He was born Keanu Charles Reeves on September, 2nd, 1964, in Beirut. His father Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a part-Chinese part-Hawaiian geologist had married English showgirl Patricia Taylor there, the couple having met after he'd seen her performing at a nightclub.

Not keen on academic pursuits, he much preferred sports to lessons, particularly ice hockey. Excelling as goalkeeper, he became known as "The Wall" and would be voted his school's MVP. His various stepfathers would make his upbringing more interesting than the norm - the young Keanu would attend Jewish summer camp and wrestle with Alice Cooper.

Later working as a manager in a Toronto pasta shop, Keanu Reeves soon began turning up in small roles on various Canadian television programs, making his feature debut in the 1985 Canadian film One Step Away before American audiences got their first good look at him in the 1986 Rob Lowe drama Youngblood.

He went to Hollywood and ge rushed as Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and Chain Reaction (1996) with romantic efforts as A Walk in the Clouds (1995) and Feeling Minnesota (1996), Reeves spooked audiences as a moral attorney suffering from a major case of soul corrosion in the 1997 horror thriller The Devil's Advocate.

And after came The Matrix sequel. Indeed, two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions having been filmed back to back. Having given up a payment of around $38 million to get the movies made.

In 2000, he was cast as a former football quarterback recruited to play in the major leagues during the 1987 NFL strike in "The Replacements" and a serial killer tracked by a retired federal agent (James Spader) in "The Watcher".

Famously playing bass for the band Dogstar in his cinematic down time, Reeves' other personal interests include motorcycles, horseback riding, and surfing.