by Jackie Ganiy
They sent him back to Indiana to be buried; back to where his mother died, back to where he had been molested by a creepy Methodist minister, back to the place he’d left as soon as he humanly could. I guess they thought that’s what he would have wanted. The wrecked Porsche made the rounds as a novelty act, its cannibalized parts wreaking doom and destruction on those brave enough to incorporate them into other automobiles. The car finally disappeared for good sometime in 1960, from a sealed train car. At least two female fans committed suicide when Jimmy’s death became public. Elizabeth Taylor flirted with a nervous breakdown, and had to be hospitalized briefly.
James Dean crash scene. Man lying on the ground (Dean?)
All this over a man who made just three films, two of which had not yet been released. Today, a casual stroll down Hollywood Boulevard reveals Dean’s continued impact on current trends. His image is everywhere, on billboards, murals, peering from store windows, hands jammed in his pockets, staring moodily from a cardboard cutout, and looming from giant posters. If his life and death were not as famous as his legend, visitors could be forgiven for assuming he was a contemporary star, alive and still making pictures. But that would be wishful thinking. Come back to the five and dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. And this time, stay a little longer.
The intersection where Dean died, as it appears today.
River Phoenix
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The panicked young man on the phone with the 911 operator could barely keep his emotions in check. “He’s having seizures on Sunset and Larrabee! Please come here!” he pleaded. His voice pitched into a sob. “He’s having seizures! You must get here please! Please ‘cause he’s dying! Please!” The young man was the Academy Award-winning actor, Joaquin Phoenix, a decade before he became famous, striving helplessly to save his older brother, River, who lay dying from a drug overdose outside a Sunset Strip nightclub. How had it come to this for River, one of the brightest, most talented young actors in Hollywood?
He was born River Jude Bottom in 1970, to a pair of genuine hippies, Arlyn Dunetz and John Lee Bottom. They met when Bottom saw Dunetz hitchhiking in Northern California, and gave her a ride. No kidding. Five children would follow, including River, Rain Joan Of Arc Bottom, Joaquin and Summer. River was named after the river of life in Herman Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha.
In 1973, everyone thought it would be good idea to join a religious cult, because that’s what everyone did. River’s family joined the Children Of God cult, and spent the next several years starving as missionaries in South America. The family was so poor that young River and his sister, Rain, would have to go onto the streets as a musical duo, with River on guitar, and Rain on vocals, to solicit change for food. The Children Of God were well-known for their, shall we say, broadminded social practices, which included free love, polyamory, and allowing children to sleep with their parents while they had sex. There’s nothing like that good ole time religion. Eventually, starvation and poverty overpowered Arlyn and John’s devotion to the cult, and they stowed everyone away on cargo freighter bound for the States. Some people have all the interesting childhood experiences. River was scarred for life from the horrendous experiment that was his early life, and he would draw on these emotions later in his work.
River at the 61st Academy Awards Governor’s Ball, photo by Alan Light
Eventually, this unconventional family made its way to Hollywood, where the ever-diligent Arlyn set about trying to get her brood into the entertainment industry. She said she wanted to change the world for the better, and this was the only way she could think of to accomplish that. How noble. The family could often be found jamming on the streets of Westwood Village to an enthusiastic street audience that would shower them with pocket change. They weren’t exactly the Brady Bunch. They were close enough for talent agent, Iris Burton, who agreed to represent all five children. By this time the family had changed their name from Bottom to Phoenix, (thank God, though I suspect some diligent studio executive would never have allowed the budding star to perform with the byline of River Bottom). The new name was a symbol for their new lives.
River was the standout star from the beginning. There was just something about this kid, an aura that screamed movie star. He had long, soft, sandy hair and deep set, fiery eyes that fixed people with a “You can’t bullshit me” look. He was immediately cast in the short-lived television series, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He was then cast in a series of small, but memorable, roles in made-for-TV movies, until his big break in 1986, when he was cast in the offbeat, sci-fi movie Explorers, along with a young Ethan Hawke. He caught the attention of Rob Reiner, who cast him in his coming-of-age film, Stand By Me. River played Chris Chambers, the doomed tough kid with a heart of gold, and he knocked it out of the park. His performance was incredibly sophisticated for such a young actor. Stand By Me made River a star.
River made hit after hit for the next three years, rapidly becoming the primary breadwinner for his large family. He followed Stand By Me with an intense part as the son of Harrison Ford in The Mosquito Coast. That was followed by Little Nikita, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, and Running on Empty (which he was at this point)—all in rapid succession. He felt the pressure of keeping his family in the style to which they had now become accustomed, and became withdrawn. It didn’t help that his mother continued to insist that they live like gypsy fugitives, moving every few months, often to different states. They moved more than forty times before River turned eighteen.
In 1991, he starred in his first adult role, as a gay street hustler aching with unrequited love for Keanu Reeves, in My Own Private Idaho. The two had become fast friends in real life, and the chemistry was amazing. River proved with this difficult role that he was more concerned with becoming a good actor than maintaining his squeaky clean image as America’s heartthrob. He immersed himself in preparation for the role, even hanging out with street hustlers or “rent boys” on the streets of Portland, Oregon, and interviewing them about their lives. It was during the filming of Idaho, during endless, frat boy- style sleepovers at director Gus Van Sant’s rented home, with Flea (bass guitarist for The Red Hot Chili Peppers and River’s close friend) and the rest of the cast, that River developed a real drug problem. It seems any drug imaginable was freely available, and freely ingested, by all. Despite this, River’s hard work paid off. Idaho was his finest moment.
River was a sensitive soul, and the pressure to not disappoint those who had grown dependent on his success weighed on him. He would often escape into his first love, music, locking himself in his room for hours to jam away on his guitar, until falling asleep from exhaustion. He also sought escape through drugs, though he followed a strict vegan diet, and was otherwise extremely health-conscious. This is your brain on McDonalds, kids. He longed for the stability of a normal family, and once said “When you’re making a film, you’re a family, but when the film is over, the family is over.” As Hermann Hesse wrote so perfectly in his Siddhartha, “Dreams and restless thoughts came flowing to him from the river, from the twinkling stars at night, from the suns melting rays. Dreams and a restlessness of the soul came to him.”
Such a good musician was River, that he secured a two-year development deal with Island Records. His band, Aleka’s Attic, which featured sister Rain as well, released their first single titled “Across The Way” in 1989. Another song, “Too Many Colors”, appeared in My Own Private Idaho, and was also released separately under the band’s label. River always maintained that his family originally came to LA so that he and Rain could become recording artists, and that the acting thing just happened out of financial necessity. He was dead set on making his music a success without the help of his star power, and refused to allow his band managers to book gigs using his name. Of course, people always found out anyway, and packed Aleka’s Attic events just to see River.
He was also a passionate animal rights activist, due to the atrocious treatment of animals he witnes
sed as a youth living in Venezuela. He appeared frequently as a spokesperson for PETA, and was honored with their highest award, the Humanitarian Award, in 1992. He loved nature and animals, and these were the guiding inspirations for his political activism and lifestyle.
River’s last film, Peter Bogdanovich’s The Thing Called Love, costarred Samantha Mathis and Sandra Bullock. He gave a touching performance as an aspiring, idealistic musician, who found love in a Nashville honky-tonk. He dated Mathis, treating her with boyish innocence, and proclaiming his heart beat wildly just holding her hand. But by then, his boyish glow had dimmed, and darkness had begun to descend on his personality. His skin grew sallow, and his hair—once his flaxen pride and joy—began to look listless and dull. He started to lose weight, and his eyes had a haunted glaze. He just looked like a junkie. He tried to get a handle on his addictions, and was one of those “weekend addicts” who would stop for long periods of time, then start up again when he was surrounded by the wrong crowd or under too much stress. This behavior can be more dangerous than the behavior of a full-time addict. A consistent drug user will build up a tolerance for the substance, and it becomes harder to overdose, but a person who starts and stops all the time can easily throw his clean body into shock with a dose that he thinks is safe.
River spent his last day alive on the set of his latest movie, Dark Blood. He managed to kick his drug habit during the two months they shot on location out in Utah. Back in LA, however, where drugs were more plentiful than money, he relapsed, and ingested something before showing up on the set that morning. He was oddly quiet and still, spending most of the day motionless on a chair, while the elaborate love scene was carefully set up. There was tension between him and his costar, Judy Davis, who seemed to intensely dislike River for no apparent reason. River was never good at faking it. He asked the director to put off shooting the tender love scene for as long as possible, as he was unusually intimidated by Davis, and worried about his ability to pull it off.
The very last images of River Phoenix on film are chilling. According to the show The Last Days of River Phoenix, the love scene took four takes to complete and then was done. The director called cut, the lights were extinguished, and River just stood there, silhouetted against the still burning candles, as the camera continued to roll. He turned and walked towards the camera, staring silently into the lens for nearly five minutes, as the candles burning eerily behind his dark visage. Finally, someone realized that the camera was still running, and switched it off. After River’s death, this last penetrating image would haunt the cast and crew for years.
Upset and stressed out by the bad vibes on the set, River decided to blow off steam that night, joining his family and friends at The Viper Room; a popular West Hollywood nightclub owned by River’s pal, Johnny Depp. It was the night before Halloween, and everyone was in a good mood. The party began in River’s suite at the Hotel Nikkon, where his girlfriend Samantha, his sister Rain and brother Joaquin joined him. There is debate as to whether or not River drank anything before going to the club. Most sources say he didn’t, as he was very excited about jamming with Depp and Flea on stage that night, and wanted to stay focused.
Around midnight, everyone was at the club, ready to kick the party into high gear. River brought his guitar and waited in anticipation of taking the stage. He was like a little boy at a school play. Flea and River had met on the set of My Own Private Idaho, and there was an instant rapport. Flea was a hip musician who wanted to dabble in acting, and River was hip actor who really wanted to be a rock star. They became inseparable. By all accounts, River had not taken any drugs yet. He was so excited, and wanted to be 100% when he went on stage to play beside his best friend. Unfortunately, the stage was already overflowing with musicians, and there was no room left for River. Disappointed and hurt, he began casing the crowd for a dealer. He found one.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Joaquin, Rain and Samantha were enjoying the evening in a booth toward the back of the room. They all assumed River was about to take the stage. He had actually gone into the bathroom with a drug dealer, and snorted a massive speed ball: a combination of heroin and cocaine. The same concoction killed John Belushi ten years earlier. Right away, he became violently ill, and began puking his guts up. He screamed at the dealer “What the fuck did you just give me?” between pukes. He began shaking, his heart heart racing, breaking out in a cold sweat. As if he hadn’t had enough drugs, some rocket scientist thought this an opportune moment to give him a Valium. By the time he stumbled out of the bathroom, and back to the booth, he had less than an hour to live. He complained that it was hard to breathe, then passed out at the feet of his friends. When he regained consciousness, he asked Samantha and Joaquin to help him outside for some air. While being helped out, one of the bouncers asked what was happening, and River reportedly replied, “I’m dying, man.”
Once outside, he collapsed on the sidewalk, and the violent seizures began while his head thumped on the concrete for eight minutes. Rain threw herself on top of his body to stop him from shaking, while everyone else just stood around, not believing their eyes. Some people even laughed. When you’re stoned out of you’re mind, you don’t make the best choices. A witness said he looked like a fish out of water flopping and flailing helplessly on the hard cement. Finally, Joaquin ran to the nearby phone booth and dialed 911. Where’s a cell phone when you need it? By the time the paramedics got there, he was already gone. River Jude Phoenix was dead at the age of twenty-three on a public sidewalk in front of snickering strangers dressed in Halloween costumes.
To see what River could have been, look at his brother Joaquin and what he’s done. That’s what River cheated us out of. Look at Leonardo DeCaprio. He and River were contemporaries. Both started out as gifted child actors, and both saw that it wasn’t about fame or money, or even beauty. It was about art. DeCaprio became one of the finest actors of his generation. That’s what River cheated us out of. His mom said, “When the wind blows I see River, when the sun shines I see River, when I look in someone’s eyes and make a connection, I see River. To have death transformed into another way to view life is his huge gift.”
River himself had said of his career, “I’d rather quit while I’m still ahead. There’s no use overstaying your welcome.” Ah, River...as if that would ever have happened.
Memorial to River outside the Viper Room in 1993.
Errol Flynn
The youngish man with the debonair, movie star mustache, lying prone on the metal table, looked better dead than most men did while living. His skin showed the signs of fast living and alcohol abuse (lots of alcohol abuse), but his body was still chiseled, and his features still perfect. He was only fifty, but he had crammed dozens of lifetimes into his half-century share of this world. It all played out in front of millions of adoring fans, who loved him because of, and perhaps in spite of, his quite literal and unabashed lust for life.
Flynn as Robin Hood
Errol Flynn was the kind of guy your mom warned you about right after she slept with him. He was the kind of guy your dad might have followed around in high school just to bask in his coolness and borrow his letterman’s jacket. He was that rare breed of human that women forgot how to be ladies around, and men simply worshipped. He was born in Tasmania (the little devil) to Australian parents, and started things off on the right foot straight away by getting expelled from school for having sex with the laundress.
He had a successful career both on the stage and on the screen in Australia and England, prior to crossing the pond to the 'States and becoming an overnight sensation in the 1935 big-budget adventure film, Captain Blood. His stunning looks were all Hollywood needed to declare him a star, and typecast him in one swashbuckling feature after another. He made eight films with actress Olivia de Havilland, with whom he was rumored to be truly enamored. For her part, Ms. de Havilland denied that any serious hanky-panky went on, but loved to recount the practical joke she played on Flynn during the filming of Robin
Hood. In a particularly erotic kissing scene, de Havilland purposely kept flubbing her lines so that they had to do one take after another, coaxing nature to finally bulge through under Flynn’s green tights. If Flynn didn’t sleep with de Havilland, she must have been one of only two women in Hollywood (the other being Bette Davis). Still, is there a more wonderful sight in all of classic Hollywood than Robin Hood, young and ridiculously beautiful, gazing into Maid Marion’s eyes before planting a kiss that went on into eternity?
Flynn didn’t seem to mind that he was just a pretty boy in pretty pictures. The money rained down, and along with it the drugs, the alcohol and the women. He developed a reputation almost immediately for debauchery, and his antics became legendary. He and fellow partner in lewdness, David Niven, threw wild parties at Marion Davies’ “beach house” (actually a palatial estate sprawled across the sands of Santa Monica that would have impressed a Tsar) which they sublet from Davies in the late '30s. Nicknamed “Cirrhosis by the sea” by Carol Lombard, it was the orgy-house to end all orgy-houses, and a place where Errol could pretend he was a carefree bachelor, when he actually wasn’t. He had been married to Lili Damita for years, but this inconvenient reality did not seem to slow him down. These beach parties were awash in booze, cocaine, and all sorts of other illicit activities, and they went on for days. Take that Hugh Hefner!
Flynn’s impressive residence on Mulholland Drive was also party central. It contained some interesting architectural novelties, as Ron Wood, of the Rolling Stones, found out after he purchased the property in the '70s. “Errol had a two-way mirror, and a speaker in the ladies room,” he said. He also had a black leather padded bar, with a secret compartment that opened into a cramped viewing room that had a two-way mirror looking into the restroom. Perve! In addition, he had a two-way mirror installed in the guest bedroom and a crawl space in the attic above, which served as the viewing room for his voyeurism. Robert Douglas, his costar in Don Juan, claimed Flynn showed him the room, and they proceeded to have some fun with the young, naked couple sleeping there at the time. Flynn pushed a button, and up popped a screen, which woke them up. Flynn pushed another button, and a porn movie began playing. They were so shocked they just sat there, watching. We got bored and went down to get a drink.” Tsk tsk, Errol.