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Despite rumors of drug use, autopsy on actor yields no answers to cause of death
River Phoenix died before completing latest film
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — River Phoenix lay dying on the sidewalk while his brother pleaded with a fire department dispatcher to send help for the actor, who collapsed outside a nightclub.
"You must get here, please, you must get here, please," his brother said. "I'm thinking he had Valium or something."
First, the 23-year-old actor was writhing on the sidewalk. Then he lay motionless, as if sleeping. Within an hour, Phoenix was pronounced dead early Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
An autopsy yesterday was inconclusive, said coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier. Results of blood and chemical tests will take weeks, he said.
But paramedics were told the actor had been taking drugs, county fire Cant. Ray Bjaral said.
Phoenix, who received an Academy Award nomination for the 1988 movie "Running on Empty," collapsed after partying with his brother, Joaquín "Leaf" Phoenix, 19, and actress Samantha Mathis, 23, at the Viper Room in West Hollywood. The club is owned by actor Johnny Depp.
"After eight minutes of seizures, arms flopping, his knuckles hitting the sidewalk, his head banging back and forth, his feet flopping up and down, after about eight minutes of that, he finally became still, completely still," witness Ron Davis told "Hard Copy."
Several yards away, Phoenix's brother was frantically trying to call for help on a pay telephone. The dramatic four-minute 911 emergency call provided a chilling account of the actor's final minutes.
"Where is the (paramedic) ... Please, cause he's dying, please!" the actor's brother told the dispatcher.
"Where's your brother right now?" the dispatcher asked.
"He's laying on the cement," Leaf Phoenix said.
"Is he breathing?" the dispatcher asked.
"I don't know. The last I checked they said he was breathing," he said, and then asked a companion, "Is he ... breathing? (Back to dispatcher) I don't know if he's breathing. Please, you got to get over here! Where's the ambulance?"
Moments later, a calm "Leaf"
Phoenixi told the dispatcher: "He's not having the seizures anymore. He's just passed out. He just looks like he's sleeping."
Phoenix had been cast opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in the film version of novelist Anne Rice's "Interview With A Vampire." Filming had been scheduled to begin Nov. 25. Phoenix's role as the interviewer would be recast, Warner Bros. said.
Phil Aldon Robinson, who directed Phoenix in last year's "Sneakers," said the actor was talented and willing to take risks in his acting.
"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, who was named after the river of life in Herman Hesse's "Sid'darthha," was known as the model of good health, clean living and professional dedication. He was a vegetarian and animal rights activist who campaigned against wearing animal fur.
The actor's family, gathering in Los Angeles, said in a statement: "His beauty, gentleness, compassion, vulnerability and love is a gift for all eternity."
Phoenix's films:
"The Mosquito Coast," 1986
Funeral arrangements have not been fully arranged.
"Little Nikita." 19RR
"Explorers," 1985
"Stand By Me," 1986
'Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade.' 1987
'A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon,' 1988
"Running On Empty," 1988
"I Love You To Death," 1990
"Dogfight," 1991
"My Own Private idaho," 1991
"Sneakers," 1992
"Silent Tongue," 1992
"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."
Source: The Associated Press
KANSAN
Melissa Lacey/ KANSAN
Colorful skulls, figurines and banners are some of the items used to honor the dead in the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration. The celebration, which started Oct. 28 and ends today, features special foods, picnics and poetry readings.
Food, fun and humor are part of the celebration for Mexican families who honor their ancestors. On the final day of the six-day holiday, the dead are invited back to Earth.
By JL Watson Kansan staff writer
"It's a kind of celebration," Hector Perez, Mexico City junior, said. "There are a lot of parties and we make fun of death."
In a tiny black car, newlywired skeletons drive to their destination in the afterlife. Miniature cigarette-smoking skulls rest comfortably on books. Colorful banners with dancing corpse flutter in the breeze.
It's not a grisly tomb. It's part of the Mexican celebration for the Day of the Dead or El Día de Los Muertos. It is a time Mexicans pay homage to their deceased ancestors and invite their spirits to return home for one day each year.
The celebration begins Oct. 28 and continues through Nov. 2.
"November 2 is the best day because it's when all the dead people are invited back for one day before they go back to Heaven or wherever it is they go," Perez said.
The days leading up to November honor dead children and people who
"Sometimes I think people forget the main point of the day," Liliana Valderrama, Queretaro, Mexico, freshman, said. "They don't care about the dead very much."
Perez said that traditions included poetryreadings, called calaveras, that make fun of death and living and deceased people.
died in violent ways, such as automobile accidents or murder.
Perez said. "We also eat something called dead bread on the morning of November 2." The bread is oversized and topped with sugar.
"We go to bakers and buy small sugar skulls with our names written
"A lot of people picnic for the whole day," Valderrama said. "They buy food and flowers in the cemetery." One of the most popular flowers is zempachuchi, Valderrama said. Orange in color, it is placed abundant-
celebration included socializing with friends and family members.
"A lot of people picnic for the whole day. They buy food and flowers in the cemetery."
ly around cities,
marking the
days of the
dead.
Liliana Valderrama
Queretaro, Mexico freshman
During the celebration, families prepare favorite food dishes of the deceased and leave it on altars. At night the deceased come back and "eat" the food. It is another way to welcome ancestors back from the dead.
not celebrate El Dia de los Muertos this year. "I don't think I could organize all the Mexican students to do it," she said.
Valderrama said she would
Manager Jill Legler chose to focus on the holiday because of the increase in Latin American folk art in the store.
"Originally we just picked up a few skeleton-type things. As time went on we learned more about folk art and became more intrigued," she said.
Though not yet a popular American holiday, Sunflower International, 803 Massachusetts St., chose to use El Día de los Muertos as a theme for the store's display window.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Legler said the public was becoming more aware of the holiday.
"We like to educate people as well as show things they haven't seen before," Legler said. "Also, we thought it was a whole lot of fun."
Legler said that the figures are fun because they depict scenes of life in the afterlife.
"Some of my favorites are the more irreverent ones," she said. "I'm amused by the thought of people peeing on lamp posts."
People and places at the University of Kansas.
In September, police in China and Japan announced the imminent arrests of three men for selling schoolgirls' used underpants in vending machines at a price of about $30 for a set of three. The men are accused of violating the Antique Dealings Act, which regulates the sale of used goods.
The entrepreneurial spirit
That'sstacky
Home improvements
Dennis and Pam Ponsness told The Associated Press in July that they often gagged when they opened their maggot farm in Porthill, Idaho, but have gotten used to the smell. They raise millions of maggots for bait and pet shops by putting a ton of fish out for the fly larvae to feast on and then refrigerating them until they are ready to ship.
Japan's Chindogu Society (an invention support group), according to *Details* magazine, has found new ways to make your household chores easier: "Puss in Boots," a set of four dust slippers enabling cats to dust your floor while they walk around; water-filled compartments that strap on your legs, enabling you to wash clothes by walking vigorously; and a rack worm on your back, secured by a shoulder brace, on which clothing can be hung to dry while you bicycle about. The group also offers a flashlight powered by solar panels.
Among the producers recently brought to market: "PooPets," animal figurines made of cow manure supposedly hand-made by the Amish in Landcaster, Pa., and placed in flower pots as an attractive fertilizer; handcrafted dog beds (starting at $000, plus another $250 for the draperies to hang from the four-poster models) from the New York designer Joseph Biunno; "Fudge in Fire," fudge laced with hot peppers, from the Fudge Farm in Paso Robles, Calif.; and caskets customized in colors of Southeastern Conference football teams, from Loretto Casket Co. in Tennessee.
Available now: solar flashlights, PooPets,caskets
Foot fancy
Gary Richards, founder of a Jupiter, Fla., company that sells lifelike models of human feet for $74.95 a pair, told Palm Beach Post in March that he sells about 150 pairs a month to the 4,000 or so foot fetishists who subscribe to his catalog/newsletter, Fantasy Foot News. A sideline is that women who model their feet for Richards also furnish their used shoes for sale to customers.
"Most guys are into the odor," said Richards, "so we wrap (the shoes) in plastic. The odor will stay for a long time if you keep it in plastic, and then steam it when you want to use it."