Keanu Charles Reeves (born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix. He has worked under major directors, such as Stephen Frears (in the 1988 period drama Dangerous Liaisons); Gus Van Sant (in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho, also written by Van Sant); and Bernardo Bertolucci (in the 1993 film Little Buddha). Referencing his 1991 film releases, The New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised Reeves' versatility, saying that he "displays considerable discipline and range. He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanour that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles."In addition to his film roles, Reeves has also performed in theatre. His performance in the title role in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet was praised by Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times, who declared Reeves "...one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet." On January 31, 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A 2006 ET online survey placed him in the "Top Ten of America's Favorite Stars".
Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of Patricia Bond (née Taylor), an English costume designer/performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., a geologist and Hawaiian-born American of English, Irish, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Chinese descent. Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Reeves' father worked as an unskilled labourer and earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling heroin at Hilo International Airport. He abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old, and Reeves does not currently have any relationship with him.
Reeves moved around the world frequently as a child and he lived with various stepfathers. After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother became a costume designer and moved the family to Australia and then to New York City. There she met and married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director. The couple moved to Toronto; they divorced in 1971. Reeves' mother married Robert Miller, a rock promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. She subsequently married her fourth husband, Jack Bond, a hairdresser, a marriage that broke up in 1994. Grandparents and nannies babysat Reeves and his sisters, and Reeves grew up primarily in Toronto. Within a span of five years, he attended four different high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was later expelled. Reeves stated he was expelled "...because I was greasy and running around a lot. I 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. I was just getting in their way, I guess."
