Word: phoenixed
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...gave a beautifully judged, Oscar-nominated performance as the son of fugitive radicals trying to raise a family. And if flashbacks weren't evident, portents were. The 1991 My Own Private Idaho, for which he won the National Society of Film Critics' best-actor award, begins and ends with Phoenix, as a drugged-out gay hustler, suffering narcoleptic convulsions...
Audiences saw a vulnerable decency in Phoenix. He could play a devoted son, a loyal pal, a gentle first love -- or a lost boy. And gradually, he became lost among his peers. Johnny Depp (co-owner of the Viper Room) got stronger roles; Keanu Reeves put his satanic good looks to productive use; Robert Sean Leonard assumed the mantle of sensitive swain. Phoenix's last two films have long gone unreleased...
...death is stoking a vigorous debate. "The River Phoenix image was pure," says New Yorker David Kleinhandler, 16. "But I guess he wasn't. He betrayed his image." Outside the Viper Room, one admirer left a painting: a blue stream surrounded by green grass and the message THE ETERNAL RIVER FLOWS...
However the actor died, his mourners knew that he deserved to live, because he had lived inside them and would continue to. He was a love object and an object lesson -- a reason to believe and forgive. In understanding this, his fans showed more maturity than River Phoenix and many of his fast-lane friends. The audience, at least, could tell the difference between starlight and real life...
Hollywood: The death of River Phoenix stuns Generation...