http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTmMVkVdz_w&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/v/lOhM7FwsEY4
Can’t get enough, huh?!
While it is true that Johnny Depp is my fave actor and one of the most talented of all actors, River Phoenix would still be my number one and had he been living ’til this day, you would definitely agree with me!
I think it’s high time I post something for River Phoenix as 2006 would be his 13th death anniversary.
I really love this guy! And I couldn’t help but really weep everytime I think of how cruel and tragic life had been to him! Such man doesn’t deserve to be hurt and destroyed like that. Wherever he is now, I could only pray he’s happy and fin’lly found the kind of peace he’d looked for his entire life. I won’t forget you!
And yes, he is a Vegan (vegetarian) and yup, a Jew!
Let’s look into his biography :
Generally regarded by critics as the most promising young actor of his generation during the late 1980s and early 1990s, River Phoenix seemed destined to become one of the most exquisite screen tragedians in Hollywood memory, yet he wound up instead one of its most exquisite tragedies..
River Jude Phoenix (August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an Academy Award-nominated American film actor. He was listed on John Willis’ Screen World, Vol. 38 as one of twelve "Promising new actors of 1986." He received high praise for his acting talents by such critics as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. However, his promising career was cut short when he died of a drug induced heart failure at age 23.He grew up in poverty and he and his sister often had to work as street performers to make money for the family.
He was nominated in 1988, at the age of 17, for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (as well as for a Golden Globe) for his role in Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty, considered by critics to be River Phoenix’s finest film. He won a best actor throphy for his gay role opposite Keannu Reeves in My Own Private Idaho.
River appeared on John Frusciante’s (guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers) second solo album Smile From the Streets You Hold on the song "Height Down." Phoenix had his own band as well called Aleka’s Attic which included his sister Rain and, occasionally, friend Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Sasa Raphael, both on bass guitar. Phoenix was also close friends with Michael Stipe of the acclaimed band R.E.M..
Embarrassed by the teeny-bop media image first created for him, Phoenix disliked being seen as just a sex symbol and usually refused to smile for photographs.
Phoenix professed to believe in, and in fact mostly practiced, a healthy lifestyle that included Veganism and Holistic medicine - but it would become obvious that this did not always extend to abstaining from hard drugs.
Phoenix died at age 23 from a drug overdose of heroin and cocaine (speedball) outside the Viper Room, a Hollywood night club partly owned by actor Johnny Depp. The autopsy also revealed traces of cough syrup, and cannabis in his blood. Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael Balzary, also known as Flea, was present at the time, as was River’s younger brother Joaquín. He was rushed to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center but any attempts to resuscitate him were to no avail. He was pronounced dead at 1:51 AM PDT on the morning of October 31, 1993. At the time of his death, Phoenix was acting in the starring role of the movie Dark Blood, which was 90% filmed, yet enough key scenes were lacking that this prevented its completion. He was also due to start filming on Interview With the Vampire as the interviewer, Daniel Molloy. Christian Slater eventually took on his role, donating his fee for the film to charity in honour of Phoenix. Phoenix was cremated in Gainesville, Florida a few days later, and the ashes were spread at the family’s ranch near Micanopy, a few miles south of Gainesville.
Viewed almost universally as a phenomenally talented, clever and touchingly sweet-natured presence in the lives of his numerous friends, co-workers and family-members, one of River’s on-set tutors has said, "no legend or fiction could ever live up to the reality of River Phoenix".
Prone to spells of worsening depression, River hinted in interviews about mistreatment at the hands of the oft-investigated cult to which he had belonged as a small child; friends say this affected him all of his life, creating a certain level of guilt and compulsivity. Although the details remain unclear and are in dispute, it seems likely that this played a role in his descent into substance abuse towards the end of his life (statistically, a common problem for those who have undergone certain forms of childhood abuse trauma).
Perhaps because of River Phoenix’s squeaky-clean image — one he had bemoaned in interviews (and an image he hadn’t quite intended, yet had resulted from the public discussion of his various social, political, humanitarian and dietary interests not always popular in the ’80s), the press and media misbehavior upon his death, a death considered one of show-business’s most shocking and tragic, was unnecessarily smarmy. Resultantly, friends and family became silent for many years on the subject of their fallen love-one– and mostly remain silent even to this day.
Shortly before his Halloween 1993 demise, River, whose extra-curricular activities had yet to be known publicly, stated that, "addiction is not just for bad people or scum-bags— it’s a universal disease."
Fans and film critics alike have often observed the uncanny parallels to his highly unusual life history — and moments seemingly prophetic of his death — reflected in his motion pictures.
Though he did turn out as a rebellious teener and died at a young age, I still believe that he’s a good man, with a good heart and a pure soul. He had all the reason to hate the world for few people hurt him in ways unimaginative, but he refused to hate it; lest wept and licked his wounds silently, gave us a lot of inspirations and new beliefs in life instead and most of all, shared enormous talent and heart. Surely he was, is and will continue to be one of the "MOST REMARKABLE AND UNPARALLELED ACTOR OF ALL TIME"!
