Keanu Reeves

Birth Name

Keanu Charles Reeves

Birth Day

September 2, 1964

height

6'1" (1.85 m)

Nationality

Canadian

Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix.

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. Reeves stated 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."

Education:

• Etobicoke School of the Arts, Etobicoke , Ontario
• Hedgerow Theatre, Moylan , Pennsylvania
• De La Salle College, Toronto , Ontario
• High School for the Performing Arts, Toronto , Ontario
• Jessie Ketchum Public School, Toronto , Ontario

Early life:
Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of Patricia Bond (née Taylor), a costume designer/performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., a geologist. Reeves' mother is English, and his father is a Hawaiian-born American of English, Irish, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Chinese descent.Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Reeves' father worked as an unskilled labourer and 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, and Reeves does not currently have any relationship with him.
Reeves moved around the world frequently as a child and he lived with various stepfathers. After 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; they divorced in 1971. Reeves' mother married Robert Miller, a rock promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. She subsequently married her fourth husband, Jack Bond, a hairdresser, a marriage that broke up in 1994. Grandparents and nannies babysat Reeves and his sisters, and Reeves grew up primarily in Toronto.
Career:
Reeves began his acting career at the age of  9, appearing in a theatre 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 entitled 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 cult hit Wolfboy in Toronto. In 1984, he was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV youth program Going Great.


Reeves' first studio movie appearance was in the Rob Lowe ice hockey film Youngblood, in which he played a Québécois 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 sizeable role in the 1986 drama film River's Edge, which depicted how a murder affected a group of teens. Following this film's critical 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 spaced-out teen. Much of his portrayal in the press and much of the response to his acting in the early 1990s still mentioned his portrayal of the airheaded Ted.


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, the late River Phoenix. 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.


Reeves' career choices after Speed were eclectic: despite his successes, Reeves continued to accept supporting roles and appear in experimental films. 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 1995 Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba.[8] Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times critic, wrote, "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 the sci-fi action film Johnny Mnemonic and the action-thriller 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, although many critics felt that his poor performance detracted from an otherwise enjoyable movie. The 1999 science fiction-action hit The Matrix, a film in which Reeves had a starring role, was a box office success and attracted positive reviews.


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.



Reeves started filming the surrealist romantic comedy Henry's Crime in December 2009, with filming set to wrap in early 2010. After this he will be starting work as producer and star on the science-fiction space drama Passengers, written by Jon Spaihts.
In January 2009, it was revealed that Reeves will star in the live-action film adaptation of the anime series Cowboy Bebop, slated for release in 2011. Other upcoming projects include the samurai film 47 Ronin, Chef – story by Reeves and written by Steven Knight, and a modern retelling of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, scripted by Justin Haythe and titled Jekyll. Nicolas Winding Refn is in negotiations to direct and was later replaced by Dennis Iliadis and produced by Universal Pictures.
In April 2011 Reeves confirmed that a third instalment of the Bill & Ted movie series was underway.

Personal life:

For nearly a decade following his initial rise to stardom, Reeves preferred to live in rental houses and hotels. He was a long-term resident of the Chateau Marmont. Reeves bought his first house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles around 2003. He also has an apartment on Central Park West in New York City.[citation needed]
He is a U.S. citizen through his American father, and also holds Canadian citizenship by naturalization; he grew up as a Canadian and identifies as such.[citation needed] Due to April 2003 changes in the law, he is entitled to British citizenship through his English mother.
Reeves has never married. In December 1999, his girlfriend Jennifer Syme gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Ava Archer Syme-Reeves. Syme died in 2001, a sole driver involved in an automobile wreck, while partying in Los Angeles.

In 2010, photos of a sad-looking Keanu Reeves eating a sandwich while alone led to the spread of the "Keanu is Sad/Sad Keanu" Internet meme and the declaration of June 15 as "Unofficial Cheer-up Keanu Day" by a Facebook fanpage.

Music:
Reeves played bass guitar in the grunge band Dogstar during the 1990s. In the 2000s, he performed with the band Becky.

Awards:

• Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films,USA  2000 
  Got nomination for Saturn Award 
  category Best Actor for The Matrix (1999) 
  • 
    
• Bambi Awards 2008 Won Bambi Award category Best International Actor 
• Blockbuster Entertainment Awards 2000 Won Blockbuster Entertainment Award category Favorite Actor - Action/Science Fiction for The Matrix (1999) 
• Csapnivalo Awards 2000 Won Golden Slate category Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Matrix (1999)
• Kids' Choice Awards, USA 1995 Got nomination for Blimp Award category Favorite Movie Actor for Speed (1994) 
• MTV Movie Awards 2004 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award category Best Fight for The Matrix Reloaded (2003) 
• 2004 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award category Best Kiss for The Matrix Reloaded (2003) shared with Monica Bellucci 
• 2000 Won MTV Movie Award category Best Fight for The Matrix (1999) 
  shared with Laurence Fishburne 
• 2000 Won MTV Movie Award category Best Male Performance for The Matrix (1999) 
• 2000 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award category Best On-Screen Duo for The Matrix (1999)  shared with Laurence Fishburne
• 1996 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award category Most Desirable Male 

• 1996 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award category Best Kiss for A Walk in the Clouds (1995)  shared with Aitana Sánchez-Gijón 
• 1995 Won MTV Movie Award category Best On-Screen Duo for Speed (1994)  shared with Sandra Bullock 
• 1995 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award category Best Kiss for Speed (1994)  shared with Sandra Bullock 
• 1995 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award category Best Male Performance for Speed (1994) 
• 1995 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award category Most Desirable Male for Speed (1994) 
• 1992 Won MTV Movie Award category Most Desirable Male for Point Break (1991) 
• 2004 Got nomination for MTV Movie Award - Mexico category Sexiest Hero (Héroe más Sexy) for The Matrix Reloaded(2003)
• 2005 Got nomination for Razzie Award category Worst Razzie Loser of Our First 25 Years 
• 2002 Got nomination for Razzie Award category Worst Actor for Hard Ball (2001) 
• 2001 Got nomination for Razzie Award category Worst Supporting Actor for The Watcher (2000) 
• 1997 Got nomination for Razzie Award category Worst Actor for Chain Reaction (1996)
• 1996 Got nomination for Razzie Award category Worst Actor for Johnny Mnemonic (1995) 
• 1994 Got nomination for Razzie Award category Worst Supporting Actor for Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
• 2006 Won Teen Choice Award category Choice Movie Liplock for The Lake House (2006) shared with Sandra Bullock
• 2004 Got nomination for Teen Choice Award category Choice Movie Actor - Drama/Action Adventure for The Matrix Revolutions (2003) 
• 2003 Got nomination for Teen Choice Award category Choice Movie Actor - Drama/Action Adventure for The Matrix Reloaded (2003) 
• 2005 Won Star on the Walk of Fame category Motion Picture (On 31 January 2005; At 6801 Hollywood Blvd) 
• World Stunt Awards 2004 Won Taurus Honorary Award