October 31, 1993: River Phoenix Dies

October 31, 1993: Actor River Phoenix dies of a drug overdose on a street in Los Angeles. He was only 23 years old.

River Jude Bottom was born on August 23, 1970 in Madras, Oregon. His parents were hippies, and also had son Joaquin and daughters Rain, Liberty and Summer. They ended up in a cult, but left it, and celebrated their rise from the cult by changing their family name to "Phoenix."

By the age of 10, River was an expert guitar player and tapdancer, and had begun appearing in TV commercials. He became a star in 1986 with Stand By Me and The Mosquito Coast. In 1988, he appeared in Running On Empty, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was 18.

In 1989, he played a 13-year-old Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In 1991, he starred in My Own Private Idaho, and won an Independent Spirit Award. In 1992, he filmed The Thing Called Love, and began a relationship with co-star Samantha Mathis. He was already becoming known as an activist for the environment and veganism. And he was scheduled to begin filming Interview with the Vampire in November 1993, where he was to play the interviewer, Daniel Molloy.

But had begun using drugs in 1989, causing Martha Plimpton, his girlfriend and Mosquito Coast co-star, to break up with him. In October 1993, he went on a drug binge with John Frusciante, who had recently quit as the guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers.

On October 30, Phoenix, his brother Joaquin, his sister Rain, and Mathis showed up at The Viper Room, a Los Angeles nightclub co-owned by actor Johnny Depp. River, Frusciante, Depp, Red Hot Chili Peppers bass guitarist Michael "Flea" Balzary, Butthole Surfers lead singer Gibby Haynes, and Ministry singer Al Jourgensen were going to perform together as a band named simply "P."

After the performance, the Phoenixes left, and River collapsed on the sidewalk outside the front door. Joaquin called 911. Rain gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Flea rode in the ambulance with him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. It was no use: He was pronounced dead at 1:51 AM Pacific Time (4:51 AM Eastern) on October 31.

Depp closed the club for a week, and closed it every October 31 until he sold his share in 2004. The front entrance became a makeshift shrine, with graffiti staining the building's walls.

Phoenix's father John blamed Frusciante, and threatened to kill him, but no charges were every pressed against anyone in connection with River's death. He was posthumously compared with James Dean, but was even younger when he died. (Dean was 24.) His final resting place is not open to the public: He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at the family ranch in Micanopy, in northern Florida.

Interview with the Vampire was dedicated to his memory, and Christian Slater, an actor of similar style and talent, was cast in the role. He had also agreed to appear in Safe Passage, a role that went to Sean Astin; Broken Dreams, a role that went to Caleb Landry Jones; The Basketball Diaries as the book's author, Jim Carroll, a role that went to Leonardo DiCaprio, whose early career led to him being compared to Phoenix; and as Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse, another role that went to DiCaprio.

Gus Van Sant, who had directed Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho, wanted to make a film about Harvey Milk, with Phoenix as San Francisco-based AIDS activist Cleve Jones. Van Sant put the film on hold, finally making Milk with Sean Penn in the title role and Emile Hirsch as Jones, releasing it in 2008. Van Sant had also considered casting Phoenix in a movie about Andy Warhol, but he dropped that project after Phoenix's death.

Phoenix appeared in 2 films that were released after his death. Silent Tongue was released on schedule in 1994. Dark Blood was held back, and not released until 2012.

The Viper Room is still in business, at 8852 Sunset Boulevard, but it might be cursed. In 1995, Australian singer-actor Jason Donovan suffered a drug overdose there, although he survived. In 1997, another Australian, INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, played his last performance there, and committed suicide a week later.

Joaquin Phoenix became an Oscar-winning actor. He and partner Rooney Mara named their son River.

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October 31, 1993 was a Sunday. Actress Letitia Wright was born, so maybe, just maybe, Hollywood broke even on the day.

Baseball season was over. These NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Jets beat the New York Giants, 10-6 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. The Giants were the official home team this time, although that isn't always the case when these teams play each other, which is every year in preseason and every 3 years in the regular season.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 23-10 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 31-24 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 30-10 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the New England Patriots, 9-6 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, 17-3 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. The next year, they would play on Halloween again, at Soldier Field on Monday Night Football, and the Packers would win in miserable weather: Cold, rain and wind.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings, 30-27 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks, 28-17 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Phoenix Cardinals, 20-17 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* The San Diego Chargers beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Raiders, 30-23 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, 40-17 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Buffalo Bills beat the Washington Redskins, 24-10 at Rich Stadium (now Highmark Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* And the entire AFC Central -- the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns, the Houston Oilers and the Pittsburgh Steelers -- had a bye week.

The NBA season didn't start for another 5 days. But there were 4 NHL games played:

* The New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils, 4-1 -- but not at Madison Square Garden, or at the Meadowlands. This was during the NHL's early 1990s experiment with neutral-site games, and this game was at the Metro Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The arena is now known as the Scotiabank Centre.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 9-6 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-3 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 2-1 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. Tom Pederson scored the winning goal with 3:13 left in overtime.