Gifted and serious young feature film actor from the mid-1980s to the early 90s. Though strikingly handsome, Phoenix largely eschewed typical teen idol roles. As he matured, he generally opted for parts that played to his strengths for conveying intelligence and sensitivity. The product of an unorthodox, nomadic childhood (his parents worked as migrant fruit pickers in the US Northwest and, later, as Christian missionaries in South and Central America). Phoenix, age seven, earned his supper singing religious songs in the streets of Caracas. Back in the US, he won talent contests in the late 1970s and made his TV debut in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (CBS, 1982-83). A conscientious youth, Phoenix abandoned making commercials for ethical reasons--he didn't actually use the products he was hired to sell. He was convincing as a bespectacled brainy youngster in his feature debut, "Explorers" (1985), a charming fantasy directed by Joe Dante.
Phoenix gave an impressively mature performance as a knowing tough kid in Rob Reiner's poignant coming-of-age drama "Stand By Me" (1986). That same year, he played Harrison Ford's eldest son in Peter Weir's "The Mosquito Coast". In 1988, Phoenix played a socially ambitious teen whose plans are seriously altered in "A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon" and, opposite Sidney Poitier, the initially unsuspecting son of Soviet agents in "Little Nikita". Although he never acquired the commercial clout of some of his contemporaries, Phoenix became known for his nuanced and heartfelt performances. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor as a piano student on the lam with his fugitive '60s radical parents in Sidney Lumet's "Running on Empty" (1988) and captured the essence of Harrison Ford playing a young Indiana Jones in the riotous prologue of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989). He clearly emerged as the leading actor of his generation in Hollywood with a courageous portrayal of a gay narcoleptic street hustler in Gus Van Sant Jr.'s "My Own Private Idaho" (1991). He also gave impressive performances as a mystic pizza man in Lawrence Kasdan's black comedy, "I Love You to Death" (1990) and a young Vietnam-bound Marine in Nancy Savoca's "Dogfight" (1991).
Also a talented musician, Phoenix formed the rock band Aleka's Attic with his sister Rain. He sang and played guitar in the country-western drama "The Thing Called Love" (1993). Phoenix's final credit was metaphysical Western, "Silent Tongue" (also 1993), written and directed by Sam Shepard. Before his untimely death on Halloween night 1993, he was set to play the interviewer in Neil Jordan's adaptation of the Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire". He had also nearly completed work on the independent thriller "Dark Blood", with Judy Davis.