Timed to the 20th Anniversary of the Death of River Phoenix (Halloween, 1993)
Last Night at the ViperRoomtells the heart-shredding story of how this haunted actor left such a big impression in such a brief time.” —Rob Sheffield, author of Turn Around Bright Eyes, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and Love Is a Mix Tape
“It ends outside a nightclub called the Viper Room, on a Hollywood sidewalk. The young man convulsing on the pavement is named River Phoenix. His brother is on a nearby pay phone, pleading with a 911 operator. His sister is lying on top of his body, trying to stop him from injuring himself as his muscles twitch and his limbs flail against the concrete. River Phoenix has overdosed on a speedball of heroin and cocaine, and has only minutes to live.”
--From Gavin Edwards’ LAST NIGHT AT THE VIPER ROOM
Today, River Phoenix would be 43 years old. Following his triumphant performances in Stand by Me and My Own Private Idaho, and his Oscar-nominated work in Running on Empty, today he might also count Christian Slater’s role in Interview with the Vampire and Emile Hirsch’s turn as Cleve Jones in Milk among his successes. Instead, on October 31, 1993, River Phoenix died of a drug overdose in front of West Hollywood’s storied Viper Room at age 23, a tragic ending to a brilliant life and career.
LAST NIGHT AT THE VIPER ROOM: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind (It Books; October 22, 2013; Hardcover; $24.99) – also available from HarperAudio and HarperCollins e-books – examines, like never before, this brilliant but complicated life cut short. Edwards gives a minute-by-minute account of the night River Phoenix died, while exploring the arc of the young star’s career and the lasting impact he made on Hollywood.
Full of interviews from River Phoenix’s fellow actors, directors, friends and family, LAST NIGHT AT THE VIPER ROOM shows the role Phoenix played in creating the place of the actor in our modern culture and the impact his work still makes today. Edwards drew upon the interviews River Phoenix conducted in his lifetime, new and old conversations with Phoenix's friends and colleagues, and previously unpublished material from his own interviews with luminaries ranging from Johnny Depp to Heart Phoenix (River's mother). His research took him from the Viper Room in Los Angeles to Amsterdam, where director George Sluizer granted him a private screening of Dark Blood, the long-unfinished movie that Phoenix had been in the middle of filming when he died.
A teenage River Phoenix took Hollywood by storm; when he was just 18 years old, he won an Oscar nomination for Running on Empty. Praised by his peers as the most talented actor of his generation, River came of age in the spotlight—a teen idol on the fast track to Hollywood royalty, a fervent defender of the environment, and a vocal proponent of veganism. But as the spotlight shone ever brighter on him, Phoenix succumbed to addiction, escaping into drink and drugs.
A teenage River Phoenix took Hollywood by storm; when he was just 18 years old, he won an Oscar nomination for Running on Empty. Praised by his peers as the most talented actor of his generation, River came of age in the spotlight—a teen idol on the fast track to Hollywood royalty, a fervent defender of the environment, and a vocal proponent of veganism. But as the spotlight shone ever brighter on him, Phoenix succumbed to addiction, escaping into drink and drugs.
Uncovering parts of Phoenix’s past for the first time, Edwards looks deeply into his family’s commitment to the Children of God religious cult. Tracing the family’s travels from Madras, OR (his birthplace) to Caracas, Venezuela (where as a child, Phoenix had to busk for change so his family could eat) and to Gainesville, FL (where he spent his late teenage years), Edwards gives an in-depth look at the burdens Phoenix carried of supporting his impoverished family from a young age.
With never-before-seen insights into Phoenix’s brief but incandescent life, Edwards explores:
- Why, when River died, it was generally assumed that he would become the “vegan James Dean”—a star even better remembered in death than in life, but why he faded in people’s memories instead (and why Montgomery Clift might be a better comparison to River than Dean)
- The Children of God beliefs that young River grew up amidst—the Bible approved of adultery and incest, that children should be raised as sexual beings—and how his parents’ commitment to the religious lifestyle put a strain on River and all of his siblings
- The 1,000 mile motorcycle trip Keanu Reeves took to deliver the treatment for My Own Private Idaho to Phoenix, when no one else would – and why the project was opposed by both actors’ agents, managers, and other handlers
- River’s dangerous preparations for My Own Private Idaho, including learning the tricks of the hustler trade by watching boys in the “Vaseline Alley” of Portland, even entering negotiations with johns, and experimenting with hard drugs
- Filming the three-way sex scene in My Own Private Idaho and why, with an ill-timed joke, Phoenix almost ruined it
- The roles that would have been Phoenix’s in films that never came to fruition – like a Gun Van Sant film about Andy Warhol (for which Phoenix had already bleached his hair to play the artist) or a science-fiction project from John Boorman (British director of Point Break, Deliverance and Excalibur) called Broken Dreams – and the roles that went to others after he died, like Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of Rimbaud in Total Eclipse
- How and when the Viper Room became trendy, who its biggest regulars were, and why Johnny Depp lost interest in running the bar so quickly
- How River lived on in song, through lyrics written by friends Michael Stipe and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and others
Toggling between the tragic events at the Viper Room in West Hollywood on that fateful Halloween night in 1993 and the story of an extraordinary life, LAST NIGHT AT THE VIPER ROOM is part biography, part cultural history of the 1990s—but, above all, is a celebration of River Phoenix, a Hollywood icon gone too soon.
Gavin Edwards is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and has written for Details, Spin, and the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of six books including the New York Times bestseller VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave, which he cowrote with the original MTV VJs. He lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and their two sons. Online: www.rulefortytwo.com
