Want to know who is River Phoenix’s girlfriend? While River Phoenix passed away at a very young age, the actor managed to leave behind a mark with his beloved films, including My Own Private Idaho, Stand By Me, and Running on Empty.
His final movie was Dark Blood which was later continued in 2012. His impressive acting in Running on Empty earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination.
Several fellow actors and colleagues remembered the actor on River Phoenix’s 20th death anniversary. The director of 1988’s A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, William Richert, called the later actor a risk-taker and a guy who constantly astonished him. The actor passed away after struggling with drug addiction. Sadly, the actor succumbed, and a rising star was gone too soon. Let us find out who is River Phoenix’s girlfriend.
Who is River Phoenix’s girlfriend?
River Phoenix’s girlfriend was Samantha Mathis. The American Psycho actress was present there with Phoenix and his younger brother Joaquin when the actor had a tragic death due to a drug overdose.
In an early interview, Samantha Mathis recalled the dreadful day as she said how she noticed how she saw no one was doing drugs.
The actress recalled how, just forty-five minutes later, River was dead. Samantha remembered her former beau as she started that if River was still here, he would have been acting, directing, saving the environment, and just living and hanging out.
River Phoenix earlier dated his Mosquito Coast co-star Martha Plimpton. However, the relationship was short-lived, as it reportedly ended due to the actor’s drug use issues.
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How did River and Samantha meet?
River Phoenix and Samantha Mathis co-starred together in 1993’s The Thing Called Love. However, this was not the first time they as met. Samantha regaled how they met before then when she was just 19, and the actor bummed a cigarette off her in an LA club!
Mathis further admitted that while it sounded incredibly cheesy but she knew she would be with him one day and believed that it just felt fated between them as there was such chemistry.
Mathis explained how she thought they could recognize something in each other while pointing out that although they came from very different families, as there were some broken parts in each other that they recognized, and thus, found safe harbor. The Broken Arrow actress further revealed that she and the late actor used to just hang out with his siblings as they too, got to be kids that way!
While the actress continued to work after Phoenix’s death, she did not work for long as just a few years later, Mathis went through a big storm after her mother passed away of breast cancer at 54, and Mathis couldn’t keep it up. The actress later admitted that it was just too much loss, and she had to stop, as she felt like she was falling apart.
Samantha Mathis Opens Up About River Phoenix
The actress recalled the tragic day in an early interview, saying how she knew that River was high that night, but the heroin that killed him happened after the actor was in the Viper Room. Mathis admitted that while she had her suspicions about what was going on, she did not see anything, while further adding that they went to the bathroom only to discover that the actor has been pushed out of the club by a bouncer.
It was at that moment Mathis recalled how she saw Phoenix collapse on the ground. It was Joaquin who immediately called 911. River’s former partner stated that if the actor was still alive today, he would be doing what he loved the most.
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