Summer Phoenix
Encyclopedia
Summer Joy Phoenix 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
.
. 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.
, working with agent Iris Burton
along 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.
.
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.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress and model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
. She is the youngest sibling of the late River Phoenix
River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix was an American film actor, musician, and teen icon. He was the oldest brother of fellow actors Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer Phoenix.Phoenix began acting at age 10 in television commercials...
, Rain Phoenix
Rain Phoenix
Rain Phoenix is an American actress, musician, and singer. Phoenix has four siblings: two brothers, actors Joaquin and the late River Phoenix, and two sisters, Summer and Liberty.-Early life:...
, Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix , formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later...
, and Liberty Phoenix, and is married to actor Casey Affleck
Casey Affleck
Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt , better known as Casey Affleck, is an American actor and film director. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he played supporting roles in mainstream hits like Good Will Hunting and Ocean's Eleven as well as in critically acclaimed independent films such as...
.
Early life
Summer Phoenix was born in Winter Park, FloridaWinter Park, Florida
Winter Park is a suburban city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 24,090 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 estimates, the city had a population of 28,083. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. Her mother, Arlyn Sharon
Arlyn Phoenix
Arlyn Sharon Phoenix , commonly known as Heart Phoenix, is the mother of actors River Phoenix, Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. She is on the Board of Directors of , an organization which supports the creation of a United States Department of Peace.-Biography:She...
(née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Dunetz), was born in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to Jewish parents from Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Her father, John Lee Bottom, was a lapsed Catholic
Lapsed Catholic
A lapsed Catholic is a person who has ceased practicing the Catholic faith, in the sense of attending Mass. Such a person may still identify as a Catholic.-"Lapsed Catholic" and "ex-Catholic":...
from Fontana
Fontana, California
Fontana is a city of 196,069 residents in San Bernardino County, California. Founded in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. 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
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. Phoenix has four siblings: two brothers, actors Joaquin (Leaf)
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix , formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later...
and the late River
River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix was an American film actor, musician, and teen icon. He was the oldest brother of fellow actors Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer Phoenix.Phoenix began acting at age 10 in television commercials...
, and two sisters, Rain
Rain Phoenix
Rain Phoenix is an American actress, musician, and singer. Phoenix has four siblings: two brothers, actors Joaquin and the late River Phoenix, and two sisters, Summer and Liberty.-Early life:...
and Liberty.
She attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
's Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....
, but left before graduating to pursue a career in film.
Career
Summer was a child actorChild actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
, working with agent Iris Burton
Iris Burton
Iris Burton was an American talent agent and dancer, who discovered and represented many famous child actors during her career.-Personal life and early career:...
along with her brothers and sister at the age of two, and went on to have guest roles in Murder She Wrote, Growing Pains
Growing Pains
Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.-Synopsis:The show's premise is based...
and Airwolf
Airwolf
Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....
. She appeared in the TV movie Kate's Secret
Kate's Secret
Kate's Secret is a 1986 television movie starring Meredith Baxter Birney, Ben Masters, Tracy Nelson, and Edward Asner, about a seemingly "perfect" suburban housewife and mother who is secretly suffering from bulimia nervosa...
and in Russkies
Russkies
Russkies is a 1987 film starring Whip Hubley and Joaquin Phoenix . It was directed by Rick Rosenthal, with cinematography by Reed Smoot...
, playing the younger sister of real life brother Joaquin
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix , formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later...
.
Phoenix later appeared in Wasted, The Laramie Project
The Laramie Project (film)
The Laramie Project is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Moisés Kaufman. Based on the play of the same name, the film tells the story of the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming...
, SLC Punk!
SLC Punk!
# "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" - The Suicide Machines # "Sex and Violence" - The Exploited# "I Love Livin' in the City" - Fear# "1969" - The Stooges# "Too Hot" - The Specials# "Cretin Hop" - Ramones...
, Dinner Rush
Dinner Rush
Dinner Rush is an independent feature film, written by Brian S. Kalata and Rick Shaughnessy. Directed by Bob Giraldi. It stars Danny Aiello as a restaurateur-bookmaker in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood and Edoardo Ballerini as his son, the restaurant's star chef...
, The Believer, and The Faculty
The Faculty
The Faculty is a 1998 science fiction horror film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Robert Rodriguez...
. She played leads in Esther Kahn
Esther Kahn
Esther Kahn is the first English-language film by the French director Arnaud Desplechin. It premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival but was not distributed to the United States for two years until it played in New York City in 2002...
(2000) and Suzie Gold
Suzie Gold
Suzie Gold is a 2004 British film starring American actress, Summer Phoenix. It is the directorial debut of Ric Cantor. It was released by Pathé on 5 March 2004 in the United Kingdom.-Plot:...
(2004).
In 2002, Phoenix starred in a three-month run of This is Our Youth
This is Our Youth
This Is Our Youth is a 1996 play by American dramatist and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan.-Production history:Originally produced by The New Group, the play opened at the INTAR Theatre in New York City in October 1996. It later opened at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre in November 1998...
at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
alongside Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
and Casey Affleck
Casey Affleck
Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt , better known as Casey Affleck, is an American actor and film director. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he played supporting roles in mainstream hits like Good Will Hunting and Ocean's Eleven as well as in critically acclaimed independent films such as...
.
She was a member of the rock band The Causey Way
The Causey Way
The Causey Way was a punk/new-wave group formed in 1997 in which the underlying theme was that of a cult operating as a band . The live shows were energetic and in the style of revivalist evangelism. With releases on Fueled By Ramen and Alternative Tentacles, they broke up in 2001...
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 PETAPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...
.
She became engaged to Casey Affleck
Casey Affleck
Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt , better known as Casey Affleck, is an American actor and film director. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he played supporting roles in mainstream hits like Good Will Hunting and Ocean's Eleven as well as in critically acclaimed independent films such as...
on December 25, 2003, and gave birth to a son, Indiana August, on May 31, 2004, in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. Phoenix and Affleck married on June 3, 2006 in Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
, 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
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Airwolf Airwolf Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme.... |
Little Girl | 1 episode; 'Flight #093 Is Missing' |
| Murder, She Wrote Murder, She Wrote Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,... |
Cindy Donovan | 1 episode; 'We're Off to Kill the Wizard' | |
| 1986 | Kate's Secret Kate's Secret Kate's Secret is a 1986 television movie starring Meredith Baxter Birney, Ben Masters, Tracy Nelson, and Edward Asner, about a seemingly "perfect" suburban housewife and mother who is secretly suffering from bulimia nervosa... |
Becky Stark | |
| 1987 | Growing Pains Growing Pains Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.-Synopsis:The show's premise is based... |
Jody | 1 episode 'Big Brother's Not Watching' |
| Russkies Russkies Russkies is a 1987 film starring Whip Hubley and Joaquin Phoenix . It was directed by Rick Rosenthal, with cinematography by Reed Smoot... |
Candi | ||
| 1988 | ABC Weekend Special ABC Weekend Special The ABC Weekend Special is a weekly 30-minute anthology TV series for children that aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1977 to 1997. It featured a wide variety of stories that were both live-action and animated.... |
Lana | 1 episode 'Runaway Ralph' |
| 1989 | The New Leave It to Beaver The New Leave It to Beaver The New Leave It to Beaver is an American sitcom sequel to the 1950s and '60s series, Leave It to Beaver. The New Leave It to Beaver began with the 1983 CBS TV movie Still the Beaver, and was picked up in 1984 as a Disney Channel series with the same name; however, it only lasted one season... |
Bettie Haskell | 1 episode; 'Still the New Leave It to Beaver' |
| 1990 | Swamp Thing Swamp Thing (TV series) Swamp Thing, also known as Swamp Thing: The Series, is a science fiction, action/adventure television series based on the DC Comics character Swamp Thing. It debuted on USA Network on July 27, 1990 and lasted three seasons for a total of 72 episodes... |
Lilly | 1 episode; 'New acquaintance' |
| 1997 | Arresting Gena | Jane Freeman | US title: Made in France |
| ER ER (TV series) ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television... |
Petra | 1 episode; 'Ambush' | |
| 1998 | I Woke Up Early The Day I Died I Woke Up Early The Day I Died I Woke Up Early The Day I Died is a camp comedy film written by Edward D. Wood, Jr.. The film, directed by Aris Iliopulos, stars Billy Zane, Tippi Hedren, Ron Perlman, and Christina Ricci, among many others.-Production:... |
Bartender#2/Girl at the Beach | |
| Girl Girl (film) Girl is a 1998 American drama film starring Dominique Swain, Christopher Masterson, Sean Patrick Flanery, Summer Phoenix, Tara Reid, John Philbin and Selma Blair. It was based on the novel of the same name, written by Blake Nelson. It was written by Blake Nelson and David E... |
Rebecca Fernhurst | ||
| Can't Hardly Wait Can't Hardly Wait Can't Hardly Wait is a 1998 American teen comedy film written and directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. It stars Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green, and Jennifer Love Hewitt, and is notable for a number of "before-they-were-famous" appearances by various... |
Candy, Stoned Girl's Friend | Scenes deleted | |
| SLC Punk! SLC Punk! # "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" - The Suicide Machines # "Sex and Violence" - The Exploited# "I Love Livin' in the City" - Fear# "1969" - The Stooges# "Too Hot" - The Specials# "Cretin Hop" - Ramones... |
Brandy | ||
| The Faculty The Faculty The Faculty is a 1998 science fiction horror film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Robert Rodriguez... |
F'%# You Girl | ||
| 2000 | Committed Committed (2000 film) - Plot :The ever-optimistic Joline faces a challenge when her husband, flaky news photographer Carl , leaves her to find himself in Texas. Joline tracks Carl down and observes him, acquainting herself with his schedule and new friends - Plot :The ever-optimistic Joline (Heather Graham) faces a... |
Meg | |
| Esther Kahn Esther Kahn Esther Kahn is the first English-language film by the French director Arnaud Desplechin. It premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival but was not distributed to the United States for two years until it played in New York City in 2002... |
Esther Kahn | ||
| Dinner Rush Dinner Rush Dinner Rush is an independent feature film, written by Brian S. Kalata and Rick Shaughnessy. Directed by Bob Giraldi. It stars Danny Aiello as a restaurateur-bookmaker in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood and Edoardo Ballerini as his son, the restaurant's star chef... |
Marti Wellington | ||
| 2001 | The Believer | Carla Moebius | |
| 2002 | Wasted | Samantha | TV movie |
| The Laramie Project The Laramie Project (film) The Laramie Project is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Moisés Kaufman. Based on the play of the same name, the film tells the story of the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming... |
Osnat 'Ossi' Wolf | ||
| 2004 | Suzie Gold Suzie Gold Suzie Gold is a 2004 British film starring American actress, Summer Phoenix. It is the directorial debut of Ric Cantor. It was released by Pathé on 5 March 2004 in the United Kingdom.-Plot:... |
Suzie Gold |