Leonardo DiCaprio recalls seeing River Phoenix right before star's tragic death

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Leonardo DiCaprio remembers seeing River Phoenix right before his tragic death

Leonardo DiCaprio remembers seeing River Phoenix right before his tragic death in October 1993.

Leonardo DiCaprio saw River Phoenix right before the "Stand By Me" star's tragic death in October 1993.

“I grew up revering River Phoenix as the great actor of my generation, and all I ever wanted was to have just an opportunity to shake his hand,” DiCaprio, 44, told Esquire.

“One night, at a party in Silver Lake, I saw him walk up a flight of stairs. It was almost like something you would see in 'Vertigo' because I saw there was something in his face, and I’d never met him — always wanted to meet him, always wanted to just have an encounter with him — and he was walking toward me and I kind of froze. And then the crowd got in my way, and I looked back and he was gone.”

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DiCaprio concluded, “I walked back up the stairs and back down, and I was like, ‘Where did he go?’ And he was ...  on his way to The Viper Room."

Actor River Phoenix, star of "Stand By Me," playfully poses during a 1988 Los Angeles portrait session. Phoenix, a rising young film star, tragically died in 1993 outside a Sunset Strip nightclub of a drug overdose. (Getty)

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Phoenix died of a drug overdose at the famous club. He was just 23 years old.

The "Titanic" star said he had a meeting about a role in "Interview with the Vampire" that went to Christian Slater. Phoenix had been originally cast in the role before he died. Though DiCaprio never personally knew or spoke with Phoenix, he says he somehow felt a profound loss at the young actor's passing.

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“It was almost as if — I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s this existential thing where I felt like ... he disappeared in front of my very eyes, and the tragedy that I felt afterward of having lost this great influence for me and all of my friends,” DiCaprio admitted. “The actor we all talked about. Just to be able to have that, always wanting to just — and I remember extending my hand out, and then ... Two people came in front and then I looked back, and then he wasn’t there.”