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River Phoenix was a hugely talented, seriously cool actor, who proved the phrase "only the good die young". Born in California to religious parents, who encouraged their children into acting, Phoenix was performing in television by the time he was ten. He made his film debut in the kids fantasy adventure Explorers in 1985, before getting rave reviews and box office success in Stand By Me, The Mosquito Coast and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Phoenix also earned an Oscar nomination for his performance as Danny Pope in Running On Empty in 1988. His best work however, came in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho in 1991. Phoenix was excellent in the film, playing a narcoleptic rent boy searching for the mother who abandoned him. Phoenix died aged 23 of a drug overdose outside Johnny Depp's LA club The Viper Room.
