|
|
INFO:
Keanu Reeves' mother, Patricia, really got around - and she dragged her kids along for the ride. Keanu was born in Beirut, Lebanon, when the city was still known more for its beaches than for its bombs.
Patricia met Samuel Nowlin Reeves while working as a showgirl at a local club. Their marriage didn't last long, and Patricia packed up Keanu and his little sister, Kim, and relocated to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director. The Aarons toted the kids up to the more family-friendly Toronto, but split up a year later. There would be two more husbands - one a rock-and-roll promoter, and the other a hair salon owner.
Little Keanu seemed to take it all with a laid-back smile; his rotating dads provided such diverse experiences as wrestling with rocker Alice Cooper and being shuttled off to Jewish summer camp. Samuel Nowlin Reeves lost contact with his son when Keanu was still a child, and he is currently serving a prison sentence for cocaine possession.
Keanu never took to academics: "He wasn't quite, well... with it", a former teacher of Keanu has said. "He always left his books at home or forgot his homework. But he'd just smile and go back home to get them."
Hockey and theatre were more to Keanu's liking: often he would mix the two by reciting Shakespeare while tending goal. After bouncing around to several different high schools, Keanu dropped out to pursue acting full-time. He first caused a stir in Toronto with a role in the homoerotic play Wolfboy; he also acted in several Canadian teleplays. When Rob Lowe came to town to film his hockey drama Youngblood, Keanu won a bit part - hockey and drama, all in one opportunity! Keanu then decided to make the long haul from Toronto to Los Angeles in pursuit of his dream - or whatever.
Once in Hollywood, Keanu caught the attention of directors and critics for his performance as a disaffected teenager in River's Edge (1986). The following year, he confounded everyone's expectations of him by rocketing to stardom with Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, while, at the same time, holding his own in the ensemble period drama Dangerous Liaisons. The critics had a conundrum on their hands: was Keanu a gifted actor, or simply a lucky moron? Most supported the latter theory. But no one was in denial about one thing: he was steadily building a career as a bankable leading man.
Keanu has worked with some of the most celebrated directors of our time - Bertolucci (Little Buddha), Coppola (Bram Stoker's Dracula), and Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho); and despite almost continual verbal drubbings at the hands of critics, directors continue clamoring to work with him. Keanu certainly proved his drawing potential with Speed, which racked up $121 million at the box office.
Keanu's private life hasn't proven all that interesting to speculate about, so rumors occasionally seep in to fill the void. For one thing, his sexual orientation is often questioned (one persistent rumor had him married to entertainment mogul David Geffen), and the laconic Keanu doesn't do much to quell the whispers. He will say he is not gay, then coyly add, "But ya' never know... "
He lives in hotels, rides a motorcycle, and often flies the members of his band, Dogstar, to rehearse with him while he is on location. He cited commitments with the band as one of the reasons he turned down nearly $12 million for the critically lambasted Speed 2. He also passed on the chance to work with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat so that he could play Hamlet in Winnipeg. That's right; Winnipeg.
His 1996 actioner Chain Reaction disappointed across the board, but his performance in the coal-black comedy Feeling Minnesota restored his fans' faith. He finally took his chance to work opposite Pacino, in the 1997 thriller the Devil's Advocate, in which he played a bright, young lawyer to Pacino's devilish senior partner. Though Keanu had bad luck with the better-left-forgotten sci-fi bomb Johnny Mnemonic (1995), the Warner Bros. flick The Matrix, in which he portrayed a man who leads a society in a revolt against the computers that enslave it, earned him some of the best notices of his career.
FACTS:
Full name: Keanu Charles Reeves
Born: September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon
Current Location: Los Angeles, California
Stats: 6'0" (1,75 m)
Family: Patricia (mother), Samuel (father), Karina and Kim (sisters)
Status: Engaged to British TV presenter Amanda de Cadenet
Education: Dropped out of High School at 17 to pursue acting
Hobbies: Ballroom dancing, his motorcycle (a '74 Norton Combat Commando), ice hockey; plays bass for band, Dogstar
Trivia: 'Keanu' means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian; Keanu's agent originally booked him as KC Reeves, because 'Keanu' was too hard to pronounce
Quote: "I'm a meathead. I can't help it, man. You've got smart people and you've got dumb people."