Another acclaimed actor who never got old, or even middle-aged, was River Phoenix, whose death of an accidental overdose at 23 sent a bolt of sadness through Hollywood.

"I think he was

Another acclaimed actor who never got old, or even middle-aged, was River Phoenix, whose death of an accidental overdose at 23 sent a bolt of sadness through Hollywood.

"I think he was the best. Is. Was. Is the best of the young guys," Brad Pittsaid afterward. "I'm not just saying that now—I said that before he died. He had something I don't understand."

The star of Stand by Me, Running on Empty and My Own Private Idaho was leaving the Viper Room, a club on the Sunset Strip that's still there to this day but at the time had just opened with Johnny Depp as a co-owner, when he collapsed in the early morning hours of Oct. 31, 1993. He had been out that night with his girlfriend Samantha Mathis, who he had just co-starred with in The Thing Called Love, and his then 19-year-old brother Joaquin Phoenix.

Joaquin called 911 as his brother started to seize on the pavement.

By all accounts, River Phoenix was a sensitive soul, a vegan before it was a thing, who lived a clean, close-to-the-earth lifestyle instilled in him by his parents.

After his death from what turned out to be acute multiple drug toxicity, including cocaine and heroin, the image of him changed to another former child actor whose life went recklessly off the rails—but those close to him saw a young man in pain, a natural at acting who wasn't dealing healthily with the ramifications of fame.