River Phoenix’s surviving sister, Rain Phoenix, is revealing how her brother’s accidental overdose changed her relationship with and understanding of death.
“When I was 20, my brother River died,” Rain, 52, wrote in an essay for Another Jane Pratt Thing published on Friday, October 31. “The experience of losing him was unimaginably painful and traumatic. Further compounded by the intense media coverage around his tragic death which felt invasive and cruel.”
River died by accidental drug overdose on October 30, 1993. He was 23. The late actor, Rain, their brother Joaquin Phoenix and River’s then-girlfriend Samantha Mathis spent the night at The Viper Room, then a Los Angeles club owned in part by Johnny Depp, the night he died. River was set to perform with a band, but backed out because he worried he had overdosed on a substance.
River went into seizures on the sidewalk outside the club and was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“Now 32 years and many losses later, a deepening curiosity about death, grief and how we as a society process it, has come alive for me,” Rain continued in her essay.
Rain revealed that she has recently begun learning about the “death positive movement,” which she said “encourages people to speak openly about death, dying and corpses.”
River’s ex-girlfriend Martha Plimpton opened up about her relationship with the young actor during a June 2025 interview on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s “Dinner’s on Me” podcast.
“He was not as equipped, I think, as maybe some other people might be to handle that stuff,” she said in reference to River’s relationship with fame. “Because he was a very, at heart, very innocent and a driven-by-love human being. So the contradictions of Hollywood and show business were much more difficult for him. It was easier for me, because I grew up in New York and I was already a cynic by the time I was 13.”
The Goonies star continued: “I think fame was really hard on River. I think he really just didn’t know what to do with all of that. He wanted to do good. The contradictions of it were too difficult.”
The pair first met in 1986 while filming The Mosquito Coast, ultimately dating for four years before calling it quits. Plimpton had a front row seat to River’s rise to fame as he became one of the most celebrated actors of his generation. She was also by his side at the 1989 Academy Awards, when he was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Running on Empty.
Though their relationship ended, the two remained good friends until River’s untimely death.
“We did remain friends. We were each other’s first love,” she shared. “That relationship never really goes away. You can’t ever let something like that go. It’s just too important and too, like, altering.”
As she put it, “I mean, it’s made you who you are, especially in those really formative years. I mean, it’s a huge part of who I am.”
Plimpton also insisted River could have overcome his addiction issues if he had been allowed the time.
“He was lucky to have me and his family, his brothers and sisters,” she shared. “I think, you know, his personality or his affliction, his illness was incredibly difficult for him to manage on his own. “And he never really got the help that I think he would’ve done amazingly well with if he had gotten that help.”
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