Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves 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 and raised in Toronto, Reeves made his acting debut in the Canadian television series Hangin' In, before making his feature-film debut in Youngblood. He had his breakthrough role in the science-fiction comedies Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break and Speed. Following several box-office disappointments, Reeves's performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate was well received. Greater stardom came with his role as Neo in The Matrix ; 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.
Reeves made his film directorial debut with Man of Tai Chi. 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. Reeves voiced Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4 and portrayed Johnny Silverhand in the video game Cyberpunk 2077 as well as its expansion. He has since reprised his roles of Ted in Bill & Ted Face the Music and Neo in The Matrix: Resurrections, and voiced Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
In addition to acting, Reeves is a member of the musical band Dogstar, releasing albums including Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees. He is the co-writer and creator of the BRZRKR franchise, which started with the original comic book 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.
Early life
Keanu Charles Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia, 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. They divorced in 1966 when Reeves was young. Reeves last met his father on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i when he was thirteen.After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother moved the family to Sydney, Australia, and then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, in 1970. The 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". 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 fifteen, 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 seventeen. He obtained a green card through his American stepfather and moved to Los Angeles three years later. Reeves holds only Canadian citizenship.
Career
1984–1990: Early work
In 1984, Reeves was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 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 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.In 1986, Reeves made a foray into television films, 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, 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".
In 1988, Reeves starred in several dramas aimed at teen audiences, including as the lead in The Night Before, a comedy starring opposite Lori Loughlin, The Prince of Pennsylvania and Permanent Record. Although the latter received mixed reviews, Variety magazine praised Reeves's performance, "which opens up nicely as the drama progresses". His other acting efforts included a supporting role in Dangerous Liaisons, which earned seven nominations at the 61st Academy Awards, winning three: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design.
In 1989, Reeves starred in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, in which he portrays a slacker who travels through time with a friend, to assemble historical figures for a school presentation. The film was generally well received by critics and grossed $40.5 million at the worldwide box office. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 79% approval rating with the critical consensus: "Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are just charming, goofy, and silly enough to make this fluffy time-travel Adventure work". Reeves then starred in the comedy-drama Parenthood directed by Ron Howard. Nick Hilditch of the BBC gave the film three out of five stars, calling it a "feelgood movie" with an "extensive and entertaining ensemble cast". In 1990, Reeves gave two acting performances; he portrayed an incompetent hitman in the black comedy I Love You to Death, and played Martin, a radio station employee in the comedy Tune in Tomorrow. He also appeared in Paula Abdul's music video for "Rush Rush" which featured a Rebel Without a Cause motif, with him in the James Dean role.
1991–1994: Breakthrough with mature roles
In 1991, Reeves starred in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, a sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, with his co-star Winter. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the sequel was "more imaginative, more opulent, wilder and freer, more excitingly visualized", praising the actors for their "fuller" performances. Film critic Roger Ebert thought it was "a riot of visual invention and weird humour that works on its chosen sub-moronic level It's the kind of movie where you start out snickering in spite of yourself, and end up actually admiring the originality that went into creating this hallucinatory slapstick". The rest of 1991 marked a significant transition for Reeves's career as he undertook adult roles. Co-starring with River Phoenix as a street hustler in the adventure My Own Private Idaho, the characters embark on a journey of personal discovery. The story was written by Gus Van Sant, and is loosely based on William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V. The film premiered at the 48th Venice International Film Festival, followed by a theatrical release in the United States on September 29, 1991. The film earned $6.4 million at the box office. My Own Private Idaho was positively received, with Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly describing the film as "a postmodern road movie with a mood of free-floating, trance-like despair a rich, audacious experience". The New York Times complimented Reeves and Phoenix for their insightful performances.Reeves starred alongside Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty and Gary Busey in the action thriller Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. He plays an undercover FBI agent tasked with investigating the identities of a group of bank robbers. To prepare for the film, Reeves and his co-stars took surfing lessons with professional surfer Dennis Jarvis in Hawaii; Reeves had never surfed before. Upon its release, Point Break was generally well-received, and a commercial success, earning $83.5 million at the box office. Reeves's performance was praised by The New York Times for "considerable discipline and range", adding, "He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanour that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles". Writing for The Washington Post, Hal Hinson called Reeves the "perfect choice" and praised the surfing scenes, but opined that "the filmmakers have their characters make the most ludicrously illogical choices imaginable". At the 1992 MTV Movie Awards, Reeves won the Most Desirable Male award.
In 1991, Reeves developed an interest in a music career; he formed the alternative rock band Dogstar, consisting of members Robert Mailhouse, Gregg Miller and Bret Domrose. Reeves played the bass guitar. A year later, he played Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola's Gothic horror Bram Stoker's Dracula, based on Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, starring alongside Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Anthony Hopkins. The film was critically and commercially successful: it grossed $215.8 million worldwide. For his role, Reeves was required to speak with an English accent, which drew some ridicule; "Overly posh and entirely ridiculous, Reeves's performance is as painful as it is hilarious", wrote Limara Salt of Virgin Media. In a retrospective interview in 2015, director Coppola said, " tried so hard He wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted". Bram Stoker's Dracula was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning three in Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing and Best Makeup. The film also received four nominations at the British Academy Film Awards.
In 1993, he had a role in Much Ado About Nothing, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. The film received positive reviews, although Reeves was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor. The New Republic magazine thought his casting was "unfortunate" because of his amateur performance. In that same year, he starred in two more drama films, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Little Buddha, both of which garnered a mixed-to-negative reception. The Independent critic gave Little Buddha a mixed review but opined that Reeves's part as a prince was "credible". The film also left an impression on Reeves; he later said, "When I played this innocent prince who starts to suspect something when he has the first revelations about old age, sickness and death, it hit me. That lesson has never left me."
In 1994, he starred in the action thriller Speed alongside Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper. He plays police officer Jack Traven, who must prevent a bus from exploding by keeping its speed above 50 mph. Speed was the directorial debut of Dutch director Jan de Bont. Several actors were considered for the lead role, but Reeves was chosen because de Bont was impressed with his Point Break performance. To look the part, Reeves shaved all his hair off and spent two months in the gym to gain muscle mass. During production, Reeves's friend and his My Own Private Idaho co-star River Phoenix died, resulting in adjustments to the filming schedule to allow him to mourn. Speed was released on June 10 to a critically acclaimed response. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune lauded Reeves, calling him "absolutely charismatic giving a performance juiced with joy as he jumps through elevator shafts and atop a subway train". David Ansen, writing for Newsweek, summarized Speed as, "Relentless without being overbearing, this is one likely blockbuster that doesn't feel too big for its britches. It's a friendly juggernaut". The film grossed $350 million from a $30 million budget and won two Academy Awards in 1995Best Sound Editing and Best Sound.