Maybe the name of River Phoenix sounds strange, but it's hard not to be impressed by Joaquin Phoenix, the movie star who won the Oscar and Golden Globe this year for "Joker." River Phoenix is Joaquin Phoenix's older brother. Despite his untimely death at the age of 23, he was the initiator of Joaquin Phoenix's acting skills, influencing many male stars of his generation, including Keanu Reeves, and even Leonardo DiCaprio was considered his successor. It is still a film legend that is difficult to forget.
"When I was 15 or 16 years old, my brother River came home from the set and brought a video of Wild Bull, and he asked me to sit down and watch it. Then the next day he woke me up and asked me to watch the movie again. He said, "You're going to start acting, and that's what you're going to do. "Instead of asking me, he told me that I was grateful to him because acting gave me an incredible life!" Joaquin Phoenix, who has always avoided talking about his private life, at this year's Oscars, emotionally mentioned how his brother River Phoenix led himself to the road of acting, and the speech not only made people cry, but also reminded many people of sad memories.
In fact, River Phoenix is not only the brother of Joaquin Phoenix, but also set a record for the youngest Venetian film emperor in history. Handsome appearance, untamed eyes, coupled with a shiny blonde hair, made child actor-born River Phoenix quickly become a new generation of Hollywood superstars with both acting skills and appearance. But he died unexpectedly at the age of 23 and became a legendary presence in the film industry.
Born in 1970, River Phoenix spent his childhood as a missionary in South America and elsewhere because his parents were members of the controversial religious organization The Children of God. Although their parents eventually returned to the United States because they no longer agreed with the organization's philosophy, the Phoenix family still lived a hippie life, making River Phoenix's youth as unique as a movie but also bumpy.
After returning to the United States, in order to support the family's economy, River Phoenix would occasionally take his sister to perform on the side of the road, and Phoenix, who gradually showed his talent for acting, moved to Los Angeles under the impetus of his mother, and then was excavated by a scout during a street performance and began his acting career.
Young River Phoenix began making cameo appearances on television and commercials, and it was only in 1986 that Phoenix made him famous for his overage performance in the film "Walk with Me" adapted from the work of horror fiction master Stephen King.
After "Walk with Me", River Phoenix collaborated with film superstars such as Harrison Ford (Harrison Ford) and Helen Mirrren on "Mosquito Coast", "Unlimited Wanted", "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and other works, of which "Unlimited Wanted" made Phoenix nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
After proving his acting skills, River Phoenix experimented with comedy, romance and other genres, and in 1991 participated in Gus van Sant's work "Unruly Sky" with his friend Keanu Reeves.
"He was definitely my closest friend from that time, and our sentimentality was very similar. River is so humble, mind-conscious, and at the same time a unique artist. Yes, I miss him a lot." When Phoenix offered to collaborate on "Unruly Skies," Keanu Reeves recalled in an interview: "I said yes right away."
In "Unruly Skies", River Phoenix plays Mike, a male prostitute who embarks on a journey to find his birth mother, but falls in love with Scott (keanu Reeves), a runaway teenager from a prominent family background. Phoenix's fragile and sentimental performance in it allowed him to take over the Venetian Film Emperor in one fell swoop, breaking the record of the youngest Venetian Film Emperor in history.
Winning the film emperor award at the age of only 21 has given River Phoenix more attention to his mature and naturally unpretentious acting skills in front of the screen, and his unique private temperament is reminiscent of the icon-level actor James Dean in American culture, earning him the title of James dean's successor.
In addition to his proven acting skills, River Phoenix also formed the band Aleka's Attic with a group of friends, and his sister Rain, who used to sell street art with Phoenix, subsequently joined the band. Although the band's album release was halted due to the early death of Phoenix, in 2019, through the coordination of Phoenix's sister, some of the orchestra's singles were finally released.
River Phoenix, a vegetarian since the age of 7, has been determined not to touch any meat, including dairy products, since realizing the exploitation of animals by meat eating. When he was dating actress Martha Plimpton, he also left in tears because Plimpton ordered seafood at a restaurant.
River Phoenix has a high passion for vegetarian culture and environmental conservation, and he has no star shelf, not only did he face reporters' questions about his popularity on the Oscar red carpet, but he responded with surprise: "Well... Not so for me", and tried to help his friends of artists in Hollywood rehabilitate, but eventually died of drugs.
On the night before Halloween in 1993, River Phoenix traveled with then-girlfriend Samantha Mathis, brother Joaquin and sister Rain to the viper room, a rock club owned by Johnny Depp. River, which was only expected to stay for a short time, died 45 minutes later due to overdose.
Unable to adapt to the media harassment brought about by fame for a while, coupled with the family's financial pressure derived from his father's alcoholism, River Phoenix was already affected by the influence of his friends who used drugs during the filming of his posthumous work "Black Blood".
In "Unruly Skies," there's a scene where Phoenix and Reeves talk about childhood memories at the campfire, and Mike, played by Phoenix, says, "If I had been born into a normal family and had a good upbringing, I might have been a person who could fit in well into society."
River's death not only shocked Joaquin and continued to support animal protection and environmental conservation throughout his life the values his brother taught him, but also influenced close friends Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, and even Leonardo dicaprio, who only became popular after Phoenix's death. Leonardo dicaprio, who was just entering the show business at the time, took over two films tailored for Phoenix, "The Edge Diary" and "Total Eclipse of Love", and was even regarded as the successor of River Phoenix. According to legend, dicaprio also secretly took the death of Phoenix as a lesson and never touched drugs for the rest of his life.
Fans who remember him once described the short life of River Phoenix as follows: "Like a river, but not as nirvana as a phoenix." Phoenix's family background may have allowed him to have over-aged acting skills, but it also led to his untimely death, although it has been 27 years since his death, it is still a legend in the hearts of many movie lovers.
Despite the sudden fame that allowed River Phoenix to be placed under the magnesium lamp to enlarge and examine, he still retained the natural and unrestrained temperament of a hippie family, with random hair, gold-rimmed glasses, with a pattern T-shirt, jeans, and a neighborly temperament without a sense of distance, making him a dream boy in the poster of the American girl boudoir of that era.
At the 1989 Golden Globe Awards ceremony, River Phoenix rarely wore a formal suit, with its signature gold-rimmed glasses and a hairy hair, while following the ceremony dress code, it still retained its own uninhibited temperament.
The extremely low-key River Phoenix rarely appears in public outside of the film's publicity, but will stand up for the public welfare issues he attaches great importance to. At this children's charity party, he also always appeared in the casual look of a T-shirt and a blazer.
At peta's anti-fur party, River Phoenix appeared in the company of his then-girlfriend Martha Plimpton and actor Kevin Bacon. The simple look of the checked suit and the plaid shirt exudes the temperament of the boy next door as before.
At the premiere of the 1989 version of "Batman", River Phoenix stepped onto the red carpet in a very comfortable dress, and the father of reggae, Bob Marley,' colorful T-shirt with jeans, also made him the focus.
Occasionally, when interviewed by the media, he would change into a very contemporary floral pattern shirt, paired with tortoiseshell sunglasses, and hold German knot bread in his hand, without any star shelf.
In this interview shot for the film's promotion, he wears a casual Hawaiian shirt with a wide-shouldered suit, reminiscent of Leonardo dicaprio in Romeo and Juliet.