Two little boys were performing and dancing on the streets of North Hollywood in the early 1980s for the sake of a little money in their hands. Wearing Kmart tops, they will be able to perform the songs of The Beatles without any embarrassment. People walked by and none of them realized then what they would become someday: the next big thing in Hollywood. There were none of those children other than the Phoenix twins, River, and Joaquin. They worked together through the struggles of life and profession before, a decade later, they could taste fame and wealth. Unfortunately, River died from an overdose at the end of 1993, leaving his younger brother in Hollywood’s showbiz to save their family reputation. It was made real by Joaquin.
Joaquin was born on October 28, 1974, and came from a special family. Arlyn Dunetz, her Russian/Hungarian mother, left her first husband and moved to the West Coast, where she met John Lee Bottom, a respectable Irish/Spanish man. They found that they shared a common pleasure in marrying and traveling around the United States. In 1970, in Madras, Oregon, they had their first River Jude Bottom child before they had their second baby, Joaquin Raphael Bottom, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Each of the other three brothers, Storm, Liberty and Season, were also born in various cities. They changed their surname to Phoenix after Summer’s birth in 1978. Joaquin wanted to change his first name to Leaf, too, because he was annoyed by how his name was being mispronounced by citizens. “I changed my name because no one could pronounce ‘Joaquin’ in the States and I used to get so humiliated as a kid about it. Every kid in my family had perfect names and I got ‘Joaquin.’ I said ‘This is not nice.’ I can’t even say it.’ But he was credited as Leaf for the next eleven years.
John, who served as a carpenter with five children under his charge, did not provide his family with much. They were bad, but they did not lose their hope. John and Arlyn urged them to compete in a local talent competition because they saw aptitude among their daughters. Somehow, the name of River and Joaquin went to actress and producer Penny Marshall, who then proposed that if they were to visit LA, they might come over to her studio. The entire family had relocated to LA with little more consideration. Their luck was not increasing quickly there, but their situation was steadily turning upside down. Arlyn got a position at NBC as a secretary, where she was introduced to the head of kid casting. That was how River and Leaf began featuring in 1982 in the television series “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” River was instantly set as the leading character of “Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia” (1984), where Leaf played his brother, having a natural ability. They did superb performance the Young Artist Awards nominated both of them Best Young Actor in a Family Film Made for Television in 1985.
It did not take a tougher road for Leaf to unravel fame, not as good-looking as his brother. By the time he starred in “SpaceCamp” in 1986, River had starred in the Oscar-nominated “Stand by Me” picture (1986). Leaf scored his best movie yet in “Parenthood” (1989) opposite Steve Martin without having to be left behind, but again the career of his brother was several steps ahead by becoming teenage Indy in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989). “This big difference didn’t make Leaf jealous of his brother, “It still gets on my nerves to be compared to him. My brother was a great guy and an excellent performer.” He went to shoot his next film, “Walking the Dog” (1991), always extremely spirited, but it wasn’t that good. He wanted to take a break from acting by changing his name back to Joaquin. Two years back, he was able to act again, but the event of his brother’s death has left him distraught. He did not make any return until he became the seduction target of Nicole Kidman in “To Die For” for another two years. He fell down once, but he got up twice, and Joaquin could see the end of the tube.