Keanu Reeves

Keanu Charles Reeves, whose first name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, was born September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of Patric Reeves, a showgirl and costume designer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist. Keanu's father was born in Hawaii, of British, Portuguese, Native Hawaiian, and Chinese ancestry, and Keanu's mother is originally from Essex England. After his parents' marriage dissolved, Keanu moved with his mother and younger sister, Kim Reeves, to New York City, then Toronto. Stepfather #1 was Paul Aaron, a stage and film director - he and Patricia divorced within a year, after which she went on to marry (and divorce) rock promoter Robert Miller. Reeves never reconnected with his biological father. In high school, Reeves was lukewarm toward academics but took a keen interest in ice hockey (as team goalie, he earned the nickname "The Wall") and drama. He eventually dropped out of school to pursue an acting career.

After a few stage gigs and a handful of made-for-TV movies, he scored a supporting role in the Rob Lowe hockey flick Youngblood (1986), which was filmed in Canada. Shortly after the production wrapped, Reeves packed his bags and headed for Hollywood. Reeves popped up on critics' radar with his performance in the dark adolescent drama, Tuhon ranta (1986), and landed a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated Valheet ja viettelijät (1988) with director Stephen Frears.

His first popular success was the role of totally rad dude Ted "Theodore" Logan in Billin ja Tedin uskomaton seikkailu (1989). The wacky time-travel movie became something of a cultural phenomenon, and audiences would forever confuse Reeves's real-life persona with that of his doofy on-screen counterpart. He then joined the casts of Ron Howard's comedy, Parenthood (1989) and Lawrence Kasdan's Rakastan sinut kuoliaaksi (1990).

Over the next few years, Reeves tried to shake the Ted stigma with a series of highbrow projects. He played a slumming rich boy opposite River Phoenix's narcoleptic male hustler in Matkalla Idahoon (1991), an unlucky lawyer who stumbles into the vampire's lair in Bram Stokerin Dracula (1992), and Shakespearean party-pooper Don John in Paljon melua tyhjästä (1993).

In 1994, the understated actor became a big-budget action star with the release of Speed - kuoleman kyydissä (1994). Its success heralded an era of five years in which Reeves would alternate between small films, like Feeling Minnesota (1996) and Elämän harhapolut (1997), and big films like Rakkauden pilvitarha (1995) and Paholaisen asianajaja (1997). (There were a couple misfires, too: Johnny Mnemonic - kuoleman kuriiri (1995) and Chain Reaction (1996).) After all this, Reeves did the unthinkable and passed on the Speed sequel, but he struck box-office gold again a few years later with the Wachowski siblings' cyberadventure, Matrix (1999).

Now a bonafide box-office star, Keanu would appear in a string of smaller films -- among them Replacements - korvikkeet (2000), The Watcher (2000), The Gift - Enne (2000), Sweet November (2001), and Hard Ball (2001) - before The matrix reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) were both released in 2003.

Since the end of The Matrix trilogy, Keanu has divided his time between mainstream and indie fare, landing hits with Jotain annettavaa (2003), Talo järven rannalla (2006), and Street Kings (2008). He's kept Matrix fans satiated with films such as Constantine (2005), Hämärän vartija (2006), and Päivä jona maailma pysähtyi (2008). And he's waded back into art-house territory with Ellie Parker (2005), Thumbsucker (2005), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), and Henry's Crime (2010).

Most recently, as post-production on the samurai epic 47 Ronin (2013) waged on, Keanu appeared in front of the camera in Side by side: elokuvan tulevaisuus (2012), a documentary on celluloid and digital filmmaking, which he also produced. He also directed another Asian-influenced project, Man of Tai Chi (2013).

In 2014, Keanu played the title role in the action revenge film John Wick (2014), which became popular with critics and audiences alike. He reprised the role in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), taking the now-iconic character to a better opening weekend and even more enthusiastic reviews than the first go-around.