River Phoenix is on a roll (1987)
River Phoenix — the 17-year-old heartthrob many call the most exciting teenage actor of the ’80s — is finally on the rise with the release of his long-awaited films Little Nikita (with Sidney Poitier) in January, and Jimmy Reardon (with Meredith Salenger) in late February [1988].
His next onscreen exposure will come next fall in Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty (which wrapped last September) with girlfriend Martha Plimpton.
River plays 17-year-old Danny Pope, the musically-gifted son of fugitive parents who bombed a research laboratory where napalm was being made.
River Phoenix in Little Nikita (1988)
Little Nikita movie still with River Phoenix as Jeff Grant and Lucy Deakins as Barbara Kerry
A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988)
River Phoenix stars as Jimmy Reardon, a young man on the threshold of adulthood, ready for anything but too young to consider the consequences, in “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon,” a rambunctious comedy from Island Pictures, written and directed by William Richert.
Meredith Salenger (as Lisa) and River Phoenix (as Jimmy), then Ann Magnuson as Joyce
Ione Skye with Matthew Perry (as Denise and Fred), and Louanne (as Suzie)
