t had to go back to my family after filming, I would probably have needed a psychiatrist,” the actor declared at the time.
River Phoenix, in a white t-shirt, in a scene from “Stand by Me – memory of a summer”. (Rcs archive)
In the same year, he flew to Belize to film with Harrison Ford Mosquito Coast and on set he knows the first important love of his life: the actress, daughter of Keith Carradine, Martha Plimpton. Together with her he shoots Sidney Lumet’s film Living on the runa great performance as the troubled teenager Danny who will give him his first Oscar nomination.
He and Martha become one of the most loved couples by very young peoplean absolute expression of the coolness of the era, like the unforgettable participation in the 1989 Oscars. Where the actress wears a Thirties dress in silver-colored satin that will launch vintage fashion on the red carpet. Mixing old Hollywood elegance with pre-grunge trends.
Martha Plimpton and River Phoenix at the 1989 Oscars (Getty Images)
At the end of the eighties, River Phoenix alternates blockbuster like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade by Steven Spielberg to comedies as I will love you… until I kill you.
Vegan, animal rights activist and environmentalist before it was fashionable, River becomes Peta testimonial and buy a piece of rainforest so it doesn’t get destroyed. She also celebrates the anecdote, told by Martha, that she wants it fleeing in tears from a restaurant because his girlfriend had ordered crab salad.
The relationship between the two ended in 1989 but they remained friends until the end. So declared Plimpton a Esquire on the reasons for the breakup: «When we broke up, it was largely because I learned that shouting, arguing and begging wouldn’t have changed him. River had to change his habits on his own and he wasn’t ready for that yet.”
The cult role in Beautiful and damned
Directed by Gus Van Sant in 1991, the film tells the story of two young drug addicts from Seattle who prostitute themselves for a living, selling themselves to both men and women. Co-star Keanu Reeves, Beautiful and damned was filmed between Portland and Seattle, where Phoenix and the other cast members spent most of their free time hanging out with local drug addicts and gangs. To better assimilate the part of street kids in situations very similar to those later seen in the film.
After the film’s release, the media begin to speculate on River’s alleged bisexuality, a rumor that has never been completely denied by the actor. The role of drug-addicted and narcoleptic gay prostitute Mike Waters it’s worth it Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival. Awarded by an excited Monica Vitti.
Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix on the set of “The Beautiful and the Damned”. (New Line Cinema)
After the success of the film, however, a complex period begins for River. A little saturated with the world of cinema, his true passion was music, he began to use drugs and, according to some sources, spent up to 1,000 dollars a week in cocaine and heroin. In the book that Gus Van Sant wrote for River, Pink, the director made it clear that River was not a drug user except occasionally, and that the actor had a more serious problem with alcohol.
Last Girlfriend Samantha Mathis and Death at the Viper Room
Now very well launched, in the fall of 1993 River has just finished filming the movie That thing called love during which, on set, he falls in love with the blonde Samantha Mathis. Her companion for the last few months of its short existence which unfortunately ends between the night of 30 and 31 October 1993. The scene of the tragedy was the Viper Room, a club partly owned by Johnny Deppin which River was supposed to play at the party of Halloween.
Samantha Mathis and River Phoenix in a scene from “That Thing Called Love.” (Paramount/Ron Batzdorff)
River goes to the club together with Samantha, her friend Dick Rude, her sister Rain and her brother Joaquin and after consuming a huge quantity of drugs in the club’s bathrooms, he begins to feel ill. After a few minutes, unable to breathe, he leaves the Viper Room and falls on the pavement, hitting his head. Unfortunately help arrives late, there is no way to save him and the autopsy on November 1 revealed that the cause of death was attributed to an overdose of heroin and cocainein the form of a speedball.
Hollywood is in shock and River leaves an unfillable void. In fact, if he hadn’t died he would have acted in Interview with the vampire alongside Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and were ready for him too I return from nowhere And Poets from hell. Roles that will then go to Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as that of Jack Dawson in Titanic. In fact, in an interview, James Cameron years later stated that when he started thinking about the film, in the early 1990s, he wanted River in the part that would later go to Leo. And who knows how the history of cinema would have changed.
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED