Vintage Sunshine Boy

River Phoenix

River Jude Phoenix (August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an Academy Award-nominated American film actor. He was listed on John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 38 as one of twelve "promising new actors of 1986", and was hailed as highly talented by such critics as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. However, his career was cut short when he died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine on Halloween morning at age 23. He was the older brother of Joaquin Phoenix.





In an interview with Details Magazine in November 1991, Phoenix claimed he lost his virginity at age four while in the Children of God. "But I've blocked it out", he continued, "I was completely celibate from 10 to 14".

"I'm glad I did it when I was young," River once said, perhaps trying to justify the incident. "But I didn't want those and different body parts that were in my face to make me perverse when I was older."

Phoenix frequently spoke positively of his childhood and non-traditional upbringing. He rarely talked about the cult, however, once saying angrily, "They're disgusting, they're ruining people's lives".





Phoenix died at age 23 from an accidental drug overdose of heroin and cocaine (speedball) outside the Viper Room, a Hollywood night club partly owned at the time by actor Johnny Depp. An autopsy also revealed traces of cough syrup and cannabis in his blood. On the night of Phoenix's death, he was in the bathroom doing drugs with various friends and drug dealers.It is reported that someone offered him some Persian Brown (a powerful form of methamphetamine mixed with opiates, which is then snorted) and soon after consuming the drug Phoenix became ill, then, when he started to panic was offered a valium to help calm him down.Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael Balzary, also known as Flea, was present at the time. Johnny Depp and Flea were on stage playing music when they noticed Phoenix staggering out of the night club. Both Depp and Flea jumped off of the stage and followed Phoenix outside.[citation needed] Soon after leaving The Viper Room, River collapsed on the sidewalk and started going into seizures for a couple of minutes. His brother, Joaquin Phoenix, was present at the scene, along with River's then girlfriend actress Samantha Mathis, and dialed 911, unable to determine whether he was breathing or not. River had in fact already stopped breathing. He was rushed to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at 1:51 AM PST on the morning of October 31, 1993. Johnny Depp now closes The Viper Room every October 31 in memory of River's death.

You can find casket shots of River I found it a bit to disturbing to post them.