biography of Keanu Reeves

Keanu Charles Reeves

 (/kiˈɑːnuː/ kee-AH-noo; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian  actor and musician. The recipient of numerous accolades in a career on screen spanning four decades, he is known for his leading roles in action films, his amiable public image, and his philanthropic efforts. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him as the fourth-greatest actor of the 21st century, and in 2022 Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Toronto, Canada, he made his acting debut in the Canadian television series Hangin' In (1984), before making his feature-film debut in Youngblood (1986). Reeves had his breakthrough role in the science-fiction comedies Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991). He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho (1991) and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994). Following several box-office disappointments, Reeves's performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate (1997) was well received. Greater stardom came with his role as Neo in The Matrix (1999); Reeves became the highest paid actor for a single production for reprising the role in its 2003 sequels Reloaded and Revolutions. He also played John Constantine in Constantine (2005).

Reeves made his film directorial debut with Man of Tai Chi (2013). Following a period in which he enjoyed limited commercial success, he made a career comeback by playing the titular assassin in the action film series John Wick (2014–present). He voiced Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4 (2019) and portrayed Johnny Silverhand in the video game Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) as well as its expansion. He has since reprised his roles of Ted in Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) and Neo in The Matrix: Resurrections (2021), and voiced Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024).

In addition to acting, Reeves is a member of the musical band Dogstar, releasing albums including Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees (2023). He is the co-writer and creator of the BRZRKR franchise, which started with the original comic book (2021–2023) and since expanded to include numerous spin-offs, including The Book of Elsewhere. An avid motorcyclist, Reeves is the co-founder of the custom manufacturer ARCH Motorcycle. He also co-founded the production company Company Films.

Keanu Charles Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia (née Taylor), a costume designer and performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr. His mother is English, originating from Essex. His American father is from Hawaii, and is of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, and Portuguese descent.  Reeves's paternal grandmother is of Hawaiian and Chinese descent. His mother was working in Beirut when she met his father,  who abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old. Reeves last met his father on the Hawaiian island of Kauai when he was 13. 

After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother moved the family to Sydney  and then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, in 1970. he couple moved to Toronto and divorced in 1971. When Reeves was nine, he took part in a theatre production of Damn Yankees. Aaron remained close to Reeves, offering him advice and recommending him a job at the Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania. Reeves's mother married Robert Miller, a rock music promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. Reeves and his sisters grew up primarily in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto, with a nanny frequently caring for them. Reeves watched British comedy shows such as The Two Ronnies, and his mother imparted English manners that he has maintained into adulthood. Because of his grandmother's Chinese ethnicity, Reeves grew up with Chinese art, furniture, and cuisine. 

Describing himself as a "private kid",  Reeves attended four different high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was expelled. Reeves said he was expelled because he was "just a little too rambunctious and shot my mouth off once too often ... I was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school". Reeves has dyslexia and has said, "Because I had trouble reading, I wasn't a good student".^[23] At De La Salle College, he was a successful ice hockey goalkeeper. Reeves had aspirations to play for the Canadian Olympic team and was once considered an OHL prospect, but his hockey career ended due to injury.  At the age of 15, he decided he wanted to become an actor.  After leaving De La Salle College, he attended Avondale Secondary Alternative School, which allowed him to get an education while working as an actor. Reeves dropped out of high school when he was 17. He obtained a green card through his American stepfather and moved to Los Angeles three years later. Reeves holds only Canadian citizenship

About

Played Neo in The Matrix trilogy, a role for which he won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor in an Action Film. He starred in Constantine and was highly praised for his theatrical performance in Hamlet. His roles in The Day The Earth Stood Still, John Wick and 47 Ronin gained him additional fame. 

Before Fame

Excelling in hockey, he originally intended on becoming an Olympic hockey player for Canada. A serious injury ended this dream. 

Trivia

Early in his career, he appeared in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

• Very good friends with his Bill & Ted co-star, Alex Winter and has remained in contact with him. Keanu has also contributed cameo appearances and helped with a number of Winter's film projects.
• Learned over 200 martial arts moves for The Matrix Reloaded (2003).
• Took a 90% pay cut on his salary on The Replacements (2000) so Gene Hackman could be cast. Previously, he had deferred $2 million of his salary so that Al Pacino could be cast on The Devil's Advocate (1997).
• His name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian.
• His mother, Patric Reeves, was a costume designer for rock stars such as Alice Cooper.
• Because he values his private life, he doesn't participate in social media.
• His best friend was actor River Phoenix. He is also friends with River's brother Joaquin Phoenix.
• Was raised in Beirut (since birth until six months), Sydney (until age 3), Upper West Side (Manhattan, New York, until age 6) and in Toronto (until age 21).
• For a Halloween party as a teenager, Keanu once wore the bunny costume his mother Patric Reeves had designed for Dolly Parton's 1978 Playboy magazine cover.
• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 31, 2005.
• Keanu got his abdominal scar from a motorcycle wreck in Topanga Canyon. He was on a "demon ride" (no headlights at night) when he crashed into the side of a mountain. He was hospitalized for a week with broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. When the paramedics came to get him, an emergency medical technician trainee picked up one end of the stretcher... then dropped it by mistake! "It made me laugh, but I couldn't breathe!".
• Was trained for four months in martial arts (kung-fu) for The Matrix (1999) (1998).
• Could have been a professional ice hockey player for the Canadian League, could have tried out for the Windsor Spitfires Ontario Hockey League, but set his heart on acting, leaving hockey as a hobby.
• When Reeves first arrived in Hollywood, his agent thought his first name was too exotic, so during the early days of his film career he is sometimes credited as K.C. Reeves, Norman Kreeves or Chuck Spadina.
• Dropped out of high school when he was 17 to become an actor.
• Writes left-handed, but shoots a gun or performs other actions with his right hand. In The Matrix (1999), he signs for the package with his left hand, but opens the package and holds the phone with his right hand.
• Close friends with Speed (1994) co-star Sandra Bullock. He also was among the guests at her wedding to Jesse James (2005).
• When trying out for the roles of Bill and Ted in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), each actor was paired up with another. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter were paired up, Reeves trying out for the part of Bill while Winter tried out for the part of Ted. They were cast opposite what they auditioned for.
• He learned to surf for his role in Point Break (1991)
• Named after his uncle Henry Keanu Reeves. "Keanu" is a derivation of Reeves' great-great-uncle Keaweaheulu, whose name means "the soft breeze raising" in Hawaiian.
• In November 1999, the baby girl he was expecting with girlfriend Jennifer Syme was stillborn, just a few weeks shy of the actual delivery date. They had planned to name her Ava Archer Syme-Reeves.
• His best friend is his younger sister Kim Reeves.
• His father was a geologist who served time in prison. He was paroled after serving two years of a ten-year sentence for selling heroin at Hilo Airport (1992).
• Has named Peter O'Toole as the actor who has influenced him the most.
• Decided to become an actor at age 15 when he was doing Romeo and Juliet in 10th grade.
• Hobbies include horseback riding and surfing (both inspired from movie roles).
• Was manager of a pasta shop in Toronto, Ontario.
• He is a popular subject of jokes on the internet due to not having aged very visibly over the course of his career with many joking that he is immortal.
• Younger sister, Kim Reeves (born in Australia in 1966). Through his mother, he has a half-sister named Karina Miller (born in 1976 in Toronto). Through his father, he has a half-sister named Emma Reeves (born in 1980 in Hawaii).
• Co-Owner of Arch Motorcycles.
• He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: My Own Private Idaho (1991) and The Matrix (1999).
• Keanu's father, who is an American from Hawaii, has English, Native Hawaiian, Portuguese, Scottish, and Chinese ancestry, with distant Dutch roots. Keanu's mother is English.
• (April 2, 2001) His estranged girlfriend Jennifer Syme was killed when her Jeep Cherokee careened onto the wrong side of a Los Angeles road near Highway 101 and smashed into three parked cars. The force of the crash flipped the car over and she was thrown through the windshield. She was killed instantly.
• (August 4, 2001) Played baseball in the Dodgers Stadium, for the 43rd Hollywood Stars Celebrity Baseball Game. His team won 5 to 4. This was the first time Keanu played baseball.
• Was nicknamed "the wall" by high school hockey team De La Salle College "Oaklands".
• Was MVP on his high school hockey team, where he was a goalie.
• Was originally offered the role of Private Chris Taylor in Platoon (1986), which he turned down. The role went to Charlie Sheen.
• Was good friends with the late Anthony Quinn. They starred together in A Walk in the Clouds (1995).
• Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World (1995).
• The character of Jimbo Jones on The Simpsons (1989) is based on his character from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).
• Had job sharpening ice skates.
• Is jokingly considered to be immortal due to striking resemblances to Vlad the Impaler and Paul Manet.
• Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, Frank Capra and Martin Scorsese are some of his favorite filmmakers.
• Lent one of his basses (a yellow Fender) to be used in the music video, "100%", by Sonic Youth, to bassist Kim Gordon.
• Replaced Val Kilmer as the title role in Johnny Mnemonic (1995) when Kilmer left the project upon being offered the role of Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever (1995). Ironically, Kilmer later replaced Reeves as Chris Siherlis in Heat (1995).
• He owns at least two Norton Commando motorcycles whose engines were available in both 750cc and 850cc capacities, the high-compression version being the Combat Commando.
• Met Stephen Hamel in 1986, when Hamel photographed Reeves. The two went on to create their production outfit Company Films.
• Ranked #23 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
• Founding member and bass player for Dogstar (1991-2002). Was invited to opened for David Bowie in 1995 at the Hollywood Palladium, where they covered Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. Also opened for Bon Jovi on his 1995 These Days - Crossroads Tour in Australia and New Zealand. Dogstar released one EP and two LPs before they disbanded.
• Resides in the Hollywood Hills area, Los Angeles, California, and is said to maintain an apartment in Manhattan as well.
• He was among the actors considered for the role of Wolverine in X-Men (2000), before Hugh Jackman was cast.
• Joel Schumacher considered him for the role of The Scarecrow (Jonathan Crane) in the fifth Batman movie had Schumacher gone on to direct Batman 5. The failure of Batman & Robin (1997) prevented that from happening.
• Has played a former quarterback from the Ohio State University in two films: Point Break (1991) and The Replacements (2000).
• Even though Reeves has starred in Shakespearean films and plays, he does believe that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the works of Shakespeare.
• Played (bass) in the band Becky which also featured Robert Mailhouse (drums), Paulie Kosta (guitar) and Rebecca Lord (vocals).

Family Life

Jennifer Syme gave birth to his stillborn daughter in 1999. He dated actress Charlize Theron from 2009 to 2010. He made his relationship with artist Alexandra Grant public in 2019.

In 1984, Reeves was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) youth television program Going Great.  That same year, he made his acting debut in an episode of the television series, called Hangin' In.  In 1985, he played Mercutio in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre in North York, Ontario.  He made further appearances on stage, including Brad Fraser's cult hit Wolfboy in Toronto. He also appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial in 1983, and in the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) coming-of-age, short film One Step Away. 

Reeves later said that, when he was looking for work in the mid-1980s, his agents advised him to go by a different name because his first name was "too ethnic". He briefly initialized his first and middle name and attended auditions as "K. C." or "Casey" Reeves before reverting to Keanu. 

Reeves made a foray into television films in 1986, including NBC's Babes in Toyland, Act of Vengeance and Brotherhood of Justice. He made his first motion picture appearances in Peter Markle's Youngblood (1986), in which he played a goalkeeper, and in the low-budget romantic drama, Flying. He was cast as Matt in River's Edge, a crime drama about a group of high school friends dealing with a murder case, loosely based on the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad. The film premiered in 1986 at the Toronto International Film Festival to a largely positive response. Janet Maslin of The New York Times describes the performances of the young cast as "natural and credible", with Reeves being described as "affecting and sympathetic"

mini bio :

Keanu Charles Reeves, whose first name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, was born September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of Patric Reeves, a showgirl and costume designer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist. Keanu's father was born in Hawaii, of Native Hawaiian and Chinese ancestry while Keanu's mother is originally from Essex England. After his parents' marriage dissolved, Keanu moved with his mother and younger sister, Kim Reeves, to New York City, then Toronto. Stepfather #1 was Paul Aaron, a stage and film director - he and Patricia divorced within a year, after which she went on to marry (and divorce) rock promoter Robert Miller. Reeves never reconnected with his biological father. In high school, Reeves was lukewarm toward academics but took a keen interest in ice hockey (as team goalie, he earned the nickname "The Wall") and drama. He eventually dropped out of school to pursue an acting career.

After a few stage gigs and a handful of made-for-TV movies, he scored a supporting role in the Rob Lowe hockey flick Youngblood (1986), which was filmed in Canada. Shortly after the production wrapped, Reeves packed his bags and headed for Hollywood. Reeves popped up on critics' radar with his performance in the dark adolescent drama, River's Edge (1986), and landed a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated Dangerous Liaisons (1988) with director Stephen Frears.

His first popular success was the role of totally rad dude Ted "Theodore" Logan in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989). The wacky time-travel movie became something of a cultural phenomenon, and audiences would forever confuse Reeves's real-life persona with that of his doofy on-screen counterpart. He then joined the casts of Ron Howard's comedy, Parenthood (1989) and Lawrence Kasdan's I Love You to Death (1990).

Over the next few years, Reeves tried to shake the Ted stigma with a series of highbrow projects. He played a slumming rich boy opposite River Phoenix's narcoleptic male hustler in My Own Private Idaho (1991), an unlucky lawyer who stumbles into the vampire's lair in Dracula (1992), and Shakespearean party-pooper Don John in Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

In 1994, the understated actor became a big-budget action star with the release of Speed (1994). Its success heralded an era of five years in which Reeves would alternate between small films, like Feeling Minnesota (1996) and The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), and big films like A Walk in the Clouds (1995) and The Devil's Advocate (1997). (There were a couple misfires, too: Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and Chain Reaction (1996).) After all this, Reeves did the unthinkable and passed on the Speed sequel, but he struck box-office gold again a few years later with the Wachowski siblings' cyberadventure, The Matrix (1999).

Now a bonafide box-office star, Keanu would appear in a string of smaller films -- among them The Replacements (2000), The Watcher (2000), The Gift (2000), Sweet November (2001), and Hardball (2001) - before The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) were both released in 2003.

Since the end of The Matrix trilogy, Keanu has divided his time between mainstream and indie fare, landing hits with Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Lake House (2006), and Street Kings (2008). He's kept Matrix fans satiated with films such as Constantine (2005), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008). And he's waded back into art-house territory with Ellie Parker (2005), Thumbsucker (2005), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), and Henry's Crime (2010).

Most recently, as post-production on the samurai epic 47 Ronin (2013) waged on, Keanu appeared in front of the camera in Side by Side (2012), a documentary on celluloid and digital filmmaking, which he also produced. He also directed another Asian-influenced project, Man of Tai Chi (2013).

In 2014, Keanu played the title role in the action revenge film John Wick (2014), which became popular with critics and audiences alike. He reprised the role in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), taking the now-iconic character to a better opening weekend and even more enthusiastic reviews than the first go-around.

Prolific in film since 1985, Reeves's most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, according to the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, include: River's Edge (1987), Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Speed (1994), The Matrix (1999), John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), and Toy Story 4 (2019).  Reeves has won four MTV Movie Awards, and received two Best Actor nominations at the Saturn Awards.  He was nominated twice for a People's Choice Award: Favorite Male Movie Star and Favorite Action Movie Star, for his performance in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019). 

In November 2015, People retroactively named him 1994's Sexiest Man Alive. In September 2021, Tae Kwon Do Life Magazine deemed Reeves the "#1 Martial Arts movie star in the world" based upon his multiple films in the genre, their popularity, and sheer box office gross.  In 2024, Gold House honored him on its Most Impactful Asians A100 list, and he was presented with the Inkpot Award for Lifetime Contributions to Movies, TV, Comics, and Books at San Diego Comic-Con. 

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