Keanu Reeves Biography

Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon. His mother, Patricia, was a fashion designer and his father, Samuel, was an unskilled laborer. His father left the family to fend for themselves and moved to Hawaii. Even today Keanu is not in touch with his father. He has a younger sister. His mother kept moving all over the world; once to Australia then to Canada. She kept getting married and divorced again and again. All of this had a toll on young Keanu as he was expelled from school for bad behavior.

Keanu channeled his aggression by taking up ice hockey and acting. He was the goal-keeper for his team. Keanu was so good that he was nicknamed The Wall by his teammates. His was set to become a professional player when tragedy struck. He received a career threatening injury that shattered his dreams of representing Canada at the Olympics. Keanu was heart-broken because hockey was all that he had. His was having trouble in school because he was dyslexic. He turned his attention to acting.

Acting turned out to be a good solution for his problems. He used all his personal issues to fuel his characters. He played the title role of Hamlet. Hamlet too is one of the best tragic stories written by Shakespeare. Keanu played the role very well and was hailed as one of the best by many critics. After theatre the natural path for him was TV; he acted in the CBC comedy series Hangin In and appeared in many national commercial including Coca Cola.

Next stop for him were films. He made his debut in Letting Go (1985), playing an unnamed character. But his third film was the one that got him some attention. He played a hockey goal-keeper in Youngblood (1986). His small role was appreciated and Keanu too was happy playing something he once was in real life. He did a few more small roles in some movies. He got a large role in River’s Edge and did well with it. Keanu was acting in the era of teen movies so he was many times cast to play a typical teenager. This kind of typecasting worked in his favor as he did the cult hit Bill& Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The movie was a surprise hit making room for a sequel called Bill& Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991).

By now, Keanu had had enough of these teenage roles and wanted to do serious roles. He was stuck in the supporting actor mould for quite a while but still managed to find some good work in movies like Point Break (1991), Little Buddha (1993) and the independent film My Own Private Idaho (1991). Keanu was doing good work and things were about to change for him. He was cast in Speed with another relatively newcomer named Sandra Bullock. The movie was about a hijacked bus which is fitted with a bomb and cannot stop or go below the speed of 50miles per hour. The movie was a hit bringing a lot of attention to stars of the movie. Keanu had managed to deliver a hit with his first ever lead role. Now Keanu had the liberty to be picky and choose his own movies. He tried a variety of roles; he tried his hands at romance, A Walk in the Clouds; the movie did not do well. He then played a lawyer in The Devil’s Advocate (1997). He even took a pay cut so that the producers could have Al Pacino in the movie. The movie did well but Keanu received some flak from the critics.

Critical acclamation has always evaded Keanu all through his career and he was not bothered by it. Next came the film that changed the face of cinema. The Matrix was one the most unique and technologically advanced films of its time. Everything from the storyline to the VFX all of it was done in a brand new way. Majority of the film was shot in a studio in front of a green chroma screen. Keanu played Neo who is mankind’s only hope against the machines. The Matrix opened to the number one position and was the biggest hit of the year. This movie brought Keanu a lot international fame and fan-following.

After the huge success of The Matrix, he followed it up with two sequels of the film; The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Both the sequels were also hits making it one of the highest grossing franchises. Keanu consciously started doing movies that delved in the fantasy world. He did Constantine which was a hit and played an alien sent to save the world in The Day the Earth Stood Still. He reunited with his speed co-star Sandra Bullock in The Lake House but the movie bombed. Keanu is currently working on four movies including the mythology-based Hanuman (In Production) where he will play Lord Rama.