As an electric guitarist, Phoenix played with a band called Aleka's Attic, and was due to play at the Viper Room the evening he died, on October 31, 1993. Phoenix was accompanied by his girlfriend, actress Samantha Mathis, his sister Rain, and his brother Leaf (Joaquin). Reports say that Phoenix was seen shaking and sweating in the men's room earlier in the evening; he was carried outside by Mathis and Leaf at a little after midnight, and laid on the sidewalk. There he suffered seizures for an indeterminate amount of time before he became still. A celebrity photographer (who did not take pictures of these terrible events) said later that Leaf was yelling at the others to leave River alone, that he would recover. Leaf finally relented after 25 minutes and ran to a pay phone; when the paramedics arrived at the hospital at 1:34, they had not succeeded in coaxing a pulse out of him. About 20 minutes later, River Phoenix was pronounced dead. People who knew Phoenix and his strong opinions were surprised into disbelief when he died of a drug overdose. And yet, no one familiar with the pressures of the Los Angeles movie world could be totally shocked. Phoenix's agent, Iris Burton, speculated that Phoenix had probably been using drugs for some time, and felt it was time to face the terrible truth and admit that the system destroys its most promising people, instead of finding excuses or laying blame for his premature death with Phoenix, his friends or family. For many days following his death, the media speculated that he had died of a stroke or had been stricken with an epileptic seizure. They reported that his brother had admitted that Phoenix had taken Valium, but it was more than a week later when the truth became known: Phoenix died of a combination of cocaine and heroin, the same combination that killed comedian John Belushi more than ten years before. Perhaps stress played a part in his drug use: Phoenix had just returned from working 12-hour days in Utah shooting his last film, Dark Blood. Featuring only three actors (the other two were Judy Davis and Jonathan Pryce), the film couldn't be finished due to too many yet unfilmed crucial scenes. He had also been cast in the movie version of Anne Rice's book, Interview with a Vampire, but had not begun work on it. At the time of his death, Phoenix's family asked that any donations made in his name be made over to his favorite charities: Earth Save in Santa Cruz and Earth Trust in Malibu.