Once Famous Child Actors Who Passed Away

Talking about River Phoenix is far from easy. Decades after he died outside Johnny Depp's Viper Room, it's still a complicated story. His breakout role was in one of the best movies from the 1980s, "Stand By Me." In 2018, director Rob Reiner told The Guardian that he had always been surrounded by his parents

Talking about River Phoenix is far from easy. Decades after he died outside Johnny Depp's Viper Room, it's still a complicated story. His breakout role was in one of the best movies from the 1980s, "Stand By Me." In 2018, director Rob Reiner told The Guardian that he had always been surrounded by his parents and family, but that ended up being complicated in itself. There was his childhood in the Children of God cult, his feelings of being the one supporting his family, and the pressures of earning enough to send his siblings to school.

It took Phoenix's girlfriend, Samantha Mathis, a long time to open up about the night he died. She later explained, "I knew something was wrong that night, something I didn't understand," she said. "I didn't see anyone doing drugs, but he was high in a way that made me feel uncomfortable — I was in way over my head. Forty-five minutes later, he was dead." It was October 31, 1993.

Phoenix, it turned out, had purportedly spent the previous day with John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They'd been using pretty heavily, and it would later be ruled that his death had come from an overdose of cocaine and heroin. Years later, his brother Joaquin Phoenix would say (via the Independent), "I feel like virtually every movie that I made, there was a connection to River in some way. And I think that we've all felt his presence and guidance in our lives in numerous ways."

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