Keanu Reeves Biography
Keanu Charles Reeves, a Canadian actor known for his nobility in the Hollywood film industry, is a humble and down to earth actor who does not shy away from sharing his success with the co-actors and the crew of his movies. The gentle actor famously gave away most of his earnings from the blockbuster trilogy ‘The Matrix’ to the special effects and costume designer team of the movie because he felt that they were the real heroes of the movie.
He also gave away the opportunity to earn millions just so his production team could afford ace actors for his movies like Al Pacino for ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ and Gene Hackman for ‘The Replacement’. Reeves had an emotionally unstable childhood because his father left him and his mother when he was only 3 years old and his mother went on to marry three more times after that.
He traveled along with his mother to Sydney, New York, and Toronto before he decided to leave for LA for good to start his acting career at the age of 15. Reeves has given many blockbuster hits like: ‘The Matrix’. The Matrix Reloaded’, ‘The Matrix Revolutions’, ‘The Devil’s Advocate’, ‘Speed’, ‘Constantine’, etc.
He is a recluse and tries to stay away from the media and enjoys ballroom dancing and surfing more than anything. He has faced many tragedies in his life like the birth of his stillborn daughter ‘Ava’, death of his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Syme and the death of his dear friend and actor River Phoenix. Recently, Reeves made his directorial debut with the movie ‘Man of Tai Chi’ in 2013.
Keanu Reeves Age
Keanu Reeves doesn’t age. Well, he does, numerically at least. Reeves was born on September 2nd, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon, making the John Wick star an unbelievable 54 years old.
Keanu Reeves Early life
Keanu Charles Reeves was born in Beirut on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia (née Taylor), a costume designer and performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr. His mother is English and hails from Essex. His father, an American from Hawaii, is of Chinese-Hawaiian, English, Irish, and Portuguese descent.
Reeves has said, “My grandmother is Chinese and Hawaiian so I was around Chinese art, furniture, and cuisine when I was growing up.” He has also spoken of his English ancestry, mentioning watching comedy shows such as The Two Ronnies during his childhood, and how his mother imparted English manners that he has maintained into adulthood. Reeves’ mother was working in Beirut when she met his father.
Reeves’ father earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling heroin at Hilo International Airport. He abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old, but Reeves knew him until he was six. They last met on the island of Kauai when Reeves was 13.
After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother became a costume designer and moved the family to Sydney, and then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, in 1970. The couple moved to Toronto, Ontario, and divorced in 1971.
When Reeves was 15, he worked as a production assistant on Aaron’s films. Reeves’ mother then married Robert Miller, a rock music promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. She subsequently married her fourth husband, a hairdresser named Jack Bond. The marriage ended in 1994.
Grandparents and nannies babysat Reeves and his sisters, and Reeves grew up primarily in the Yorkville neighborhood of Toronto.
Within five years, Reeves attended four high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was expelled. Reeves stated he was expelled because he was “just a little too rambunctious and shot [his] mouth off once too often… [he] was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school”.
He was a successful ice hockey goalkeeper at De La Salle College. He dreamed of playing ice hockey for Canada, but an injury forced him to consider other career paths. After leaving De La Salle College, he attended Avondale Secondary Alternative School, which allowed him to obtain an education while working as an actor. He later dropped out and did not obtain a high school diploma.
Keanu Reeves Image
Keanu Reeves Career
In 1979, when Reeves was only 15, he acted at the Leah Posluns Theatre in the stage production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. After that, he did his debut on TV with CBC Television’s sitcom ‘Hangin’In’.
In the 1980s, he did commercials for big brands like Coca-Cola, short films like ‘One Step Away’, stage productions like ‘Wolfboy’, etc. In 1984, he also did correspondence for a TV youth program ‘Going Great’, for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
In 1986, Reeves did his first drama film ‘River’s Edge’ – the movie showed a group of teenagers affected by a murder. After the success of this movie, Reeves got noticed and was offered more and more roles in the movies appropriate for his age, like: ‘Permanent Record’.
In 1989, he played the role of ‘Ted Logan’ in the movie ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ and in 1991 its sequel ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ came out. These movies did a lot of good to Reeves’ career but also stereotyped him into a ‘troubled teen’. The media started to describe him as an idealist teen.
In an effort to break his stereotypical image and move forward from the teen movies, Reeves played a young rich boy who spent more time with people from the lower strata in the movie ‘My Private Idaho’ opposite River Phoenix. The movie was very well received with the critics and worked well towards breaking his image as a spaced-out teenager.
In 1992, he worked in the ‘Point Break’ which got him the MTV award for the ‘Most Desirable Male’. Continuing to play serious and meaningful roles, Reeves played the role of an unlucky lawyer who ends up into a vampire’s burrow in ‘Dracula’ in 1992.
In 1994, it was time for Reeves to receive well-deserved fame and position in Hollywood with the release of ‘Speed’.
It made him a big-budget action star. He worked in the movie with already established actress Sandra Bullock. Even after the huge success of ‘Speed’, he carried on doing more experimental roles and also accepted the offer for supporting roles as long as he felt that the role is meaningful and the script of the film is well written.
He was offered to do ‘Speed 2: Cruise Control’, a sequel to ‘Speed’ but he refused to do it even when he was offered around 11 million US dollars.
Throughout the late 90s, he did movies like an American romantic drama ‘A Walk in the Clouds’ in which he played the role of an army man who returns home after the war to settle down with his newlywed wife. It was an adaptation of an Italian movie with the title ‘Four Steps in the Cloud’.
In 1996, he did ‘Feeling Minnesota’ opposite Cameron Diaz, an American romantic comedy. Then it was time to do some big budget movies like: ‘Johnny Mnemonic’, a sci-fi released in the year 1995 and an action thriller called ‘Chain Reaction’ released in 1996.
All the movies that Reeves did after the great success of ‘Speed’ did not do as well as one would have expected but ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ in 1997, an American mystery-thriller, escalated his career.
He starred along with Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. The movie did very well at the box-office and many film critics said that Reeves’ acting skills were maturing with time. But there were still a few who thought that he could have done better.
It was 1999 and Reeves’ career was about to touch the heights with Wachowski Brothers’ sci-fi ‘The Matrix’. The movie did extremely well at the box-office and Reeves’ character ‘Neo’ became an instant hit with the audience and the film critics.
The success of this movie was used in making another two sequels namely: ‘The Matrix Reloaded (2003)’ and ‘The Matrix Revolution (2003)’. The trilogy performed as expected and did wonders for his career. He had now established himself as an actor with versatile talent and mature demeanor.
In between completing the trilogy of ‘The Matrix’, Reeves did movies like ‘The Gift’ in 2000, The Watcher in 2000, ‘Sweet November’ in 2001- a romantic drama starring Charlize Theron opposite him, a comedy called ‘The Replacements’ in 2000 and ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ with Jack Nicholson.
None of these movies could really leave a mark on the entertainment world and Reeve was criticized for his acting skills. But ‘Constantine’ in 2005, a horror-thriller, did quite well at the box-office and everyone again started talking about how good Reeve’s was.
Again in 2006, Reeve’s movie ‘A Scanner Darkly’, a sci-fi based on the novel by Philip k. Dick, did fairly well business wise but his much awaited romantic drama ‘The Lake House’ in 2006 alongside his ‘Speed’ co-star Sandra Bullock did not quite a workout for him and his career and left audiences and his fans feeling disappointed.
His next few releases like ‘Street Kings’ in 2008, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ in 2008 and ‘The Private Life of Pippa Lee’ in 2009 did mildly at the box-office.
In 2010, Reeves did some low-budget movies like ‘Henry’s Crime’ and ‘Generation Um…’ and did a big-budget film as well, known as ’47 Ronin’. During the filming of these movies, Reeves did pre-production work on his home-production and directorial debut, ‘Man of Tai Chi’, a movie inspired by the life of a famous stuntman and his friend Tiger Chen.
‘Man of Tai Chi’ was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and the Beijing Film Festival and was admired by John Woo, director of action movies, alongside being awarded in Beijing.
In 2011, Reeves produced a documentary on the replacement of the photochemical film by the digital camera technology called ‘Side by Side’. He interviewed the ace directors of the industry like Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, etc. In the same year, he wrote a book called ‘Ode to Happiness’ with photographs by Alexandra Grant.
Keanu Reeves Wife |Personal life | Family, And Views
Reeves is entitled to British citizenship through his English mother. He holds Canadian citizenship by naturalization. He grew up as a Canadian and identifies as such, and holds an American green card. Reeves’ biological father was born in the United States but Reeves required a green card because he was not eligible to claim automatic citizenship by birth abroad to one United States citizen.
On December 24, 1999, Reeves’ girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth eight months into her pregnancy to Ava Archer Syme-Reeves, who was stillborn. The strain put on their relationship by their grief resulted in their breakup several weeks later.
On April 2, 2001, Syme was driving alone on Los Angeles’ Cahuenga Boulevard when she sideswiped three parked cars, rolled over several times, and was thrown from the car.
Authorities believed she died instantly. She was reportedly being treated for depression and taking two prescription drugs, which police found in her car.
Reeves, who was scheduled to begin shooting back-to-back Matrix sequels during the subsequent spring, sought “peace and time” to deal with the incident, according to his friend Bret Domrose, a guitarist in Reeves’ alternative rock band Dogstar.
While often described as a Buddhist or atheist, including being mentioned on a “Famous Atheists” list, Reeves is non-religious and has occasionally expressed a belief in God or some other higher power, stating, “I believe in God and the Devil but they don’t have to have pitchforks and a long white beard.
” He has clarified that he has a lot of interest in and respect for Buddhism, but has not “taken refuge in the dharma”. In September 2013, when asked if he was a spiritual person, he replied with a laugh, “Do I believe in God, faith, inner faith, the self, passion, and things? Yes, of course! I’m very spiritual. Supremely spiritual.
Bountifully spiritual. Supremely bountiful.” Reeves has generally been reticent about his spiritual beliefs, saying that it is something “personal and private”.
In 2010, an image of Reeves became an internet meme after photos of him, seemingly depressed while sitting on a park bench eating alone, was posted to a 4chan board. The images were soon distributed via several blogs and news sites. These pictures led to the “Keanu is Sad” or “Sad Keanu” meme being spread on internet forums.
An unofficial holiday was created when a Facebook fan page declared June 15 as “Cheer-up Keanu Day”. On the first anniversary of “Cheer-up Keanu Day”, Reeves was interviewed for an article in the British newspaper The Guardian.
Keanu Reeves Legal issues
In 2008, Reeves was sued in Los Angeles Superior Court by paparazzo Alison Silva. The unsuccessful $711,974 suit claimed that Reeves hit and injured Silva with a Porsche after concluding a family visit at a Los Angeles medical facility. The lawsuit took a year and a half to make it to trial, during which time Silva continued to attack Reeves and demand payment. At the trial, all 12 jurors rejected the suit, needing only an hour of deliberation to reach their verdict.
In 2014, two stalkers trespassed on Reeves’ Hollywood Hills home. On September 12, 2014, Reeves awoke and found a stalker in his library, who told him that she was there to meet him.
While Reeves calmly talked to the stalker, he called the police, who arrived and arrested her before taking her in for psychological evaluation. Three days later, a second stalker made her way into his home through a gate that was left unlocked by a cleaning company.
The intruder undressed and took a shower in Reeves’ bathroom before swimming naked in his pool. The cleaning crew became suspicious and alerted Reeves, who was not at home. He then notified the police and the stalker were remanded.
Keanu Reeves Philanthropy and business
Reeves set up a cancer charity, choosing not to attach his name to the organization; he has also supported PETA, the SickKids Foundation and Stand Up to Cancer. In 2014, he said in an interview that his sister Kim had battled leukemia for more than a decade.
Reeves is quoted as saying, “Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I have already made for the next few centuries.” It has been reported that Reeves gave approximately $80 million of his $114 million earnings from The Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, to the special effects and makeup staff.
The story has been denied by special effects staff themselves as an urban legend. The story likely had its roots in a back-end deal Reeves made with the producers of The Matrix Reloaded, relinquishing his contractual right to a percentage of the earnings from the ticket sales.
Reeves reportedly did so to allow producers the flexibility for an extensive special effects budget. The value of Reeves’ forgone share of the ticket profits has been estimated at $38 million, which was added to the overall movie budget, rather than going directly to special effects.
Reeves co-founded a production company, Company Films. The company helped produce Henry’s Crime, a film in which Reeves stars.
An avid motorcyclist, Reeves co-founded Arch Motorcycle Company, which builds and sells custom motorcycles.
Keanu Reeves Net Worth
Keanu Reeves’ Net Worth and Which of His Movies Have Made the Most Money So Far
An eternally popular actor with a flair for dramatic roles, Keanu Reeves has been working in films since the mid-1980s. From his early screen persona as a clueless teenage stoner to his transition into an action hero and acclaimed thespian, Reeves (one of Hollywood’s notorious nice guys) has appeared in some of the biggest films of all time.
Reeves’ most iconic films
Many people first became aware of Reeves when he co-starred with young up and coming actress Sandra Bullock in the 1994 movie Speed. Reeves netted $1.2 million for his role in the action film, while the movie itself went on to make more than $350 million worldwide.
Reeves hit pay dirt when he starred in The Matrix trilogy, a futuristic sci-fi series that featured Reeves in the leading role. For the first Matrix film, Reeves received $10 million plus 10% of the overall gross – for the second and third films, he made $15 million plus 15% of the gross.
The Matrix Reloaded, the second in the series still stands as Reeves’ biggest movie at the box office. The savvy deal made Reeves one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. Currently, Reeves’ net worth is $350 million.
John Wick and beyond
In the years following The Matrix trilogy, Reeves appeared in a wide variety of both wide release and independent films. He lent his talents to projects like Something’s Gotta Give with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, Constantine, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.
In 2014, Reeves returned to the action hero role he had inhabited years prior when he starred in John Wick. The movie received a positive reception from both critics and audiences, and Reeves went on to reprise the character in John Wick 2, released in 2017.
In 2019, Reeves is set to return as John Wick in John Wick: Chapter 3. He remains a box-office draw to this day, even at the age of 54, and keeps busy with a wide variety of projects.
In addition to the third installment of the John Wick franchise, Reeves will be lending his voice talents to Toy Story 4, due out in Summer 2019 and will be starring in Always Be My Maybe, a comedy film that will be released to Netflix.
In spite of the numerous personal tragedies that Reeves has endured in the course of his life, he remains one of the nicest people in the film industry, beloved by his co-workers and fans alike.
Keanu Reeves Movies
John Wick 2014, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum 2019, The Matrix 1999, John Wick: Chapter 2 2017, Speed 1994, Constantine 2005, Knock Knock 2015, Replicas 2018, Toy Story 4 2019, Point Break 1991, 47 Ronin 2013, The Lake House 2006, The Devil’s Advocate 1997, Destination Wedding 2018, Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1992, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure 1989,
The Day the Earth Stood Still 2008, Siberia 2018, Sweet November 2001, Hardball 2001, A Walk in the Clouds 1995, Exposed 2016, Street Kings 2008, Henry’s Crime 2010, My Own Private Idaho 1991, Something’s Gotta Give 2003, The Matrix Reloaded 2003, A Scanner Darkly 2006, Johnny Mnemonic 1995,
Little Buddha 1993, The Neon Demon 2016, Man of Tai Chi 2013, The Replacements 2000, The Matrix Revolutions 2003, The Witcher 2000, The Whole Truth 2016, Chain Reaction 1996, The Gift 2000, The Bad Batch 2016, River’s Edge 1986, Feeling Minnesota 1996, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee 2009,
Dangerous Liaisons 1988, Much Ado About Nothing 1993, Generation Um… 2012, Parenthood 1989, Permanent Record 1988, I Love You to Death 1990, Thumbsucker 2005, The Night Before 1988, and Brotherhood of Justice 1986
Keanu Reeves Instagram
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Keanu Reeves Twitter
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