River Phoenix Early Life

“In simplicity there is truth.” (River Phoenix) River Phoenix lived a short life that started August 23, 1970 in Madras, Oregon, and ended October 31, 1993 at the Viper Room in LA. River was an actor, musician and activist who got his start when he was only ten years old. Although River Phoenix died young he lived a successful life, where he stood and believed in many amazing things. On August 23, 1993 in a log cabin in Oregon, Arlyn Dunetz and John Lee Bottom gave birth to River Jude Bottom. He was named after the river of life in Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. He got his middle name from the song “Hey Jude” by the Beatles. River was the older brother of Joaquin, Rain, Summer, Liberty Phoenix. His parents then left Oregon and become missionaries

River then started to land roles in commercials. His first role was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as Guthrie McFadden. He started to get more roles in other T.V. shows such as; Fantasy, Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia, Circle of Violence: A Family Drama, Family Ties, Robert Kennedy and His Times, Hotel, and It’s Your Move. River’s hard work paid off and landed his first movie role in Explorers with Ethan Hawke. That next year he got the infamous role as Chris Chambers in Stand By Me, and then in The Mosquito Coast. Two years later he played Jimmy Reardon in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. Later on after filming the movie he said that playing that role was a big mistake and that he misused his talent in a major way. He also was in Little Nikita, Running on Empty, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He played Devo in I Love You to Death and Mike Waters in My Own Private Idaho. Some others were Dogfight, Sneakers, Silent Tongue and The Thing Called Love. The last movie he was in was Dark Blood which was released in 2012 which was about 19 years after his death. He was also supposed to be in Interview with a Vampire but died before they could begin shooting the