Gifted and serious young feature film actor from the mid-1980s to the early 90s. Though strikingly handsome, Phoenix largely eschewed typical teen idol roles. As he matured, he generally opted for parts that played to his strengths for conveying intelligence and sensitivity. The product of an unorthodox, nomadic childhood (his parents worked as migrant fruit pickers in the US Northwest and, later, as Christian missionaries in South and Central America). Phoenix, age seven, earned his supper singing religious songs in the streets of Caracas. Back in the US, he won talent contests in the late
