River Phoenix Filmography

Born:: August 23, 1970 in Madras, OR
Occupation:: Actor
Biography:: Noted for the depth, sensitivity, and intelligence that he brought to his roles during his teens, River Phoenix was on the cusp of becoming a successful adult actor when he overdosed on drugs and died on Halloween night, 1993. The son of Arlyn Dunetz and John Bottom, Phoenix was born River Jude...Read More

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Silent Tongue

Actors: Alan Bates, Richard Harris, Dermot Mulroney, River Phoenix, Sheila Tousey, Tantoo Cardinal

Synopsis: Playwright Sam Shepard wrote and directed this bizarre combination of western film revisionism and Greek tragedy. Silent Tongue (Tantoo Cardinal) is a mute Kiowa who is raped by Eamon McCree (Alan Bates), the owner of the Kickapoo Traveling Medicine Show. Eamon attempts to make up for his crime by Read More

1994
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Actors: Uma Thurman, John Hurt, Rain Phoenix, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, Lorraine Bracco

Synopsis: Writer/director Gus Van Sant's early bid for big-time commercial success -- a success he didn't manage to achieve until Good Will Hunting -- is based on Tom Robbins' 1976 feminist bestseller. Uma Thurman plays Sissy Hankshaw, a woman born with very large thumbs. After her parents (Grace Zabriskie Read More

1994
The Thing Called Love

Actors: River Phoenix, Samantha Mathis, Dermot Mulroney, Sandra Bullock, K.T. Oslin

Synopsis: A handful of up-and-coming songwriters discover that love is as difficult to navigate as the music business in this romantic comedy-drama from director Peter Bogdanovich. Miranda Presley (Samantha Mathis) is an aspiring singer/songwriter from New York City who loves country music and has decided Read More

1993
Sneakers

Actors: Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley, Dan Aykroyd, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, David Strathairn

Synopsis: In this tech-thriller from director Phil Alden Robinson, a group of five renegade computer hackers, led by Martin Bishop (Robert Redford), are hired by the government to steal a black box, containing a code-breaking machine, from the mathematician who invented the device. The government is able to Read More

9/9/92
My Own Private Idaho

Actors: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, William Richert, Rodney Harvey

Synopsis: Gus Van Sant's dreamtime riff on Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Parts I and II" features River Phoenix as Mike Waters, a narcoleptic male hustler who is first seen drifting on a stretch of highway in Idaho. Mike shifts from Seattle to Portland, where he has taken up with Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), who Read More

9/29/91
Dogfight

Actors: River Phoenix, Lili Taylor, Richard Panebianco, Anthony Clark, Mitchell Whitfield

Synopsis: River Phoenix stars in this period drama about a young man, naive in some ways and worldly in others, who learns an important lesson about the nature of beauty. In the fall of 1963, Eddie Birdlace (River Phoenix) is an 18-year-old Marine Corps volunteer who is about to ship out with three of his Read More

9/13/91
Evolution's End? The Clear Cut Facts

1991
I Love You to Death

Actors: Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Joan Plowright, River Phoenix, William Hurt, Keanu Reeves, Miriam Margolyes

Synopsis: Lawrence Kasdan's black comedy about a wife's ultimate revenge against her womanizing husband is based on a true story about the wife of a pizzeria owner who decided to kill her cheating husband. When her attempt to murder him failed, the husband refused to press charges against her because he Read More

4/6/90
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Actors: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, River Phoenix

Synopsis: The third installment in the widely beloved Spielberg/Lucas Indiana Jones saga begins with an introduction to a younger Indy (played by the late River Phoenix), who, through a fast-paced prologue, gives the audience insight into the roots of his taste for adventure, fear of snakes, and dogged Read More

5/24/89
Running on Empty

Actors: Christine Lahti, River Phoenix, Judd Hirsch, Martha Plimpton, Jonas Abry

Synopsis: In this family drama from director Sidney Lumet, Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti play Arthur and Annie Pope, a pair of '60s radicals who have eluded the FBI for 16 years after bombing a napalm laboratory as a Vietnam War protest. This lifestyle involves continually moving their base of operations Read More

9/9/88
Little Nikita

Actors: Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Richard Jenkins, Caroline Kava, Richard Bradford, Loretta Devine, Richard Lynch

Synopsis: Jeff Grant (River Phoenix) is a San Diego teen who discovers his father Richard (Richard Jenkins) and mother Elizabeth Grant) are KGB agents. When he applies to the Air Force Academy, a routine FBI check leads to the shocking news. Soon the suburb of Fountain Grove becomes the focus of Read More

3/18/88
A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon

Actors: River Phoenix, Ann Magnuson, Meredith Salenger, Ione Skye, Louanne

Synopsis: The teen drama A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon is directed by William Richert, who adapted the screenplay from his own semi-autobiographical novel Aren't You Even Going to Kiss Me Goodbye? Set in a wealthy Chicago suburb during the 1960s, middle-class Jimmy Reardon (River Phoenix) hangs out Read More

2/26/88
The Mosquito Coast

Actors: Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Jadrien Steele, Hilary Gordon

Synopsis: Harrison Ford delivers one of his most-acclaimed performances in Peter Weir's adaptation of Paul Theroux's novel (scripted by Paul Schrader). Ford plays Allie Fox, an inventor embittered by the blighted landscape of the contemporary United States. As he tells his oldest son, Charlie (River Read More

11/26/86
Stand by Me

Actors: John Cusack, Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Richard Dreyfuss, Kiefer Sutherland

Synopsis: Based on the Stephen King short story The Body, Rob Reiner's easygoing nostalgia piece is set in Castle Rock, OR, over Labor Day weekend, 1959. A quartet of boys, inseparable friends all, set out in search of a dead body that one of the boys overhears his brother talking about. The foursome Read More

8/8/86
Circle of Violence: A Family Drama

Actors: Geraldine Fitzgerald, River Phoenix, Tuesday Weld, Peter Bonerz

Synopsis: Abuse is the key word of this made-for-TV drama. This time, it is abuse levelled against ageing parents by their own children. As the title indicates, the violence grows from mounting frustrations. Tuesday Weld stars as an emotionally tattered woman who goes off the deep end when her husband Peter Bonerz Read More

1986
Celebrity

Synopsis: After twenty-five years, a trio of old high school friends are held responsible for a rape incident they have, until now, kept secret in this television miniseries based on Thomas Thompson's novel. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

1985
Explorers

Actors: Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson, Amanda Peterson, Dick Miller

Synopsis: Explorers turns out to be much ado about nothing, but it's so sublimely assembled we're willing to overlook the sappy climax. Young sci-fi geek Ben Crandall (Ethan Hawke) (could he possibly be based on director Joe Dante?) would give anything to travel in space. Thanks to his computer-happy pal Read More

1985
Surviving

Actors: Ellen Burstyn, Len Cariou, Zach Galligan, Marsha Mason

Synopsis: Originally telecast in a three-hour network slot, Surviving is virtually two films in one. In the first 90 minutes, we see the identity crises and outside pressures that propel a "normal" teenaged boy (Zach Galligan) and a "disturbed" teenaged girl (Mollie Ringwald) into committing suicide Read More

1985
Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia

Actors: River Phoenix, Madge Sinclair, Leaf Phoenix, Bo Kaprall, Judy Farrell

Synopsis: In one of his first major roles, 13-year-old River Phoenix stars in this ABC Afterschool Special as junior-high student Brian Ellsworth, who has a habit of writing his words -- and the letters -- backwards. Brian's friends think he's kidding, his teachers think he's lazy, and his parents think Read More

1984