phoenix, river

"What begins as an affectionate reminiscence of Mannie Murphy's 1990s teenage infatuation with the late actor River Phoenix--specifically his role in Gus Van Sant's classic film, My Own Private Idaho--slowly transforms into a remarkable, sprawling account of the city of Portland and state of Oregon's long and shameful history of white nationalism"--Back cover.

In Last Night at the Viper Room, acclaimed author and journalist Gavin Edwards vividly recounts the life and tragic death of acclaimed actor River Phoenix--a teen idol on the fast track to Hollywood royalty who died of a drug overdose in front of West Hollywood's storied club, the Viper Room, at the age of 23. Last Night at the Viper Room explores the young star's life, including his childhood in Venezuela growing up under the aegis of the cultish Children of God. Putting him at the center of a new generation of leading men emerging in the early 1990's--including Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage, and Leonardo DiCaprio--Gavin Edwards traces the Academy Award nominee's meteoric rise, couches him in an examination of the 1990s, and illuminates his lasting legacy on Hollywood and popular culture itself.

Examines the life, career, and death of the actor who began performing very young and succumbed to a drug overdose at the age of twenty-three.