River Phoenix

River Jude Phoenix née Bottom August 23 1970 October 31 1993 was an American actor musician and activist Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family as the oldest brother of Rain Phoenix Joaquin Phoenix Liberty Phoenix and Summer Phoenix He had no formal schooling but he showed an instinctive talent for the guitar and he played and sang on the streets for money He began his acting career at age 10 in a handful of television commercials He starred in the science fiction adventure film Explorers 1985 and had his breakthrough 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 fought heroin addiction and died at age 23 from combined drug intoxication in West Hollywood in the early hours of Halloween 1993 after unknowingly ingesting cocaine and heroin a mixture commonly known as a speedball at The Viper Room