River Phoenix’s sister Rain wishes the late actor a happy birthday

River Phoenix’s sister Rain remembers her late brother on his 54th birthday.

The Stand by Me And My own private Idaho Star died on October 31, 1993 of a drug overdose in front of the Viper Room nightclub on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. He was 23 years old. Two of his four younger siblings, Rain and actor Joaquin Phoenix, star of the upcoming Joker: Foil for Twowere also there.

See her post below:

In her post, Rain shared a quote attributed to her late brother: “We’re all worth it, man. We’re all worth millions of planets and stars and galaxies.”

She simply captioned the post, “Happy Birthday River,” interrupted by a blue heart.

Despite his youth, Phoenix was already an accomplished actor when he died. For his role as a teenager struggling with his family’s life as refugees in Running on reserve (1989). He was also praised for his work alongside Keanu Reeves in the film Gus Van Sant My own private Idaho (1992), which won the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival.

His family has already remembered him publicly. In 2023, his mother Arlyn “Heart” Phoenix said he was “and still is our greatest teacher.”

“The greatest pain I have experienced in my life was the pain of natural childbirth and, although very different, the pain of my son’s death,” she wrote. “But on both occasions, the gifts he brought with him were almost instantly imbued into each of us and so we continue to celebrate his life for those 23 precious years.”

Stand by Me Director Rob Reiner also praised the late actor in an interview with Weekly entertainment.

Phoenix’s death “shocked me deeply,” Reiner said. “Wow. It upset me so much, but I had seen him a few years later. Stand by Meand I knew he had been doing drugs and stuff like that. I knew he didn’t live in the best place.”

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Reiner called Phoenix “a brilliant, brilliant young actor” who was “like a James Dean” in that he left behind so many great performances.