In the early 1980s, for the benefit of a little money in their hands, two little boys played and danced on the streets of North Hollywood. They would be willing to sing the songs of The Beatles without any shame while wearing Kmart tops. People passed by, and yet none of them knew what they would one day become: the next big thing in Hollywood. Other than the Phoenix twins, River, and Joaquin, there were none of those children. Before, a decade back, they could taste success and riches, they were living together through the hardships of life and career. Unfortunately, at the end of 1993, River died from an overdose, leaving his younger brother in the showbiz of Hollywood to preserve their image as a family. It was made possible by Joaquin.
On October 28, 1974, Joaquin was born and came from a special family. Arlyn Dunetz, her Russian/Hungarian mother, left her first husband and relocated to the West Coast, where she met John Lee Bottom, a decent Irish/Spanish man. They noticed that in marrying and traveling across the United States, they enjoyed a mutual joy. They had their first River Jude Bottom kid in 1970, in Madras, Oregon, until they had their second boy, Joaquin Raphael Bottom, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In separate towns, each of the other three children,
Hurricane, Liberty and Season, were born as well. In 1978, after Summer’s birth, they changed their surname to Phoenix. Joaquin even decided to adjust his first name to Leaf, since he was upset with how citizens mispronounced his name. “I changed my name because in the United States no one could pronounce ‘Joaquin’ and I used to get so embarrassed by it as a child. Every kid in my family had flawless names and I got ‘Joaquin.’ I said ‘This is not cool.’ I can’t even say it.’ But for the next eleven years, he was credited as Leaf.
John, who worked under his care as a carpenter with five girls, could not have anything for his relatives. They were poor, but their hope was not lost. John and Arlyn encouraged them to participate in a local talent competition because among their daughters they saw aptitude. Somehow, the name of River and Joaquin went to actress and producer Penny Marshall, who then proposed that if they were to meet
It did not take Leaf a harder path to unravel success, not as good-looking as his brother. River had appeared in the Oscar-nominated “Stand by Me” image (1986) by the time he starred in “SpaceCamp” in 1986. Leaf scored his best movie yet in “Parenthood” (1989) alongside Steve Martin without needing to be left behind, but his brother’s future was again some moves ahead by being an adolescent. By changing his name back to Joaquin, he decided to take a step away from acting. He was willing to function again two years later, but the incident of his brother’s death left him devastated. He made little return until he became Nicole Kidman’s seduction target in “To Die For” for a further two years. He fell down once, but he stood up twice, and the end of the tunnel could be reached by Joaquin.