Joaquin Rafael Phoenix was born on October 28th, 1974, in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico.

His father, John Lee Bottom, met his mother, Arlyn Dunetz (aka Heart) in 1968 when Arlyn was traveling across USA. They falled in love and married. Joaquin was the middle child in the family: he had an older siblings (brother River and sister Rain) and two younger sisters (Liberty and Summer). All children were born in different countries - River, Rain and Summer in USA (but in different cities), Liberty in Venesuella, and Joaquin, as you know, in Puerto Rico. Their parents were missioners of Children of God, so they moved very often through Central and South America.

After they had desided to give it up, they went back to USA on the barge, without tickets or anything. They hid all the way but were revealed. Crew took pity on them, because Arlyn was pregnant and also had four kids.

They settled in Florida and changed their family name from "Bottom" to "Phoenix", because they wanted to start new life (Phoenix is a mythological bird which can reborn from the aches so it never dies). And when Joaquin was about four, he decided to change his name to "Leaf". "I changed my name because no one in the states could pronounce 'Joaquin' and I used to get really embarrassed about it as a kid. All the other kids in my family had gorgeous names and I got 'Joaquin', you know what I mean? So I said 'This is not good. Even I can't say it'."

They were very poor at that time, lived in old trailers, and children had to sing on the streets for the money. But Joaquin has only good memories about this period of his life. "I had a really wonderful upbringing. We were a tight family. It was wonderful to grow up with so many siblings. We were all just a year or two apart, and we were always so supportive of each other. I learned everything from my older brother and sister and taught it to my younger sisters."

When Joaquin was six, they moved in Los Angeles. Arlyn found a job at NBC office as secretary, so she always knew first about all castings. Arlin and John were that type of parents who belive that their children are unique and very talented and that they would achive world fame. They found an agent for all five children. Kids began to work on TV - in commercials, TV-shows and sitcoms.

Joaquin first screen appearance took place in 1982 as a guest in the sitcom "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers", where his brother River was one of the main characters. First big-screen appearance was in 1986 when he had played a role of Max in "Space Camp". It was the start in his life. As a teenager he did two other movies - "Russkies" in 1987 and "Parenthood" in 1989, and some sitcoms.

Then he took a little break and went to Mexico with his father. He changed his name back to Joaquin, because people in Mexico had problems with name "Leaf". "In Spanish, leaf — I think, if I'm right — is hoja, and eye is ojo, and garlic is ajo. And so I would confuse them and I'd introduce myself as Garlic all the time and... as you can imagine, it didn't work out so good". River's career was rising, he became critics' darling and also very popular. He made such great movies as "Stand By Me", "Running on Empty" (which brings him an Oscar nomination when he was just 16 years old!), "My Own Private Idaho".

On October 31. 1994 Joaquin was hanging out with River at the Viper Room (nightclub in Los Angeles) when the tragedy happend. His brother has died from a drug overdose. Joaquin's call to 911 was sold by phone operator and broadcasted on TV and radio all over the world. "This 911 call was sent in the radio and television. It was terrible. They photographed him in his coffin. And these hysterical girls who were at the funeral almost fell into the grave. Repulsive. It was a long time before I overcame this shock."

Joaquin was so depressed after this event that he decided to give up acting. He wanted River to be only one actor in the family. Fortunately, Gus Van Sant (director for River's movie "My Own Private Idaho" and a big friend of him) made Joaquin change his mind. Gus offers Joaquin a role in his next movie To Die For (1994), and it was a comeback for Joaquin on the big screen.

Movie which brought his career on a new level was "Gladiator", where Joaquin played an evil Rome emperor Commodus. He got an Oscar nomination for his perfomance in 2001. his second nominations was in 2006 for another great movie, "Walk The Line", where he played country music legend Johnny Cash.