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Keanu Charles Reeves (born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. He is well known for playing Neo in the action film trilogy The Matrix and Ted Logan in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Other notable roles include Scott Favor in the drama My Own Private Idaho opposite River Phoenix; Kevin Lomax in the supernatural thriller The Devil's Advocate opposite Al Pacino; and starring roles in Speed and Constantine. He played bass guitar in the grunge band Dogstar during the 1990s, and more recently in the band Becky. In an ETonline survey in 2006, he was included in the "Top Ten of America's Favorite Stars". On January 31, 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A tall, handsome laconic actor, Keanu Reeves rose to prominence in the 1980s and solidified his standing as a major star in the 1990s with roles in films like "Speed" (1994) and "The Matrix" (2000). Born in Beirut and raised in Australia, New York and Canada, the actor honed his craft on stage (in the homoerotic play "Wolfboy") and television (e.g., "Hanging In") in Toronto before making his debut in the ice hockey drama "Youngblood" in 1986. Reeves first garnered attention as the baby-faced stoner whose friend murdered his girlfriend in the based-on-fact "River's Edge" (1987). While his resume included such teen-themed efforts of "Permanent Record" and "The Prince of Pennsylvania" (both 1988), Reeves attempted to stretch as a love struck music teacher in the period drama "Dangerous Liaisons" (also 1988), he was outclassed by veteran co-stars John Malkovich and Glenn Close. The following year, however, director Stephen Herek tapped him for his breakthrough role as Theodore Logan, the Southern California surfer dude who time travels with his pal, in the innocuous and amusing "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure". Playing off co-star Alex Winter's Bill, Reeves delivered a letter-perfect turn which unfortunately typecast the actor. He was so convincing as the dim-wit with the halting delivery that some came to believe he wasn't acting. It perhaps didn't help that he followed up with similar type parts in "Parenthood" (1989) and "I Love You to Death" (1990). When he tried to assume more serious roles, like the earnest undercover agent in "Point Blank" (1991), audiences and reviewers were loathe to accept him. Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of Patricia Taylor, a costume designer/performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., a geologist. Reeves' mother is English, and his father is an American of Hawaiian and Chinese descent. Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Reeves' father worked as an unskilled laborer and earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling cocaine at the Hilo airport. He abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was 13, and Reeves does not currently have any relationship with him. Reeves is named after his uncle, Henry Keanu Reeves. 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 was sometimes credited as K.C. Reeves. Reeves has one full sister named Kim(born 1966 in Australia) who was diagnosed with leukemia in the early 1990s. Additionally, through his mother he has a half-sister named Karina Miller (born 1976 in Toronto) and through his father another half-sister named Emma Reeves (born 1980 in Hawaii). Reeves experienced an unstable childhood moving around the world frequently and living with numerous stepfathers. His parents divorced in 1966. His mother became a costume designer and moved the family to Australia and then to New York City. There she met and married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director. The couple moved to Toronto but divorced in 1971. Reeves' mother then married Robert Miller, a rock promoter, in 1976, but the couple divorced in 1980. Her fourth husband, Jack Bond, was a hairdresser. That marriage broke up in 1994. Grandparents and nannies babysat Reeves and his sisters. Reeves grew up primarily in Toronto. Within a span of five years, he attended four different high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was later expelled. Half-jokingly, Reeves says that he was expelled "because I was greasy and running around a lot. I 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. I was just getting in their way, I guess." Reeves excelled more in hockey than in academics, as his educational development was challenged by dyslexia. He was a successful goalie at one of his high schools (De La Salle College "Oaklands"). His team nicknamed him "The Wall," and voted him MVP. Reeves says that he would dream of becoming an Olympic hockey player for Canada. After leaving De La Salle College, he attended a free school (Avondale Alternative), which allowed him to obtain an education while working as an actor; he later dropped out, never obtaining his high school diploma. In 1983, Reeves attended Ohio State University. With an athletic background already in place, Reeves joined the college football team, earning the starting quarterback position the very next year. In two films Reeves has played a ex-Ohio State Quarterback (Point Break, The Replacements) paying homage to his time spent at the University. Reeves began his acting career at the age of nine. He appeared on stage at a production of Damn Yankees. At 15, he played Mercutio in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre. Reeves made his screen acting debut in a CBC Television comedy series, Hangin' In. Throughout the early 1980s, he appeared in commercials (including one for Coca-Cola), short films including the NFB drama One Step Away and stage work such as Brad Fraser's Wolf Boy in Toronto. Reeves' first studio movie appearance was in the Rob Lowe ice hockey film Youngblood, which was filmed in Canada. In it, he played an ice hockey goalie. Shortly after the movie's release, Reeves drove to Los Angeles in his 1969 Volvo. His ex-stepfather Paul Aaron, a stage and television director, had convinced Erwin Stoff to be Reeves' manager and agent before he even arrived in Los Angeles. Stoff has remained Reeves' manager, and has coproduced many of his films. After a few minor roles, Reeves received a more sizable role in 1986's River's Edge. Following the film's success, he spent the late 1980s appearing in a number of movies aimed at teenage audiences, including Permanent Record, and the unexpectedly successful 1989 comedy, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which, along with its 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, typecast Reeves as a sweet-natured buffoon. Much of his subsequent portrayal in the press and much of the response to his acting has been influenced by his portrayal of the airheaded Ted. Reeves has said that "I used to have nightmares that they would put 'He played Ted' on my tombstone". During the early 1990s, Reeves started to break out of his teen-film period. He appeared in high-budget action films like Point Break, for which he won MTV's "Most Desirable Male" award in 1992. He was also involved in various lower-budget independent films, including the well-received 1991 film, My Own Private Idaho with his close friend, River Phoenix. Director Gus Van Sant made perfect use of Reeves' unique screen appeal when he cast the actor as the mayor's son who trades in his posh lifestyle for a life as a street hustler in "My Own Private Idaho" (1991). Teamed onscreen with River Phoenix, Reeves delivered a beautifully modulated and sensual performance. Casting agents and directors now viewed the young man as leading man material and Reeves was tapped to play Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola's operatic adaptation of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), a performance he has dismissed. Indeed amid the high concept production values and up against scenery chewers like Anthony Hopkins and Gary Oldman (as Dracula), Reeves comes off as a bit wooden. More successful was a surprising foray into Shakespeare as the dark Don Juan in Kenneth Branagh's sun dappled "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993). While some may have felt Reeves and the Bard would make an unlikely pairing, the actor acquitted himself well. After dieting and buffing up, Reeves undertook the part of Siddhartha in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Little Buddha" (1994), a role that hardly taxed his acting chops. He cut a fine action hero in the bomb-on-a-bus thriller "Speed" (also 1994), which raised his box-office standing. Rather than capitalize on this newfound status as an action hero, though, Reeves confounded all (and reportedly turned down a role in "Heat") by retreating to Winnipeg and undertaking one of the stage's most demanding roles -- "Hamlet". Reaction was divided, although most notices were respectful. But film critics were less kind to his next few performances, feeling the actor was miscast as a WWII-era soldier in the romantic comedy "A Walk in the Clouds" (1995) and an engineer in the actioner "Chain Reaction" (1996). Reeves offered a strong and satisfying performance as an ambitious Southern lawyer seduced by wealth, fame and Satan (in the person of Al Pacino's John Milton) in "The Devil's Advocate" (1997), which could be summed up as "The Exorcist" meets John Grisham. Despite the hokum, the actor cut a believable figure as a successful trail lawyer. Following a two-year absence, Reeves returned to action mode as Neo, a gifted computer hacker who is recruited by mysterious figures and introduced to "The Matrix" (1999). In 1994, Reeves' career reached a new high as a result of his starring role in the action film Speed. His casting in the film was controversial since, except for Point Break, he was primarily known for comedies and indie dramas. He had never been the sole headliner on a film. The summer action film had a fairly large budget and was helmed by novice cinematographer-turned-director Jan de Bont. The unexpected international success of the film made Reeves and co-star Sandra Bullock into A-List stars. Reeves' career choices after Speed were eclectic: despite his successes, Reeves has never stopped accepting supporting roles, and he has always been willing to support experimental efforts. He scored a hit with a romantic lead role in A Walk in the Clouds. He made news by refusing to take part in Speed 2: Cruise Control and choosing to play the title role in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Reeves got surprisingly good reviews for his interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most famous characters. Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times critic, wrote that "He quite embodied the innocence, the splendid fury, the animal grace of the leaps and bounds, the emotional violence, that form the Prince of Denmark...He is one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he * is* Hamlet." Reeves' other choices after A Walk in the Clouds, however, failed with critics and audiences. Big-budget films such as Johnny Mnemonic and Chain Reaction were critically panned and failed at the box office, while indie films like Feeling Minnesota were also critical failures. Reeves started to climb out of his career low after starring in the horror/drama The Devil's Advocate alongside Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. Reeves deferred his salary for The Devil's Advocate so that Pacino would be cast, as he would do later for the less successful The Replacements, guaranteeing the casting of Gene Hackman. The Devil's Advocate did well at the box office, received good reviews, and proved that Reeves could play a grown-up with a career. The 1999 science fiction hit, The Matrix, solidified Reeves's place as an international superstar. In 2000, he was cast as a former football quarterback recruited to play in the major leagues during the 1987 NFL strike in "The Replacements" and a serial killer tracked by a retired federal agent (James Spader) in "The Watcher". Reeves continued to walk on the villainous side by playing the small but pivotal role of a wife abuser (opposite Hilary Swank) in "The Gift." The following year he reunited with Charlize Theron (who played his wife in "Devil's Advocate") for the limp remake of the romance "Sweet November" and barely registered as a reluctant Little League coach in "Hard Ball," a lame attempt to mix "Mighty Ducks" style filmmaking with over-earnest messages. Reeves next ably took on a less central role in the much lighter romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give" (2003), playing Jack Nicholson's charming cardiologist and eventual romantic rival when he becomes besotted with Nicholson's inadvertent love interest Diane Keaton. In between the first Matrix film and its sequels, Reeves received positive reviews for his portrayal of an abusive husband in The Gift. Aside from The Gift, Reeves appeared in several films that received mostly negative reviews and unimpressive box office grosses, including The Watcher, Sweet November and "The Replacements." However, the two Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Something's Gotta Give, and the 2005 horror-action film, Constantine, proved to be box office successes and brought Reeves back into the public spotlight. His latest film, A Scanner Darkly, based on the science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, received favorable reviews, and The Lake House, his romantic outing with Sandra Bullock, did well at the box office. Although the comic book character John Constantine of Swamp Thing and Hellblazer fame was originally a spiked-hair blonde Englishman physically based on the 80s-era pop star Sting, the seemingly miscast Reeves was somehow able to bypass those trappings and make the character his own when he was cast as the occult investigator anti-hero for "Constantine" (2005), an effective, f/x-heavy horror-action hybrid that provided the actor with one of his best roles since the original "Matrix" film. Reeves’ next project was in line with his habit for keeping fans and critics perpetually scratching their heads. He starred opposite Sandra Bullock their first on-screen pairing since “Speed” for “The Lake House” (2006), a sappy romantic drama remade from the South Korean film “Il Mare” (2000) about two lovers who trade letters while living in the same idyllic lake houseonly one exists two years into the future. Though the supernatural element added a new twist to an otherwise standard love story, “The Lake House” suffered from a slow pace and a lack of charm between the leads. Meanwhile, Reeves was set to appear in Richard Linklater’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s classic sci-fi novel, “A Scanner Darkly” (2006). Reeves has wrapped up production on Street Kings, due to be released in 2008, and is currently working on the remake of the 1951 science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still in which he stars as Klaatu. Reeves is an avid follower of ice hockey, American football, surfing, table tennis and soccer. He enjoys riding his numerous motorcycles and coined the term "demon ride" to describe riding fast with the headlights off, at night. Reeves can wax poetic about such rides: "This girl was just the most rockin' girl in the world you could have on the back of a bike because she was...fearless. One night, it was like 12:30, at the time I was practicing doing wheelies, and she said, 'let's go!' So we went on the freeway and it was just magic. She would grab me - she had these really great breasts and really long hair - and we had no helmets and no goggles and we were going like a hundred and thirty miles an hour on five lanes of freeway, with not a soul in sight. And this incredible cloudless moon just hangin' there...I've had some of the best times of my life on a motorcycle." Not all demon rides were so happy. On one such ride in 1988, Reeves crashed near Topanga Canyon and broke several ribs and ruptured his spleen. He has had an abdominal scar ever since. Reeves is a hockey player, a prolific reader with an outstanding memory--he showed up for the production of Hamlet having memorized the entire play--and a lover of Shakespeare. He is left-handed, but plays the bass guitar right-handed. He loves punk rock bands such as The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Joy Division, and The Clash. He has a taste for Indie Rock and is a fan of They Might Be Giants and Crooked Fingers, as well as Mary J Blige and R&B legends Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding. In a 1992 New Year's Eve party show, Reeves filled in on bass for punk rock band The Vandals while bassist Joe Escalante was at a wedding. He began playing the bass with rock band Dogstar, which has now gone "into hibernation." Reeves also had a part in New York thrash metal band Anthrax's "Safe Home" music video. More recently, he played bass in a band called Becky with former Dogstar drummer Rob Mailhouse, guitarist Paulie Kosta and singer Rebecca Lord. In early 2005, he announced that he was leaving the band and his musical career for good. For nearly a decade following his initial rise to stardom, Reeves preferred to live in rented homes and hotels and was a long term resident of the Chateau Marmont. Reeves bought his first house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles around 2003, and also has an apartment in New York City. Reeves has never been married. In December 1999, Reeves' girlfriend Jennifer Syme gave birth to a stillborn daughter who was named Ava Archer Reeves. In April 2001, Syme was killed in a car accident. She was buried next to their daughter in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Though these events happened soon after the release of the first Matrix movie, he has only once spoken about them publicly, saying that he doesn't believe that things happen "for a reason.". He has been equally unwilling to speak about his sister Kim's battle with leukemia. Although in the past, he has expressed some interest in Buddhism, Reeves has said that: "I wasn't raised in any special denominations and I haven't taken on any so far." |
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