He’s one of Hollywood’s most compelling actors today, known for disappearing into roles that haunt and mesmerize.
But his childhood was anything but ordinary. Born into a family that rejected conventional life, his parents abandoned the comforts of California to roam South America, raising their five children in extreme poverty and countercultural chaos.
No one could have predicted that one member of the family would grow up to become one of the world’s most famous stars.
Many of Hollywood’s biggest stars had surprisingly unusual and challenging childhoods. Some even grew up in cults, by which we mean any small group led by a self-proclaimed leader who exerts extreme control over its members.
Take Oscar-nominated actress Glenn Close, for instance, who spent her formative years — from age 7 to 22 — immersed in a group called the Moral Re-Armament.
The Hollywood giant we’re focusing on today left cult life far earlier, by the age of three. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the third of five children to John Lee and Arlyn Bottom. His parents married in 1969 and lived in California before they left everything to become members of a religious cult, called The Children of God.
They traveled across South America while raising their children in its strict and nomadic environment. Children in the cult were encouraged to hand out pamphlets for the church and spend time on street corners collecting money.
By 1978, the family had grown disillusioned with the group and returned to the U.S., eager for a fresh start. The final straw came when the family received a letter from the cult’s leader, David Berg, instructing members to engage in sexual relations with as many people as possible to recruit new followers.
It would later emerge that The Children of God were a dangerous sect wanted by Interpol, and that David Berg was accused of murder.
“I think my parents thought they’d found a community that shared their ideals. Cults rarely advertise themselves as such. It’s usually someone saying, ‘We’re like-minded people. This is a community,’ but I think the moment my parents realized there was something more to it, they got out,” the actor told Playboy magazine in 2014.
After leaving the cult, the family moved to Florida, nearly broke, to live with Arlyn’s parents. They even changed their surname to mark a new beginning — the name that would later become iconic in Hollywood.
You could say the family got a flying start in their new life in the U.S. All five siblings were incredibly talented, and it wasn’t long before even talent scouts from major TV networks started taking notice. Soon, the family packed up for Hollywood, cramming into a beat-up station wagon with a missing back window. On the way, they had to give away their dog because, as the actor told The Gazette in 2001, “We couldn’t afford an extra mouth to feed.”
When they arrived in Los Angeles, their mother, Arlyn, landed a secretarial job in NBC’s casting office — a golden opportunity to get her children into showbiz.
By the age of eight, our star had booked his first gig. He later described the experience on camera as “instantaneous joy.”
“For some kids, it’s the first time they crack a ball or score a goal. For me, it was this,” he told The Guardian. “I knew that I loved it—the physical sensation; how powerful it was. That’s the feeling I’ve been chasing ever since.”
Despite some early successes, he long remained in the shadow of his older brother, River. As River’s fame soared, the actor was sometimes dismissed as “the second most famous” in the family, leaving him with the sense that his own career was stalling.
But everything changed in 1993. By then, River was a major Hollywood star, but his life came to a sudden and tragic end.
Outside the Viper Club in Hollywood, he collapsed from a fatal overdose of cocaine and heroin. His younger brother, our star, was there, making a heart-wrenching 911 call that would later be broadcast by news outlets, as his 23-year-old brother lay dying on the sidewalk.
The person who made that devastating call and watched his brother die on the street was Joaquin Phoenix.
Today, in a bittersweet twist of fate, it is Joaquin who has earned the kind of acclaim his brother might have. He is now an award-winning actor, celebrated for his transformative portrayals — from musician Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, to the iconic role of the Joker, and most recently as Napoleon in the epic historical drama bearing the same name.
After River’s tragic death, the entire Phoenix family relocated to Costa Rica, seeking to grieve in private, far from the intense media attention that had followed the loss. Joaquin didn’t return to the United States until he was called back to audition for To Die For (1995). When the film’s director, Gus Van Sant — a close friend of River’s —saw him, he reportedly broke down in tears. For Joaquin, who had taken a three-year break from acting, the film also served as a wake-up call, reminding him just how much he missed performing.