Overview (4)

Born September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon Birth Name Keanu Charles Reeves Nicknames The Wall

The One Height 6' 1" (1.86 m)

Mini Bio (1)

Trade Mark (3)

Intense contemplative gaze



Deep husky voice



Known for playing stoic reserved characters



Trivia (85)

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World (1995).



Ranked #23 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]



Arrested in Los Angeles, California; charged with drunk driving. [May 1993]



Loves ballroom dancing.



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.





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).

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.





Ex-stepson of film and stage director Paul Aaron

Had job sharpening ice skates.



Was nicknamed "the wall" by high school hockey team De La Salle College "Oaklands".



Father left the family when Keanu was very young.



Was manager of a pasta shop in Toronto, Ontario.



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).





His mother, Patricia Taylor , was a costume designer for rock stars such as Alice Cooper

His name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian.



Dropped out of high school when he was 17 to become an actor.



Hobbies include horseback riding and surfing (both inspired from movie roles).



Was MVP on his high school hockey team, where he was a goalie.



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!".





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.

His first name, Keanu, is pronounced "kee-ah-noo".



Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#17). [August 1995]





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.



(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.



Was set to reprise his role as Jack Traven in the sequel to Speed (1994) - Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) - but dropped out.

Resides in the Hollywood Hills area, Los Angeles, California, and is said to maintain an apartment in Manhattan as well.





Learned over 200 martial arts moves for The Matrix Reloaded (2003).



Was originally offered the role of Private Chris Taylor in Platoon (1986), which he turned down. The role went to Charlie Sheen



Was originally cast as Chris Shiherlis in Heat (1995) but later backed out of the project. The role went to Val Kilmer

He attended high school at North Toronto, where his drama teacher was Paul Robert.



He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 31, 2005.



His first theater work was with Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Massachusetts in "The Tempest".





He learned to surf for his role in Point Break (1991)



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.



His best friend is his younger sister Kim Reeves



Has recently left the band Becky with former Dogstar bandmate Robert Mailhouse , due to scheduling conflicts.

Auditioned for the Etobicoke School of the Arts in Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; but was rejected.





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).



His best friend was actor River Phoenix . He is also friends with River's brother Joaquin Phoenix



His parents married in Hawaii and divorced in 1966. His mother later remarried Paul Aaron (divorced in 1971) and Robert Miller (between 1976 and 1980).



Lent one of his basses (a yellow Fender) to be used in the music video, "100%", by Sonic Youth , to bassist Kim Gordon

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#28) (2007).





Has played a former quarterback from the Ohio State University in two films: Point Break (1991) and The Replacements (2000).



Turned down the role of Racer X in Speed Racer (2008), which eventually went to Matthew Fox



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.

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.





Has named Peter O'Toole as the actor who has influenced him the most.

(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.



Played ice hockey for the California Senior Hockey League (1995).



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.



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).



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.



Decided to become an actor at age 15 when he was doing Romeo and Juliet in 10th grade.





Was trained for four months in martial arts (kung-fu) for The Matrix (1999) (1998).

Attended the 2008 Bambi Awards in Offenburg, Germany. [November 2008]



Attending the IndyCar Long Beach Grand Prix as a guest of honor. [April 2009]





Attended a press conference for The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) in Mexico City, Mexico. [December 2008]

Attended the 59th Berlin International Film Festival in Germany. [February 2009]



Announced that he is teaming up with friend Gard Hollinger of L.A. County Choprods to launch the Arch Motorcycle Company. [October 2012]





Attended press conferences for The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) in Paris, France and Madrid, Spain. [November 2008]

Is jokingly considered to be immortal due to striking resemblances to Vlad the Impaler and Paul Manet.





Had a bathtub scene in two films with Rachel Weisz , where she sits in the tub with clothes on and he is outside the tub: Constantine (2005) and Chain Reaction (1996).



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.

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.





He was among the actors considered for the role of Wolverine in X-Men (2000), before Hugh Jackman was cast.



For a Halloween party as a teenager, Keanu once wore the bunny costume his mother Patricia Taylor had designed for Dolly Parton 's 1978 Playboy magazine cover.



Considered for the role of Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers (1997).



He has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Matrix (1999).



According to The Playlist, Reeves was set to star in a cooking film with David Fincher set to direct, though there hasn't been any update since.

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.



Co-Owner of Arch Motorcycles.



Met Stephen Hamel in 1986, when Hamel photographed Reeves. The two went on to create their production outfit Company Films.



Personal Quotes (83)

What would happen if you melted? You know, you never really hear this talked about much, but spontaneous combustion? It exists!...[people] burn from within...sometimes they'll be in a wooden chair and the chair won't burn, but there'll be nothing left of the person. Except sometimes his teeth. Or the heart. No one speaks about this, but its for real.



My name can't be *that* tough to pronounce!



When I don't feel free and can't do what I want I just react. I go against it.



[when told he would have to "bite the bullet"] Yes, but I don't have to eat the whole rifle.



I'm a meathead, man. You've got smart people, and you've got dumb people. I just happen to be dumb.



I'm sorry my existence is not very noble or sublime.



[on being a star] It can still be very surreal. It's easy to become very self-critical when you're an actor. Then you get critiqued be the critics. Whether you agree with them or not, people are passing judgment on you.



[on drugs] I've had wonderful experiences. I mean really wonderful. In teaching. Personal epiphanies. About life. About a different perspective -- help with different perspectives that you have. You know what I mean? Relationships to nature. Relationships with the self. With other people. With events.



[when asked if he had any fears] I used to have nightmares that they would put "He played Ted" on my tombstone.



I'm Mickey Mouse. They don't know who's inside the suit.



Here comes 40. I'm feeling my age and I've ordered the Ferrari. I'm going to get the whole mid-life crisis package.



It's always wonderful to get to know women, with the mystery and the joy and the depth. If you can make a woman laugh, you're seeing the most beautiful thing on God's Earth.





[on River Phoenix ] You can't blame Hollywood for what happened to River. Kids are doing drugs everywhere in the world. He had his own very personal problems I will never discuss with the press. They're just way too personal. River had a self-destructive side to his personality. He was angry and hurt that he couldn't have a private life once he became famous. He just couldn't deal with having his private life on the front page all the time.



[on River Phoenix ] River was a remarkable artist and a rare human being. I miss him every day.



[on River Phoenix and My Own Private Idaho (1991)] We were doing I Love You to Death (1990), and we got the Idaho script. We were driving in a car on Santa Monica Boulevard, probably on the way to a club, and were talking really fast about the whole idea. We were excited. It could have been like a bad dream, a dream that never follows through because no one commits, but we just forced ourselves into it. We said, "Okay, I'll do it if you do it. I won't do it if you don't." We shook hands. That was it.



[on Patrick Swayze and working with him on Point Break (1991)] He was a beautiful person, an artist! Patrick, he just wanted to experience life and, for his work, he wanted to take the opportunity of the film and it gave him that sense. There was some sky diving sequences in this film we did together and as filming was going on it came to be that Patrick was jumping out of airplanes all the time. I think he had over 30 jumps during the course of filming and so the production served him with a cease and desist which he listened to until they got to Hawaii. He jumps out of planes and did the flips and falling to the ground and he did it with an open heart. I'll always remember his buddy for lighting up a room with his presence. I can say what I know that he lived life to the fullest.

[1995, on his idea of happiness] Lying in bed with my lover, riding my bike, sports, happy times with my friends, conversation, learning, the earth, dirt, a beautiful repast with friends, family with wine and glorious food and happy tidings and energy and zest and lust for life. I like being in the desert, in nature, being in extraordinary spaces in nature, high in a tree or in the dirt, hanging out with my family, my sisters.



[1995] L.A. has been my place of abode for seven years and I have a little place in New York City. I don't even have a house house, but I have been living in the same place in Los Angeles for a couple of years and it's just now becoming a home. I like to be free and unfettered. I like the option of being able to do anything and go anywhere, anytime. I like to have my house open. A lot of my friends have keys to my houses and I like to have everything, you know, 'What's mine is yours,' and to drink wine, talk and hang out.





[1995, on My Own Private Idaho (1991)' You know what's great? Right after I finished Dracula (1992), I went to Paris to visit a couple of friends, shipped over one of my Norton's, my '72 750 with California plates, and just hung out for two-and-a-half weeks. My Own Private Idaho (1991) had just opened at a theater right near my friend's house where I was staying. I got stopped by a couple of American students who'd seen it and they bought me a beer. Which is what you should do in Paris: sit in cafés, talk, hang out. I had miraculous weather, so it didn't rain on my parade. Then, I went to New York to visit friends, sat down, hung out, and the same sort of thing happened there. So, do I want more movies that lead to experiences like that? Yes, please.



[on auditioning for Oliver Stone 's The Doors (1991)] I auditioned a few times, but I don't think I was ever seriously in the running. I was terrified. I just read some of Jim Morrison 's poetry and listened to some of his music and did what I could.

Josh Richman,

[1992] It's only very recently that I've been approached with, 'Would you like to do this?' Mostly, I'm still auditioning, which there's something to be said for. Up to now, my only real choices have been: 'Hmmmm, an audition, go or not go? Go!' I auditioned seven times for _Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1900)_ and all the 'finalists' had to read with everyone else-me, Pauly Shore Alex Winter and others. I met with Francis Ford Coppola three times before he asked me if I wanted to play the part in Dracula (1992).

[on his beliefs] Sure I believe in God and the Devil but they don't have to have pitchforks and a long white beard.





[on directing himself as a villain in Man of Tai Chi (2013) The first day was not fun, because one is so objective and one is so subjective. As an actor, you only have your responsibility to your role within the whole, and the director has a responsibility to the whole and you in it. So it's a different mindset. And you're literally, physically, in two different spaces.

[on the possibility of Bill and Ted 3] It's a long story. There's lots of subterfuge and conspiracy theories. There's a whole thing... I might have to do one of those independent press, conspiracy, other-name kind of [statements] explaining why it hasn't happened yet, because it's pretty dark out there... There is [a script]. There's all sorts of stuff and it just can't - it's just - there's darkness out there that's keeping it from happening... It's that part of the story where it's looking grim. It's the dark period of the idea!





[on turning down Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)] They said, "You've got to do this", And I said, "I read the script and I can't. It's called Speed and it's on a cruise ship." I didn't work at Fox for 15 years.



[on why he turn down the opportunity to reprise his role as Jack Traven for Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)] I didn't get to be in that. Well, I decided not to be in that. I loved working with Jan de Bont and Sandra, of course. It was just a situation in life where I got the script and I read the script and I was like "ugggghhh". It was about a cruise ship and I was thinking, a bus, a cruise ship... Speed, bus, but then a cruise ship is even slower than a bus and I was like, I love you guys but I just can't do it.

I love riding my bike through Los Angeles on the Pacific Coast Highway. I also go to the Santa Monica Mountains. It is like losing myself, like playing a musical instrument or any other pastime that takes away regular cares and responsibilities.



[on what would surprise people about him] I read a lot. I have just finished Proust's A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu and John Updike's Rabbit novels. That was cool, reading literature looking at America over the past 40 years.



[I am trying to give up] smoking. I didn't even start until I was 30. I got hooked making Feeling Minnesota and now it's a prison, but I want to stop.



I never cared about the money, that's not why I started acting, and I never liked the fame. The paparazzi culture is more pervasive than it used to be, kind of: 'Let's watch the actor pump gas.' It's nice not to have to worry about bills, though. It's a cliche that money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy you the freedom to live your life the way you want. Knock on wood, I've been very fortunate: I've been able to earn a really good living and start a charity foundation, which is nice.



As a kid, I didn't dream of becoming a movie star. No, I dreamt of travelling to distant planets in flying machines. I loved acting, though, and by the time I was a teenager, it was something I wanted to do with my life. I was acting professionally by the time I was 16. I grew up around the business - my stepfather was a director, my mother was a costume designer - but I also loved sport and, at one point, thought of doing that as a career. I played hockey, basketball and baseball.





[on his biggest challenge] Settling down. I am pretty nomadic. Staying in one place is hard for me. I've rented homes before and I've stayed in hotels - I was in a hotel for almost four years in the early Nineties - but the road has also been my home. I was in Australia for 16 months doing The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and The Matrix Reloaded (2003). I've made more than 40 films, so if you think that each of those take three to four months minimum, living in a trailer, it works out at quite a few years on the road!



[on whether he thinks he takes after his mother] Yes, my mother is the one who raised me - she is a very independent woman and she probably passed that on. She is from Hampshire, she left England when she was very, very young - 14 or 15 - but she gave me some English manners. She taught me which side the fork went on the plate, but also there was the two-fingers attitude, an irreverence. I love the irreverence and the word play of British humour and the social commentary. I was raised on The Two Ronnies (1971) and Monty Python.

I don't shop a lot, but I do like nice clothes and, I guess, if I have a look it is suits and T-shirts with casual boots. I like to have a suit that fits well. I wear Kiton, Costume National and Gucci once in a while.



Mortality is very different when you're 20 to when you're 50.



How do people relate to movies now, when they're on portable devices or streaming them? It's not as much about going to the movies. That experience has changed.



I've been really fortunate to be able to do different kinds of films in different scales, different genres, different kinds of roles, and that is important to me.



I am waiting for the right story to tell. Just like 'Man of Tai Chi' just seemed to be the right story to tell. So I'm looking for that. Because I really love directing. I love developing the story. I love actors. I love the cinema of it, the way that you tell a story visually.



I believe in love at first sight. You want that connection, and then you want some problems.



I've been pleased to work with so many wonderful stars through the years. This has been an amazing journey. I hope it continues.



I am not handsome or sexy. Of course, it's not like I am hopeless.



I don't know the law, the kind of law of quantity and quality, but I think the opportunity of people being able to express themselves and to have the means of production is a great thing. It's also changing how we're telling stories.



People were saying that David Geffen and I had gotten married and it just blew me away. Not that they thought I was gay, but that they thought I could land a guy that hot.



It's the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world.



I want to make a good, solid kung fu movie.



I mean, if you didn't get it or if you didn't feel like you enjoyed it, sometimes that experience can change.



But I did 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'. They made a cereal out of it, so once you've had a cereal, it doesn't get much more surreal than that. Surreal cereal.



I have definitely been curious and involved in the process; even as a young actor. I was always looking at where the camera was, what story it was telling. And as my experience grew, I wanted to know even more.



When the people you love are gone, you're alone.



You know what, I'd done an interview show when I was like 16 or 17. One of my first jobs. I did interviews for this television show in Toronto.



Letters are something from you. It's a different kind of intention than writing an e-mail.



And of course to work with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, and work with a wonderful, beautiful script directed by Nancy Meyers, it was really for me a dream come true.



But, you know, it's still a drag to get your picture taken when you're eating a sandwich. It's a downer.



When we talk about how movies used to be made, it was over 100 years of film, literal, physical film, with emulsion, that we would expose to light and we would get pictures.



On a good night, I get underwear, bras, and hotel-room keys thrown onstage... You start to think that you're Tom Jones.



I do think there must be some kind of interaction between your living life and the life that goes on from here.



The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.



It's fun to be hopelessly in love. It's dangerous, but it's fun.



Falling in love and having a relationship are two different things.



I think the form, the Hollywood movie, I think the quality is obviously always going to be there and I think that the question of taste, there's always a question of taste.



I think - I don't know, maybe it's nostalgia. But the choice, losing the choice to be able to use film is going to be - it's gone. It's going to be gone.



I mean, I went to a Catholic boys' school for a year, but that was to play hockey. Religion class was quite contentious for me.



Grief changes shape, but it never ends.



I try not to think about my life. I have no life. I need therapy.



Because we're actors we can pretend and fake it, but I'd rather the intimate investment was authentic.



Artists are losing the choice to use film. People have a love for it - the grain, how it feels, the texture.



The truth is often terrifying, which I think is one of the motifs of Larry and Andrew's cinema. The cost of knowledge is an important theme. In the second and third films, they explore the consequences of Neo's choice to know the truth. It's a beautiful, beautiful story.



I have a producing partner named Stephen Hamel, and we've been trying to generate material.



I just felt that if I went into Speed 2, I just... wouldn't have come up out of the water.



Kissing someone is pretty intimate, actually very intimate, and your heart always kind of skips a beat before you do that.



It's easy to become very self-critical when you're an actor. Then you get critiqued by the critics. Whether you agree with them or not, people are passing judgment on you.



The whole aspect of cinema and film festivals should be a moment to come together and celebrate art and humanity. It would be a shame if there was such a divide.



Energy can't be created or destroyed, and energy flows. It must be in a direction, with some kind of internal, emotive, spiritual direction. It must have some effect somewhere.



I was always interested - I mean, it's kind of part of your job - I was always interested in the camera.



Sometimes when you make a film you can go away for three months and then come back and live your life. But this struck a much deeper chord. I don't have the ability yet to speak about it in an objective.



But I think we're also just talking about the literacy of the audience. The visual literacy of the audience. They've seen so many images now, especially here in the States. There's so much to look at, to watch. So the visual storytelling literacy is harder to impress.



I had the classic 40 meltdown. I did. It's embarrassing. It was pretty funny. But then I recovered. To me, it was like a second adolescence. Hormonally, my body was changing, my mind was changing, and so my relationship to myself and the world around me came to this assault of finiteness.



I've had the opportunity to work with so many great directors. Different styles, as well, like Gus Van Sant. He just does the casting and the milieu and lets you do your thing, quietly. Bertolucci, who can talk to you about your internal world in quite a creative way or just say, 'Well, put your hand over here.'



How do I confront aging? With a wonder and a terror. Yeah, I'll say that. Wonder and terror.



Money doesn't mean anything to me. I've made a lot of money, but I want to enjoy life and not stress myself building my bank account. I give lots away and live simply, mostly out of a suitcase in hotels. We all know that good health is much more important.



I'm not a photographer, so I didn't get into F-stops or ND filters or background, foreground, cross-light, all that stuff. But I was interested in the camera and the lenses. That's the world that I'm moving in, in terms of acting and giving a performance.





[answering Stephen Colbert's question made on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015) about what happens when people die] I know that the ones who loves us will miss us.

You're breathtaking! You're all breathtaking!



Salary (8)