- Born
- Birth nameJoaquin Rafael Bottom
- Nicknames
- Kitten
- Joaq
- Leaf
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Joaquin Phoenix was born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Arlyn (Dunetz) and John Bottom, and is the middle child in a brood of five. His parents, from the continental United States, were then serving as Children of God missionaries. His mother is from a Jewish family from New York, while his father, from California, is of mostly British Isles descent. As a youngster, Joaquin took his cues from older siblings River Phoenix and Rain Phoenix, changing his name to Leaf to match their earthier monikers. When the children were encouraged to develop their creative instincts, he followed their lead into acting. Younger sisters Liberty Phoenix and Summer Phoenix rounded out the talented troupe.
The family moved often, traveling through Central and South America (and adopting the surname "Phoenix" to celebrate their new beginnings) but, by the time Joaquin was age 6, they had more or less settled in the Los Angeles area. Arlyn found work as a secretary at NBC, and John turned his talents to landscaping. They eventually found an agent who was willing to represent all five children, and the younger generation dove into television work. Commercials for meat, milk, and junk food were off-limits (the kids were all raised as strict vegans), but they managed to find plenty of work pushing other products. Joaquin's first real acting gig was a guest appearance on River's sitcom, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1982).
He worked with his brother again on the afterschool special Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia (1984), then struck out on his own in other made-for-TV productions. He made his big-screen debut as the youngest crew member in the interstellar romp SpaceCamp (1986), then won his first starring turn in the Cold War-era drama Russkies (1987). In the late '80s, the Phoenix clan decided to pull up stakes and relocate again--this time to Florida. River's film career had enough momentum to sustain the move, but Joaquin wasn't sure what lay in store for him in the Sunshine State. As it happened, Universal Pictures had just opened a new studio in the area and he was cast almost immediately as an angst-ridden adolescent in Parenthood (1989). His performance was very well-received, but Joaquin decided to withdraw from acting for a while--he was frustrated with the dearth of interesting roles for actors his age, and he wanted to see more of the world.
His parents were in the process of separating, so he struck out for Mexico with his father. Joaquin returned to the public eye three years later under tragic circumstances. On October 31, 1993, he was at The Viper Room (a Los Angeles nightclub partly-owned by Johnny Depp) when his brother River collapsed from a drug overdose and later died. Joaquin made the call to 911, which was rebroadcast on radio and television the world over. Months later, at the insistence of friends and colleagues, Joaquin began reading through scripts again, but he was reluctant to re-enter the acting life until he found just the right part. He finally signed up to work with Gus Van Sant (who had directed River in My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993)) to star as Nicole Kidman's obsessive devotee in To Die For (1995). The performance made Joaquin (who had dropped Leaf and reverted to his birth name) a critics' darling in his own right.
His follow-up turn in Inventing the Abbotts (1997) scored more critical kudos and, perhaps more importantly, introduced him to his one-time fiancée Liv Tyler. (The pair dated for almost three years.) He returned to the big screen later that year with a supporting role in Oliver Stone's U Turn (1997), then played a locked-up drug scapegoat in Return to Paradise (1998). He and "Paradise" co-star Vince Vaughn re-teamed almost immediately for the small-town murder caper Clay Pigeons (1998), which Joaquin followed with a turn as a porn store clerk in 8MM (1999). The film that confirmed Phoenix as a star was the historical epic Gladiator (2000). The Roman epic cast him as the selfish, paranoid young emperor Commodus opposite Russell Crowe's swarthy hero. Determined to make his character as real as possible, Phoenix gained weight and cultivated a pasty complexion during the shoot. He received international attention and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for that role.
Later that year, he appeared in two indies, playing a dock worker in The Yards (2000) (which he counts among his favorite experiences--and one of the only films of his that he can sit through) and the priest in charge of the Marquis de Sade's asylum in Quills (2000). He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor as the legendary musician Johnny Cash in the biography Walk the Line (2005). He also recorded an album, the film's soundtrack, for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.- IMDb Mini Biography By: IMDb Editors
- SpouseRooney Mara(? - present) (2 children)
- ChildrenRiver Mara Phoenix
- ParentsArlyn PhoenixJohn Lee Bottom
- RelativesLiberty Phoenix(Sibling)Summer Phoenix(Sibling)River Phoenix(Sibling)Rain Phoenix(Sibling)Indiana Affleck(Niece or Nephew)
- Darkened circles under his eyes
- Scar on upper lip
- Deep husky voice
- Often plays emotionally and mentally troubled characters
- Usually plays dark, brooding, sinister types
- On January 26, 2006, Phoenix was in a car accident on a winding canyon road that overturned his car. Shaken and confused, Phoenix heard a tapping on his window and a voice say, "Just relax". Unable to see the man, Phoenix replied, "I'm fine. I am relaxed". Then managed to see that the man was famed, eccentric German auteur Werner Herzog, and Herzog replied, "No, you're not". After helping Phoenix out of the wreckage, Herzog phoned in an ambulance and vanished. The crash reportedly was caused by brake failure.
- He and River Phoenix are the first brothers to be nominated for acting Academy Awards.
- Often brings his mother or any of his three sisters as his date to movie premieres or award shows.
- Claims to have watched Step Brothers (2008) more times than any other film.
- Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger won an Academy Award for their performances as the Joker, becoming the second pair of actors to win Academy Awards for playing the same character - the other pair being Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro, who won Best Actor and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor respectively, for their portrayals of Vito Corleone.
- I had a Catholic girlfriend but she wouldn't, uh, share loving.
- After River's death, I felt like I was in an altered state. It took me over a year to get my life back.
- I don't have the slightest desire to speak about my dead brother. It gets on my nerves to always be compared with him. My brother was a magnificent person and an outstanding actor.
- [on living without older brother River] River and I would talk about being old, being in our 50s together, how it'd probably take us that long to get to work together. There was something gorgeous about us being old together. River will be missed - period. I mean now, more than ever I wish I could talk to him.
- My significant other right now is myself, which is what happens when you suffer from multiple personality disorder and self-obsession.
- Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) - $20,000,000
- Joker (2019) - $4,500,000
- Walk the Line (2005) - $3,500,000
- Ladder 49 (2004) - $850,000
- The Village (2004) - $5,000,000
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