Death of Young Actor Saddens Valley Students

For beginning drama students at Reseda High School, the death of 23-year-old actor River Phoenix was a painful and frightening reminder that youth is no protection against death.

“It was sad to think that someone that young could just collapse and they don’t know how or why or what happened,” said Jennifer Marder, 16, an aspiring actress. “It’s another young person that’s gone.”

Phoenix, best known to teen-agers for his role in the 1986 film “Stand By Me,” died early Sunday after collapsing outside a West Hollywood nightclub. Autopsy results Monday were inconclusive, coroner’s officials said, pending further tests.

Students said it was Phoenix’s age that troubled them the most. Many pointed out that the star wasn’t much older than they are. More than talking about losing an important artist, most said they were troubled by the loss of a peer.

“You don’t know what he could have done in the future--he was just getting started in his career,” said senior Sharese Pearsall, as three other girls nodded. “It’s a big deal because anyone that young dying is a big deal.”

Taking a break from writing a script for a children’s theater performance, the students recalled the shock of hearing of Phoenix’s death and speculated about how he died.

Maribel Arrizon, 16, said if the death were found to be the result of drugs, as some of Phoenix’s companions have suggested, she would be particularly disheartened.

“(Actors) should be careful about what they do because you look up to them and say, ‘I want to be like them,’ ” she said. “I want to be an actress and if young people would look up to me, I want to be a good role model.”

The group laughed when Ursula Kennedy, 17, said she was especially sad because she thought Phoenix was “very cute. No, fine. “ But the conversation turned serious as they talked about the deaths of family members, friends and their own fears of dying.

“If I was an actor,” Jennifer asked, “could that happen to me?”

And while some of the students said they were not affected by Phoenix’s death or were unfamiliar with his work, Ursula defended her reaction: “I saw him in so many movies I feel like I knew him.”

In addition to his career-making role in “Stand By Me,” Phoenix had feature roles in “The Mosquito Coast,” “My Own Private Idaho,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” and “Running on Empty.”

One senior at James Monroe High School said she learned about the star’s death Monday morning, when her mother read to her from the morning newspaper.

“It seems like every time my mother starts to say, ‘I read in the paper . . . ,’ someone died,” said 17-year-old Melanie Walker. “The more I hear about people dying the more I think about it because it’s more a reality.

“You think it’s never going to happen to you and then your friends die and then people around you die. It makes you think.”