John Bottom was working as a furniture refinisher in Los Angeles, when he picked up hitchhiking Arlyn Dunetz, a dissatisfied secretary who had left her job and husband in Manhattan. The 2 fell in love and eventually became missionaries for the religious cult The Children Of God.
Joaquin(WAA-keen) Rafael Phoenix was born on October 28th, 1974, in Puerto Rico, where the family was being missionaries. He was their 3rd child and second son. At age four Joaquin changed his name to Leaf, while watching his father rake leaves one day. He changed his name because he wanted "a more earthy name" like that of his siblings, River, Rain, Liberty Butterfly, and Summer.In 1979, the family fell into financial hard times, and John and Aryln sensed a possible relief due to the talents of their children, now 5 strong.
He spent his 7th birthday on a freigter ship that was loaded with Tonka trucks heading back to the United States as a stoaway with the rest of his family. Later on the were discovered by some members of the ships crew who were very nice to the family and threw a make-shift birthday party for Leaf. Once the family docked in Florida it was there they settled in Micanopy, 12 miles east of Gainesville.Still going by Leaf, Joaquin got his first professional job in a 1982 episode of the short-lived ABC series "Seven Brides For Seven Brother," which featured his brother, River amongst the regular cast. Four years later, at age 12, he made his feature film debute in a starring role in the film "SpaceCamp," along side Kate Capshaw and Lea Thompson. The next year he starred in "Russkies" and in 1989's "Parenthood." It was then, that Joaquin decided that there were no good scripts for actors his age and took an extended break from acting.
His parents began to drift apart and Joaquin decided to see Mexico with his father in the early 90's.It was during this trip that 'Leaf' decided to change his name back to his birthname, he later explained this is an interview; "In Spanish there's ojo, ajo and hoja, words that meant eye, garlic and leaf in English. I'd be trying to translate, but I'd always mess it up, so people would think my name was garlic or eye."
A number of months later, Joaquin was at the popular L.A. club, The Viper Room, the night his brother, River, died from a heroin/cocaine overdose. Joaquin was re-introduced to the media, as television stations across the nation played his desperate 911 call, many people in the media wanted Joaquin to rush back into acting after this to exploit the reverential memory of his adored brother, River.
The script for his first film after his break, "To Die For" sat unread for many months untill friends finally convinced him to read it. He liked the film and decided to do it, and it became a hit. Two years later he played the role of the younger of 2 brothers in the coming-of-age film, "Inventing the Abbotts," where he played Doug Holt. The film wasn't very commercially successful, but it was during the filming where Joaquin found love with his co-star Liv Tyler, the pair dated for over 3 years, but broke it off in October 1998. In 1998 Joaquin co-starred with Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche in "Return To Paradise," the film recieved mixed reviews, but Joaquin's potray of do-gooder Lewis was always acclaimed. Then Joaquin starred in "Clay Pigeons" opposite Vaughn again, it was shortly after this film hit theaters that Liv and Joaquin called it quits. Joaquin is set to star in 3 more films as of now.
Joaquin says that River's death was very hard on him and it took him over a year to get somewhat over it, I'm sure he is still very affected by it, Joaquin will rarely answer questions in interviews about River or his death, he feels uncomfortable talking about it even to his close friends. When talking about River, he usually calls him "my brother" instead of River.
Joaquin is very uncomfortable with himself, you can tell he's more of a secondary character instead of the lead character and he likes it that way. He only likes the actual acting, not the other things that come with it, like fame. Joaquin is now listed as one of a handful A-list actors.Joaquin became pretty good friends with Casey Affleck while the two of them were filming their 1995 film "To Die For".Joaquin, who thinks he's ugly (ha! yeah right!)models for Prada's Menswear. Joaquin was made an uncle again several months ago when his youngest sister, Summer had a baby. The baby was named Rio, after River (awwww).
Joaquin also starred in a commercial for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) during the holiday season 1998. For more on his commercial, please click here