River Phoenix, a rising star who played the scruffy, cigarette-smoking youth in "Stand By Me" and won an Oscar nomination for "Running on Empty," died after collapsing outside a nightclub. He was 23.
The cause of death was unknown. A coroner's examination was expected Monday.However, drugs might have been a factor, according to a frantic 911 call and a paramedic who spoke to the Daily News of New York.
The actor collapsed about 1 a.m. Sunday outside actor Johnny Depp's trendy Viper Room club in West Hollywood after acting strangely, companions told sheriff's deputies.
A 911 caller who said he was Phoenix's brother said he thought Phoenix had a "Valium or something, I don't know," according to a tape broadcast Sunday night by KNBC-TV.
The actor was pronounced dead by hospital doctors at 1:51 a.m.
Capt. Ray Ribar, a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said he suspected Phoenix's death was drug-related.
"We were told by the people with him that he had been taking drugs," Ribar said, according to Monday's Daily News. "It was the classic cocaine overreaction - it just nails some people and stops the heart."
Ribar said he worked on Phoenix for 15 minutes but never raised a pulse.
Phoenix had been at the club with actress Samantha Mathis, 23, and his 19-year-old brother, Joaquin Rafael Phoenix, sheriff's Sgt. Bob Stoneman said.
Harrison Ford, who played Phoenix's father in "The Mosquito Coast" (1986) and was the adult Indiana Jones to Phoenix's younger Jones character in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989), said he was "terribly sad."
"He played my son once, and I came to love him like a son and was proud to watch him grow into a man of such talent and integrity and compassion," Ford said. "We will all miss him."
Phoenix's talents included his willingness to take acting risks, said Phil Alden Robinson, who directed him in last year's "Sneak-ers."
"There are two rivers flowing through him," Robinson said. "One is the adventurous young man and the other is a very old-fashioned, gentlemanly, kind soul."
Phoenix had been filming the movie "Dark Blood," said his publicist, Sue Patricola.