Keanu Reeves is one of the most identifiable motion picture stars into the the world. Shortly after very early work in Toronto toward CBC while the NFB, he relocated to La making good meteoric go up to help you stardom in such films given that Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Expenses & Ted’s Higher level Thrill (1989), Point Crack (1991) and you may personal Personal Idaho (1991). He could be maybe best known in action-excitement movies eg Speed (1994), the newest John Wick franchise therefore the five Matrix films. He’s got come honoured with a superstar towards the both Hollywood Stroll off Fame and Canada’s Walking from Glory.

Very early Existence and you can Knowledge

Keanu Reeves arrived in Canada while the a kid and turned into good naturalized Canadian citizen. He is the fresh new man off English-produced entertainer and you can costume developer Patricia Taylor and American-produced Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist from Native Hawaiian, Chinese, United kingdom and you will Portuguese ancestry. Once his mothers split up when he is around three, Reeves’s mom grabbed him and his younger cousin, Kim, so you can Australian continent, New york right after which Toronto, coming in there when he are five. Compliment of their mom’s subsequent marriages he previously around three stepfathers: phase and you can motion picture manager Paul Aaron, stone supporter Robert Miller, and you will salon holder Jack Thread.

Over five years, Reeves went to five universities, as well as Avondale Secondary Alternative University, De La Salle College or university, and also the Etobicoke School of your Arts, at which he was expelled to possess misbehaviour. Reeves’s diminished interest in teachers could have been partly due to dyslexia. He excelled at hockey (the guy starred purpose and you will is nicknamed “the newest wall surface”) and you can imagined one-day to play to have Cluster Canada. He had been as well as finding crisis and made his first stage appearance from the age 9 when you look at the a theatrical production of Really Yankees. At fifteen, he played Mercutio during the a production of Romeo and you may Juliet at Toronto’s Leah Posluns Cinema. Reeves in addition to struggled to obtain Aaron because the a launch assistant prior to losing out of twelfth grade in the place of obtaining a diploma.

Early Industry

If you are searching in several stage creations, Television films and television collection, Reeves served because the an excellent correspondent to your CBC teens show Heading Higher (1984). He in addition to starred since a difficult teenager regarding the NFB docudrama A stride Away (1985). The guy had an enormous break which have a supporting role when you look at the Youngblood (1986), a beneficial hockey flick starring Deprive Lowe and you will Patrick Swayze which had been recorded when you look at the Ontario. Reeves then moved to La. With his substantial charisma and you can main character appears, the guy rapidly arrived lead opportunities inside Television movies. The guy along with acquired crucial recognition throughout the adolescent dramas River’s Border (1986) and you will Long lasting List (1988) ahead of the guy represented Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny during the Stephen Frears’s Academy Award-selected movie Risky Liaisons (1988).

Early Hollywood Career 1988–93

Reeves’s first biggest industrial success included the fresh part regarding Ted inside the Expenses & Ted’s Advanced Excitement (1989), co-featuring Alex Cold weather. New offbeat date traveling comedy was an unexpected cult strike you to definitely produced a moving television series, Statement & Ted’s Advanced Activities (1990), and you will a sequel, Statement & Ted’s Phony Journey (1991). The new section of Ted highlighted Reeves’s ability for deadpan comedic birth, but it also triggered the widely used conception which he, like his profile, are dim-witted.

Reeves used Risky Liaisons with support positions in other An effective-record dress video clips for example Ron Howard’s Parenthood (1989) and you will Lawrence Kasdan’s Everyone loves You to definitely Passing (1989), and just have made 1st foray with the action clips since an FBI broker when you look at the Kathryn Bigelow’s popular Part Crack (1991). Sometimes slammed while the an actor away from limited range, Reeves and additionally checked computed to break out of the Area son stereotype of your Costs & Ted video if you take much harder roles within the artwork-house videos. The guy starred a street hustler into the Gus Van Sant’s My own Personal Idaho (1991), Jonathan Harker on the Francis Ford Coppola movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1991), new Buddha in the Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha (1993), and the villainous Don John during the Kenneth Branagh’s movie version out of Shakespeare’s Much Ado On Little (1993).