Joaquin Phoenix was born in Puerto Rico and began his acting career at the age of eight. During that time, he made numerous episodic television appearances on such hit shows as Hill Street Blues, The Fall Guy and Murder, She Wrote. He was a regular on the shortlived 1986 CBS series Morningstar/Eveningstar, and followed that same year with his first feature film role in Spacecamp. The following year, he starred in Russkies with sister Summer and Carole King. Two years later, director Ron Howard cast the teenager as Dianne Wiest's son in his popular family comedy Parenthood.
It wasn't until 1996 that the young actor returned to the fold with a stunning and critically-acclaimed performance opposite Nicole Kidman in Gus Van Sant's To Die For. He next co-starred with Liv Tyler, Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly in Inventing the Abbotts in 1997. That same year, he co-starred opposite Claire Danes, Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez in Oliver Stone's U-Turn. In 1998, Phoenix co-starred opposite Vince Vaughn in two very different roles—as an American jailed in Malaysia for possession of drugs belonging to accomplice Vaughn in Return to Paradise, and as a dupe to Vaughn's smooth-talking serial killer in the black comedy Clay Pigeons. Phoenix next won acclaim as a street smart adult bookstore clerk who helps detective Nicolas Cage search for the truth behind what appears to be a snuff film in Joel Schumacher's dark thriller, 8MM.
In 2000, he earned his first Academy Award nomination co-starring opposite Russell Crowe as the complex Commodus in Ridley Scott's Oscar®-winning Best Picture, Gladiator. In addition to an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Phoenix received nominations for a Golden Globe® and the British Academy (BAFTA) Award. He received awards as Best Supporting Actor from the National Board of Review and The Broadcast Films Critics Association. He won a Broadcast Film Critics Award as Best Supporting Actor for Philip Kaufman's Oscar®-nominated Quills, based on Douglas McGrath's play about the Marquis de Sade, in which he co-starred with Kate Winslet and Geoffrey Rush. Also that year, he starred opposite Mark Wahlberg, James Caan, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn and Charlize Theron in James Gray's The Yards.
In 2002, he starred opposite Mel Gibson in M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, and reteamed with Shyamalan two years later on the gothic thriller The Village. Phoenix then provided the voice in the animated film Brother Bear, followed by Thomas Vinterberg's It´s All About Love, Buffalo Soldiers, Ladder 49, and Hotel Rwanda. In 2006, Phoenix was hailed for his performance as legendary singer-songwriter Johnny Cash (opposite Oscar®-winning actress Reese Witherspoon) in James Mangold's biopic Walk the Line. For his performance, he collected his second Academy Award® nomination (for Best Actor) and won the Golden Globe® as Best Actor in a Musical as well as nominations for BAFTA, SAG, BFCA and Chicago Film Critics Awards.
In 2007, Phoenix starred in two features; Sony Pictures' We Own the Night, where he reteamed with Mark Wahlberg and director James Gray. He then starred in the deeply moving Reservation Road, for director Terry George. The following year, working with director James Gray for a third time, he starred in Two Lovers opposite Gwyneth Paltrow. On October 27, 2008, Phoenix announced his retirement from film in order to focus on his rap music, but the announcement turned out to be part of Phoenix's acting role in the mockumentary I'm Still Here, directed by his brother-in-law, actor Casey Affleck. The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and was released in the summer of 2010 by Magnolia Pictures.
When he returned in 2011, it was to star in the Paul Thomas Anderson film The Master, opposite the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. That year they both won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival. In addition, he was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. He next starred in The Immigrant, co-starring with Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Renner, working with director Gray for a fourth time. In 2014, he starred in the award-winning Spike Jonze film Her, where he falls in love with the voice of a computer, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. He starred in his second film for director Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice, based on the acclaimed novel by Thomas Pynchon.
A social activist, Phoenix has lent his support to a number of charities and humanitarian organizations, notably Amnesty International, The Art of Elysium, Heart, The Peace Alliance (an organization which campaigns for a United States Department of Peace) and is on the board of directors for The Lunchbox Fund. Phoenix narrated Earthlings for Nation Earth, a video about the investigation of animal abuse in factory farms, pet mills, in industry and research. In 2005, he was awarded the Humanitarian Award at the San Diego Film Festival for his work and contribution to Earthlings. In 2005 he lent his voice to the documentary I'm Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust. Phoenix has also directed music videos for Ringside, She Wants Revenge, People in Planes, Arckid, Albert Hammond, Jr and the Silversun Pickups.
Sony Classics
