Now fully fledged missionaries, John and Arlyn headed south, with thier children
in tow. They spent a short time in Mexico before moving on to Puerto Rico.
It was here that Arlyn gave birth to thier third child, Joaquin Rafael.
Being the only child without a 'nature' name, Joaquin changed his name to Leaf
when he was four.
After spending two years in Puerto Rico, John and Arlyn took to the road again,
heading towards South America. They eventually settled down in Caracas, Venezuela,
where Rivers second sister, Liberty Butterfly was born. Liberty was also known
as Libertad Mariposa.
The year was now 1978, and after such a bad ordeal in Venezuela, they were back
in the United States. Arlyn gave birth to thier fifth and final child, Summer Joy.
In the following year of 1979 River and Rain entered talent contests around Florida.
At on particular event, the Hernando Fiesta, the children brought the audience
to thier feet, singing. Shortly after this, the family recieved a letter from
Paramount Studios, inviting the children for an interview. So the family then
packed up and took to the open road once more.
Settling in Los Angeles, Arlyn took a secreterial job with NBC's casting department,
John took to doing odd jobs, and River, Rain and now Leaf were found singing
and playing guitar on street corners. In 1980 River got his first small job on
a tv show, 'Real Kids'. River starred in a few more television series before
getting his first big break, with an audition for a science-fiction film called
'Explorers'.
In May 1990, River travelled to Seattle, to film 'Dogfight', before beggining
another role which he hoped would help rid him of his teen-idol image once and
for all. Playing the character of Mike Waters, in 'My own Private Idaho', with
Keanu Reeves.
By his 21st birthday, River was one of Hollywood's leading young men. Earning
several million doallars a movie, and was now rich beyond his wildest dreams.
For his next assignment, River's agent negotiaited a lucrative contract for him
to appear in a big-budget thriller, 'Sneakers'. Then in 1992, while filming
'The thing called love', River fell in love with his co-star Samantha Mathis.
This relationship would last the rest of his life.
On Saturday, october 30, 1993, River finished work, filming scenes for his new
movie 'Dark Blood', at around 7pm. He then headed back to his hotel room, at
Hotel Nikko, where his girlfirend Samantha Mathis, sister Rain and Brother Leaf
were waiting for him.
River wanted to see his musician friends who were playing, that night, at one
of the clubs on Sunset Boulevard, 'The Viper Room'. Just after 10 pm, the group
left the hotel and travelle to the club by car. River spent nealr 2 hours in the
club that night. A few minutes before 1am, River had been in the bathroom doing
drugs with some of his drug-dealer friends, and someone offered him a snort of
highgrade Persian Brown. As soon as he'd snorted it, he started trembling and
shaking in front of the sink, he screamed at his friend, and then vomited.
His friend tried to help by splashing water on his face, and then gave him a
valium. River staggered back out into the bar and over to where his girlfriend
and sister were. He complained about not eing able to breathe and briefly passed
out, when he came to he asked his girlfriend to take him out side. So with the
help of Rivers brother leaf, they took him outside. River then collapsed on the
sidewalk, where he started going into seizures. A few minutes later his sister,
Rain, emerged from the club and had thrown herself on him in an attempt to stop
the seizures. After 8 minutes of seizures, they stopped and River was still.
At that point, his brother Leaf, announced that he wasnt breathing. At 1:14am
he was in Cardiac Arrest when paramedics arrived. They arrivedat Cedars Sinai
medical center at 1:34am. When they got there his skin was Dark blue, but his
skin was still warm. The ER physicians did everything they could to revive him,
even inserting a pacemaker. But at 1:51am all efforts to revive River Phoenix
were abandoned, and he was pronounced dead. Twenty three years old is no age to die.
The official cause of death was Acute multiple drug intoxication. The autopsy showed
lethal levels of cocaine, morphine, valium, marijuana and ephedrine.
On November 4, 1993, River was placed in a blue coffin, and sixty mourners showed
up at Milam Funeral Home for the viewing.
River was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over the family ranch in Florida.
