By Isaac Mathewson

On Oct. 31, 1993 , Hollywood actor River Phoenix died of a massive drug overdose in Los Angeles. Since then, there have been many memoirs as well as songs and websites dedicated to his short but promising life. To me, he was a fantastic actor and a major role model in my life due to his achievements and his beliefs.

Now 20 years later, with the upcoming book Last Night at the Viper Room by journalist Gavin Edwards who witnessed his death, I have decided to tell the story of his life and explain why he was such an inspiration to me as well as many others.

River Jude Phoenix was born on Aug. 23, 1970 in Madras , Oregon. He was the oldest of five children, and his siblings’ names were brother Joaquin, who is also an acclaimed actor, and sisters Rain, Liberty , and Summer. During his early years, his family belonged to a cult called the ‘Children of God’ and they were missionaries in Venezuela. When he was eight, his family moved to the United States because they were encouraged by their cult to engage their children in sexual activity. His family were vegans and in his later years, he would become an animal rights activism. He was also an accomplished guitarist, as he and his siblings used to perform on the streets for money.

At his suggestion, the family took up professional acting to meet their needs. After acting in a number of T.V. shows and movies, he had his first major film role in the 1985 family film Explorers. However, it wasn’t until the 1986 film, Stand by Me, when his career really started to kick off. He starred in several minor hits such as The Mosquito Coast, and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Running on Empty. He also played young Indiana Jones in the first 15 minutes of The Last Crusade, and in 1991, he gave his best performance in the independent hit My Own Private Idaho.

Despite his acclaim, Phoenix was unhappy. He did not like being the center of attention all the time and believed that the media should be focused more on serious issues. He also was an animal rights activist, as I said before, and he believed that the food industry should limit the amount of meat they produced.  He even bought 800 acres of rainforest in Costa Rica to be saved from deforestation.

Phoenix also had a major dark side to him. Ever since he was on the set of My Own Private Idaho, he had been struggling with a major drug problem as he had taken many to better his performance. He fought it for two years, and thanks to his reputation of healthy living, he appeared clean and normal. Even so, they still took a major hold over him.

On Oct. 30, 1993 , he had returned home from shooting the film Dark Blood, which to this day is unfinished. He went with Joaquin, Rain, and his girlfriend Samantha Mathis to Johnny Depp’s club ‘The Viper Room.’ He had planned on playing his guitar with Depp and his friends the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but he was told that there were too many people, much to his disappointment. While in the bathroom, he ran into his friend who gave him a ‘speedball,’ which is a mixture of heroine and cocaine. Half an hour after taking it, he felt sick and asked his friends to take him home. However, once outside, he collapsed on the sidewalk and began to have seizures. Although paramedics tried to resuscitate him, little could be done for the young actor. He was pronounced dead in the early hours of Halloween, 1993. He was 23.

What River Phoenix left behind was a great legacy. Apart from his films, he had also showed us a darker side to a fame few at that time knew about. He also became a symbol of what can happen to even the finest of artists.

Although he died three years before I was born, he continues to be an inspiration to me. Now that it has been 20 years since that tragic night, I think we should all take the time to recognize his talents as well as his story.