River Phoenix

River Jude Phoenix né Bottom August 23 1970 October 31 1993 was an American actor and musician Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family as the older brother of Rain Phoenix Joaquin Phoenix Liberty Phoenix and Summer Phoenix He had no formal schooling but showed an instinctive talent for the guitar He began his acting career at age 10 in television commercials He starred in the science fiction adventure film Explorers 1985 and had his first notable role in 1986s Stand by Me a comingofage film based on the novella The Body by Stephen King Phoenix made a transition into more adultoriented roles with Running on Empty 1988 playing Danny Pope the son of fugitive parents in a wellreceived performance that earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at age 18 he became the sixthyoungest nominee in the category and My Own Private Idaho 1991 playing Michael Waters a gay hustler in search of his estranged mother For his performance in the latter Phoenix garnered enormous praise and won a Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1991 Venice Film Festival as well as Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor becoming the secondyoungest winner of the former Phoenix died at age 23 from combined drug intoxication in West Hollywood in the early hours of Halloween 1993 having overdosed on cocaine and heroin a mixture commonly known as speedball at The Viper Room Description above from the Wikipedia article River Phoenix licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia