Joaquin Phoenix's Medical Landscape Beyond the intense characters he embodies, Joaquin Phoenix presents a feature that has become a point of fascination—a microform cleft situated between his lip and nose. Unlike the common misconception of a prominent gap, a microform cleft manifests as a scar or notch.

Phoenix was born at the Hospital Metropolitano San Francisco in the Río Piedras district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to John Lee Bottom, the founder of a landscape gardening company, and Arlyn "Heart" Bottom (née Dunetz), an executive secretary at NBC and whose connection to an agent provided her children with acting ...

The Gladiator actor stunned fans in 2008 when he announced he was retiring from Hollywood to become a hip-hop artist. Though Phoenix stayed in character for public appearances for two years, he later confirmed that the whole scenario was a stunt set up for the 2010 mockumentary parody directed by Casey Affleck.

As a youngster, Joaquin took his cues from older siblings River Phoenix and Rain Phoenix, changing his name to Leaf to match their earthier monikers. When the children were encouraged to develop their creative instincts, he followed their lead into acting.