Keanu Reeves 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.
106 Facts About Keanu Reeves
2.
Keanu Reeves played John Constantine in Constantine and starred in the romantic drama The Lake House, the science fiction thriller The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the crime thriller Street Kings.
3.
Keanu Reeves has played bass guitar for the band Dogstar and pursued other endeavours such as writing and philanthropy.
4.
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.
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Keanu Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father, who abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old.
6.
Keanu Reeves last met his father on the Hawaiian island of Kauai when he was 13.
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When Keanu Reeves was nine, he took part in a theatre production of Damn Yankees.
8.
Aaron remained close to Keanu Reeves, offering him advice and recommending him a job at the Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania.
9.
Keanu Reeves's mother married Robert Miller, a rock music promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980.
10.
Keanu Reeves subsequently married her fourth husband, a hairdresser named Jack Bond; the marriage lasted until 1994.
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Keanu Reeves watched British comedy shows such as The Two Ronnies, and his mother imparted English manners that he has maintained into adulthood.
12.
Keanu Reeves has dyslexia and has said, "Because I had trouble reading, I wasn't a good student".
13.
Keanu Reeves had aspirations to become a professional ice hockey player for the Canadian Olympic team but decided to become an actor when he was 15.
14.
Keanu Reeves dropped out of high school when he was 17.
15.
Keanu Reeves obtained a green card through his American stepfather and moved to Los Angeles three years later.
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In 1984, Keanu Reeves was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation youth television program Going Great.
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Keanu Reeves made further appearances on stage, including Brad Fraser's cult hit Wolfboy in Toronto.
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Keanu Reeves appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial in 1983, and in the National Film Board of Canada coming-of-age, short film One Step Away.
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Keanu Reeves made a foray into television films in 1986, including NBC's Babes in Toyland, Act of Vengeance and Brotherhood of Justice.
20.
Keanu Reeves 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.
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Keanu Reeves 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.
22.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times describes the performances of the young cast as "natural and credible", with Keanu Reeves being described as "affecting and sympathetic".
23.
Towards the end of the 1980s, Keanu 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.
24.
Keanu Reeves's 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.
25.
In 1989, Keanu Reeves starred in the comedy-drama Parenthood directed by Ron Howard.
26.
In 1990, Keanu 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.
27.
Keanu Reeves 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.
28.
Keanu Reeves starred alongside Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty and Gary Busey in the action thriller Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
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Keanu Reeves plays an undercover FBI agent tasked with investigating the identities of a group of bank robbers.
30.
Keanu 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".
31.
At the 1992 MTV Movie Awards, Keanu Reeves won the Most Desirable Male award.
32.
In 1991, Keanu Reeves developed an interest in a music career; he formed an alternative rock band called Dogstar, consisting of members Robert Mailhouse, Gregg Miller and Bret Domrose.
33.
The film received positive reviews, although Keanu Reeves was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor.
34.
Keanu Reeves starred in the action thriller Speed alongside Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper.
35.
Several actors were considered for the lead role, but Keanu Reeves was chosen because Bont was impressed with his Point Break performance.
36.
Keanu Reeves's next leading role came in the 1995 cyberpunk action thriller Johnny Mnemonic, directed by artist Robert Longo and based on the 1981 story of the same name by William Gibson.
37.
The film received mainly negative reviews and critics felt Keanu Reeves was "woefully miscast".
38.
Keanu Reeves next appeared in the romantic drama A Walk in the Clouds, which garnered mixed-to-negative reviews.
39.
Besides film work, Keanu Reeves retreated briefly to the theatre playing Prince Hamlet in a 1995 Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
40.
Keanu Reeves was drawn to science fiction roles, appearing in Chain Reaction with co-stars Morgan Freeman, Rachel Weisz, Fred Ward, Kevin Dunn and Brian Cox.
41.
Keanu Reeves plays a researcher of a green energy project, who has to go on the run when he is framed for murder.
42.
Keanu Reeves starred in the independent crime comedy Feeling Minnesota, with Vincent D'Onofrio and Cameron Diaz, which was described as "shoddily assembled, and fundamentally miscast" by Rotten Tomatoes.
43.
Keanu Reeves starred in the 1997 supernatural horror The Devil's Advocate alongside Al Pacino and Charlize Theron; Reeves agreed to a pay cut of several million dollars so that the film studio could afford to hire Pacino.
44.
In 1999, Keanu Reeves starred in the critically acclaimed science fiction film The Matrix, the first installment in what would become The Matrix franchise.
45.
Keanu Reeves portrays computer programmer Thomas Anderson, a hacker using the alias "Neo", who discovers humanity is trapped inside a simulated reality created by intelligent machines.
46.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times credited Keanu Reeves for being a "strikingly chic Prada model of an action hero", and thought the martial arts stunts were the film's strongest feature.
47.
Keanu Reeves agreed to a pay cut to enable Gene Hackman to co-star in the film.
48.
Against his wishes, Keanu Reeves starred in the thriller The Watcher, playing a serial killer who stalks a retired FBI agent.
49.
Keanu Reeves said that a friend forged his signature on a contract, which he could not prove; he appeared in the film to avoid legal action.
50.
In 2001, Keanu Reeves continued to explore and accept roles in a diverse range of genres.
51.
Keanu Reeves plays Conor O'Neill, a troubled young man who agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of obtaining a loan.
52.
Sometime afterwards, Keanu Reeves performed in the band Becky for a year, founded by Dogstar band-mate Rob Mailhouse, but quit in 2005, citing a lack of interest in a serious music career.
53.
Paul Clinton, writing for CNN, praised the special effects but felt Keanu Reeves's character was unfocused.
54.
Keanu Reeves co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, and played Dr Julian Mercer in the film.
55.
In 2005, Keanu Reeves played the titular role in Constantine, an occult detective film, about a man who has the ability to perceive and communicate with half-angels and half-demons.
56.
Keanu Reeves next appeared in Thumbsucker, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.
57.
Keanu Reeves appeared in the Richard Linklater-directed animated science fiction thriller A Scanner Darkly, which premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
58.
However, the film attracted generally favourable reviews; Paul Arendt of the BBC thought the film was "beautiful to watch", but Keanu Reeves was outshone by his co-star Robert Downey Jr.
59.
Keanu Reeves played an undercover policeman who must clear his name after the death of another officer.
60.
The film's plot and Keanu Reeves' performance were met with mostly unenthusiastic reviews.
61.
The Guardian opined that "Keanu Reeves is fundamentally blank and uninteresting".
62.
Keanu Reeves starred in another science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, a loose adaptation of the 1951 film of the same name.
63.
Keanu Reeves portrayed Klaatu, an alien sent from outer space to try to change human behaviour or eradicate humans because of their environmental impact.
64.
Keanu Reeves' only work in 2011 was an adult picture book titled Ode to Happiness, which he wrote, complemented by Alexandra Grant's illustrations.
65.
Keanu Reeves co-produced and appeared in a 2012 documentary, Side by Side.
66.
Keanu Reeves interviewed filmmakers including James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Christopher Nolan; the feature investigated digital and photochemical film creation.
67.
In 2013, Keanu Reeves starred in his own directorial debut, the martial arts film Man of Tai Chi.
68.
Keanu Reeves was assisted by Yuen Woo-ping, the fight choreographer of The Matrix films.
69.
Also in 2013, Keanu Reeves played Kai in the 3D fantasy 47 Ronin, a Japanese fable about a group of rogue samurai.
70.
Keanu Reeves played the titular role in the action thriller John Wick, directed by Chad Stahelski.
71.
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times praised Keanu Reeves' fight scenes and wrote he is "always more comfortable in roles that demand cool over hot, attitude over emotion".
72.
Keanu Reeves then had a minor role in The Neon Demon, a psychological horror directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
73.
Keanu Reeves played Hank, a lustful motel owner who appears in Jesse's nightmare.
74.
Keanu Reeves appeared in Swedish Dicks, a two-season web television series.
75.
In 2017, Keanu Reeves agreed to reprise his role for a sequel in the John Wick franchise, John Wick: Chapter 2.
76.
Besides to this large-scale feature, Keanu Reeves starred in a drama, To the Bone, in which he plays a doctor helping a young woman with anorexia.
77.
That year, Keanu Reeves made cameo appearances in the films A Happening of Monumental Proportions and SPF-18.
78.
Keanu Reeves reunited with Winona Ryder in the 2018 comedy Destination Wedding, about wedding guests who develop a mutual affection for each other.
79.
Siberia was critically panned; reviewers thought the plot was nonsensical and Keanu Reeves had little chemistry with co-star Ana Ularu.
80.
Keanu Reeves was nominated for Favorite Male Movie Star of 2019 in the People's Choice Awards, and the film itself was nominated for Best Contemporary Film in the Art Directors Guild Awards.
81.
Keanu Reeves then voiced Duke Caboom in 2019's Toy Story 4, the fourth instalment of Pixar's Toy Story franchise.
82.
Keanu Reeves appeared in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run as a tumbleweed named Sage.
83.
Keanu Reeves appears as Johnny Silverhand in the video game Cyberpunk 2077.
84.
In December 2021, Keanu Reeves returned to the screen for the fourth film in The Matrix franchise: The Matrix Resurrections.
85.
Lionsgate's John Wick: Chapter 4 premiered on March 24,2023; Keanu Reeves reprised his role as the title character.
86.
In 2019, Keanu Reeves travelled to Sao Paulo to produce a Netflix series, Conquest.
87.
Keanu Reeves is expected to star in a film adaptation of it.
88.
In 1998, Keanu Reeves met director David Lynch's assistant Jennifer Syme at a party thrown for his band Dogstar, and they started dating.
89.
Keanu Reeves told investigators that they were back together, and had brunch together in San Francisco the day before the accident.
90.
Keanu Reeves acted as a pallbearer for Syme, who was buried next to their daughter.
91.
Keanu Reeves was scheduled to film the sequels to The Matrix the following spring, but sought "peace and time", according to friend Bret Domrose of Dogstar.
92.
Keanu Reeves has been romantically linked to longtime friend and filmmaker Brenda Davis, whose child he is godfather to, and model-actress China Chow.
93.
In 2009, Keanu Reeves met Alexandra Grant at a dinner party; they went on to collaborate on two books together.
94.
Keanu Reeves is discreet about his spiritual beliefs, saying that it is something "personal and private".
95.
However, this has been significantly embellished; Keanu Reeves negotiated a smaller deal, relinquishing his contractual right to a percentage of the sequels' profits in exchange for a more extensive special effects budget.
96.
Keanu Reeves co-founded a production company, Company Films, with friend Stephen Hamel.
97.
Keanu Reeves has written two books: Ode to Happiness and Shadows, both of which are collaborations with Grant; he provided the text to her photographs and art.
98.
Keanu Reeves's films have been banned from streaming platforms in China such as iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku.
99.
Keanu Reeves has been described as a workaholic, charming and "excruciatingly shy".
100.
Stoff said Keanu Reeves "is a really private person" and keeps his distance from other people.
101.
In 2010, an image of Keanu Reeves became an internet meme after photographs of him were published, sitting on a park bench with a sad facial expression.
102.
The images were posted on the 4chan discussion board and were soon distributed via several blogs and media outlets, leading to the "Sad Keanu Reeves" meme being spread on the internet.
103.
Keanu Reeves took time to sign the banner, and talk to the family.
104.
Keanu Reeves appeared on Forbes annual Celebrity 100 list in 2001 and 2002, at number 36 and 49, respectively.
105.
In 2005, Keanu Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture industry.
106.
Keanu Reeves has won four MTV Movie Awards, and received two Best Actor nominations at the Saturn Awards.