Keanu Reeves - Speed

In Beruit, Lebanon, Patricia Reeves had an excellent adventure on a bogus journey to motherhood. On September 2, 1964, she and husband Samuel Nowlin Reeves welcomed little Keanu into the world. The family has a thing for the letter "K," as Keanu's two sisters are Kim and Karina. Keanu's name draws from his father's Hawaiian ancestry, and means "cool breeze over the mountains." 

His parent's marriage, however, was far from a cool breeze, and the two would eventually divorce. She was a showgirl, and he a geologist, so if nothing else, the careers were down quite different alleys. Keanu and his mother moved to New York City, where she met and married actor Paul Aaron. When Keanu was just five, the family then moved to Toronto, where Keanu would become a Canadian citizen. Paul and Patricia divorced within a year, but again she married, this time to rock promoter Robert Miller (this couple divorced) and then Jack Bond. 

At age 13, Keanu saw his father for the last time. Keanu doesn't speak much of his father, but he has described himself as a "middle-class white boy, with an absent father." His father is now in prison, on felony cocaine possession charges. Keanu attended kindergarten through eighth grade in Canada at Jesse Ketchum Public School. High school became a problem though. Keanu bounced around through four different schools before deciding that high school was just not for him. Although he enjoyed the ice hockey (where he earned the nickname "The Wall"), he was not a fan of the academics. He dropped out completely at 17, to pursue an acting career. 

He landed a few roles, but it was Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure that catapulted him to stardom. He then did a sequel to the film, but vanished into obscurity. He received a script for a film called "Speed," and he signed on with then unknown Sandra Bullock. The film was a breakaway success, and once again pulled him to the forefront of Hollywood actors. He oddly passed on the sequel to "Speed" (maybe he learned from the Bill and Ted's disaster), and instead worked with his band, Dogstarr, where he plays the bass guitar. 

In 1999, he once again had a huge hit in The Matrix, a film that received critical praise and became one of the most successul movies of the year. The movie would spawn 2 more, and give him quite a bunch of money. 

 

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