Summer Phoenix - Biography

Summer Joy Phoenix (born December 10, 1978) is an American actress and model. She is the youngest sibling of the late River Phoenix, Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, and Liberty Phoenix, and is married to actor Casey Affleck.

Early life

Summer Phoenix was born in Winter Park, Florida. Her mother, Arlyn Sharon (née Dunetz), was born in the Bronx, New York to Jewish parents from Hungary and Russia. Her father, John Lee Bottom, was a lapsed Catholic from Fontana, California. In 1968, Phoenix's mother left her family and moved to California, meeting Phoenix's father while hitch-hiking. They married in 1969 and joined the religious cult the Children of God, working as missionaries and fruit pickers in South America. Phoenix has four siblings: two brothers, actors Joaquin (Leaf) and the late River, and two sisters, Rain and Liberty.

She attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, but left before graduating to pursue a career in film.

Career

Summer was a child actor, working with agent Iris Burtonalong with her brothers and sister at the age of two, and went on to have guest roles in Murder She Wrote, Growing Pains and Airwolf. She appeared in the TV movie Kate's Secret and in Russkies, playing the younger sister of real life brother Joaquin. Phoenix later appeared in Wasted, The Laramie Project, SLC Punk!, Dinner Rush, The Believer, and The Faculty. She played leads in Esther Kahn (2000) and Suzie Gold (2004).

In 2002, Phoenix starred in a three-month run of This is Our Youth at the Garrick Theatre alongside Matt Damon and Casey Affleck.

She was a member of the rock band The Causey Way with her sister Rain.

Personal life

Summer Phoenix is a vegan and she is an avid supporter of several environmental and animal rights causes and charities, including PETA.

She became engaged to Casey Affleck on December 25, 2003, and gave birth to a son, Indiana August, on May 31, 2004, in Amsterdam. Phoenix and Affleck married on June 3, 2006 in Savannah, Georgia, and had a second son, Atticus, on January 12, 2008.

She now owns and runs the vintage clothing boutiques "Some Odd Rubies", with stores in New York and Los Angeles, along with friends Odessa Whitmire and Ruby Canner.

Filmography

External links

• Some Odd Rubies