Joaquin Phoenix

He was born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1974, the middle of five children. His parents had joined the Children of God and traveled the Caribbean and South America as missionaries before leaving the group in 1977; the family took the surname Phoenix, and by 1979 they were in Los Angeles, where a child agent named Iris Burton got the kids into commercials and bit parts. Joaquin, who had renamed himself Leaf, made his debut in a 1982 episode of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers alongside his older brother River, then worked through SpaceCamp (1986), Russkies (1987) and Parenthood (1989), where he played Garry, the withdrawn nephew of Steve Martin's character. Typecast and bored, he took a break, went to Mexico with his father, and came back at River's urging under his birth name. On October 31, 1993, River died of an overdose outside the Viper Room; Joaquin made the 911 call, which was replayed endlessly on TV and radio, and the family retreated to Costa Rica.

He returned in Gus Van Sant's To Die For (1995) as Jimmy Emmett, the disturbed young man Nicole Kidman's character seduces into murder, and Janet Maslin called him "an actor to watch for." U Turn and Inventing the Abbotts (1997), Clay Pigeons (1998) and 8mm (1999) followed, and then 2000 changed everything: as Commodus in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, the second-highest-grossing film of the year, he earned his first Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, making him and River the first brothers ever nominated for acting Academy Awards. The same year brought The Yards, the first of his films with James Gray, and Quills opposite Kate Winslet.

The run through the decade was relentless. Signs (2002) started his collaboration with M. Night Shyamalan and grossed $408 million; The Village (2004) reunited them. He voiced Kenai in Disney's Brother Bear (2003), trained for two months with the Baltimore Fire Department for Ladder 49 (2004) despite a fear of heights, and played the cameraman in Hotel Rwanda (2004). Then came Walk the Line (2005): Johnny Cash himself had approved the casting, Phoenix sang every Cash vocal in the film and on the soundtrack, and the performance won him a Golden Globe, a Grammy for the soundtrack and his second Oscar nomination. Roger Ebert wrote that he closed his eyes during the film and was convinced he was hearing Cash.

We Own the Night (2007), his first producing credit, and Two Lovers (2008), both with Gray, closed out the peak, and then the strangest chapter began. While promoting Two Lovers he announced he was retiring from acting to pursue hip-hop, and the media spectacle that followed turned out to be a mockumentary, I'm Still Here (2010), directed by his then brother-in-law Casey Affleck, in which Sean Combs manages his rap career. Critics at Venice couldn't agree whether it was a documentary or performance art, which was roughly the point; Phoenix later said it was about celebrity and the relationship between media, consumers and the famous. The Master, Her and a Best Actor Oscar for Joker (2019) came later. A vegan since early childhood, he has spent much of his fame on animal-rights causes.