What is the Net Worth of River Phoenix at the Time of His Death?

May 2024 · 5 minute read

River Jude Phoenix was an American actor and musician who was born in Bottom on August 23, 1970, and died on October 31, 1993. Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. He didn’t go to school, but he was naturally good at playing the guitar.

He started acting in TV commercials when he was 10 years old. He was the main character in the 1985 science fiction adventure film Explorers, and his first big role was in the 1986 coming-of-age film Stand by Me, which was based on Stephen King’s novella The Body.

River Phoenix Quick Info

Real NameRiver Jude Phoenix
Date of Birth:Aug 23, 1970 
Place of Birth:Madras
Gender:Male
Height:5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Profession:Actor, Musician, Singer-songwriter, Guitarist, Activist, Environmentalist
Net Worth:$5 Million

What is the Net Worth of River Phoenix at the Time of His Death?

At the time of his passing in 1993, River Phoenix, an American actor, activist, and musician had a $5 million net worth, according to Celebrity Net Worth. In the children’s television series “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” River Phoenix made his acting debut as a youngster.

He later appeared in movies like “Explorers,” “Stand by Me,” “The Mosquito Coast,” and “Running on Empty.” He made appearances in a number of movies as a young adult, including “My Own Private Idaho,” “Sneakers,” and “The Thing Called Love.” Phoenix passed away on Halloween in 1993 at the age of 23 from a heroin and cocaine overdose.

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River Phoenix Personal Life

During the production of The Mosquito Coast in February 1986, Phoenix and Martha Plimpton started dating. Despite having met a year earlier, they didn’t get along at first. Before their relationship ended in June 1989 as a result of Phoenix’s drug addiction, they also acted together in the 1988 movie Running on Empty. They remained close friends right up to his passing.

River Phoenix Net Worth

Plimpton afterward said, “Part of the reason why we broke up was that I realized that yelling, arguing, and pleading wouldn’t make him change. He needed to change, but he wasn’t ready to do so yet.”

River Phoenix Early Years: Childhood And Education

In Madras, Oregon, on August 23, 1970, River Bottom, the first child of wandering hippies John Lee Bottom and Arlyn Dunetz, was born as River Phoenix. His initial name was inspired by the character Siddhartha in the book. Through his mother, Phoenix was descended from Russian and Hungarian Jews, and through his father, from French, English, and Germans.

All of his siblings—Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer—entered the entertainment industry. The family relocated to Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas as missionaries in 1973 after joining the religious cult Children of God. Phoenix allegedly had a rape as a young child while part of the group.

River Phoenix Career

The Phoenix family relocated to Los Angeles, California after returning to the US. The children would perform on street corners in the Westwood district of the city in order to get money for their families. Phoenix never attended an academic institution. Iris Burton, a talent agent, eventually caught the children’s attention and chose to represent them.

Phoenix later made appearances in television ads for companies like Ocean Spray and Mitsubishi. Soon after, Penny Marshall, the casting director at Paramount Pictures, signed him and his siblings. Phoenix performed as an audience warm-up act alongside his sister Rain on the program “Real Kids.”

With his role as young scientist Wolfgang Müller in Joe Dante’s science-fantasy movie “Explorers,” Phoenix made his feature film debut in 1985. The following year, he played Chris Chambers, one of four boyhood best friends in 1959 Oregon who embark on an odyssey to recover a boy’s dead body, in Rob Reiner’s coming-of-age movie “Stand by Me.”

He starred alongside Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell in the well-received movie. Phoenix performed the role of the character’s son in Peter Weir’s “The Mosquito Coast” later in 1986.

Phoenix played the title character in the black comedy “I Love You to Death,” which also starred Kevin Kline, Keanu Reeves, Joan Plowright, and Tracey Ullman. The critically praised 1991 coming-of-age drama “Dogfight” featured him alongside Lili Taylor. In the same year, he collaborated once more with Keanu Reeves on “My Own Private Idaho,” a pivotal work in the history of New Queer Cinema, in which he portrayed street hustler Mikey Waters.

River Phoenix Died Due to Drug Overdose!

Phoenix overdosed on drugs on October 30, 1993, and passed away as a result. According to The Guardian, he was dating fellow actress Samantha Mathis at the time, and he was also with his brothers Joaquin and Rain. They stopped at Johnny Depp’s club, The Viper, and Mathis stated that she sensed something wasn’t right. “That evening, I had a gut feeling that something was off.

Even though I didn’t see anyone using drugs, I felt out of my depth because of how high he was. Phoenix later passed away from a cocaine and morphine combination only 45 minutes after they arrived at the club.

Phoenix’s drug use became a well-known detail about him, but it’s also important to take into account his early life and how that might have contributed to his drug use in the future.

The Guardian reports that Phoenix’s parents were hippies who regularly relocated across the nation and joined the Children of God sect. Phoenix later acknowledged that he had experienced sexual molestation as a child while he was a member of the cult. You can’t experience that horror at such a young age and not be affected by it for the rest of your life, as Phoenix’s buddy Joshua Greenbaum explained to People.

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