RIVER PHOENIX 1970-1993
His brilliant, brief career
The night before Halloween in 1993, actor River Phoenix, his hair cut short and dyed dark for his latest movie role, walked into The Viper Room, the Los Angeles night club partly owned by Johnny Depp, with his younger siblings, sister Rain and brother Leaf (later known as Joaquin), and his girlfriend, actress Samantha Mathis.
“I knew something was wrong that night, something I didn’t understand,” Mathis recalled to in 2018. “I didn’t see anyone doing drugs, but he was high in a way that made me feel uncomfortable – I was inat the time. “He was seizuring so badly he looked like a fish out of water.” Joaquin, then 19, made a panicked 911 call, which was later leaked to the press.
