|
PHOENIX'S
FINAL SCENE
|
| Magazine
& Date: |
E!
Weekly, Oct 31 1997 |
| Written
by: |
Caren
Weiner |
| Provided
by: |
E! Weekly Website |
THE
YOUNG ACTOR'S WORLD OF DIZZYING SUCCESS AND COVERT PARTYING
COLLAPSED OUTSIDE AN L.A. CLUB IN 1993
Five or six years ago, anyone would have
told you that River Phoenix's body was as pure as his heartfelt
acting. Famously vegan, Phoenix ingested no meat or dairy
products and wore no leather; he even undertook to save
the rain forest, buying hundreds of acres in Costa Rica.
All this visible virtue just made it that much more bewildering
when, on Oct. 31, 1993, the 23-year-old Phoenix collapsed
outside Johnny Depp's L.A. club, the Viper Room, convulsing
from an overdose of cocaine and heroin.
Phoenix, an avid musician, had gone to the
club to jam with friends like Depp and the Red Hot Chili
Peppers' Flea. As the actor left with his friend Samantha
Mathis, 22, and his brother Joaquin, 19, he slumped to the
sidewalk. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center about an
hour later. Reports eventually surfaced that he had been
using drugs for years.
In retrospect, the explanation seemed to
be that Phoenix had traveled too far, too fast. The oldest
of five, he spent several years in Venezuela with his parents,
missionaries for the counterculture sect Children of God.
After the family moved to L.A. when he was 10, Phoenix made
commercials, TV movies--and then his breakthrough film,
1986's Stand By Me. In all, the actor would make 13 features,
including 1988's Running on Empty, for which he got a supporting-actor
Oscar nod at 17. After Phoenix's overdose, his longtime
agent, Iris Burton, said: "Being a young actor...with so
much being offered...is insanity. They should...stop the
partying." Echoed Ethan Hawke, "Child acting...is profoundly
negative and hurtful."
At the time of his death, Phoenix had been
filming New Line's Dark Blood (it was never completed).
Next, he was to have played the interviewer in Interview
With the Vampire; Christian Slater got the role instead
and donated his $250,000 salary to Phoenix's favorite eco-charities.
More immediate tributes were left by fans,
who covered the Viper Room's exterior with flowers and graffiti.
"River was real," read one note, "and always stood for truth."
Showbiz friends (R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Dermot Mulroney)
mourned at memorials in L.A. and at the family's Gainesville,
Fla., ranch. The Viper Room was closed--for a week and a
half. Heroin's deadly chic lingers. And 80 acres of tropical
rain forest are currently being destroyed every minute.
END OF ARTICLE
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