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| Keanu Reeves. Date unknown. |
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| Keanu Reeves |
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Forecourt Ceremony held on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 |
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Born: September 2, 1964, in Beirut, Lebanon
Age at the time of the ceremony: 54 |
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Say what you will about Keanu Reeves, the guy has it. After rising rapidly from obscurity, Reeves learned the game very quickly, working with an astounding assortment of directors who wanted what he brought to their films. Love him or revile him, he's got to be great to hang out with on a movie set.
Reeves' English mother was working on a film in Beirut as a costume designer when she met and married his Hawaiian Father, whose own mom was Chinese. Young Keanu grew up in an atmosphere of Chinese and English culture.
It got complicated. His parents divorced when Keanu was three, with mother Patricia moving the family to Sydney Australia, then to New York City. She married produced Paul Aaron in 1970, but they divorced in 1971. At age nine, Keanu participated in a school production of Damn Yankees. Keanu worked as a production assistant on some of producer Aaron's projects. He grew up with an extended family in Yorkville, a suburb of Toronto Canada.
At school, Reeves was a smart-ass, being expelled from one school and being a hockey goalie at another. It was only natural that he play Mercutio in a production of Romeo and Juliet in school. He never completed high school.
After Reeves played a troubled teen on an episode of Hangin' In starring Lally Cadeau, aired over the CBC in January 1984, he moved to Los Angeles, got an agent and a green card, and got himself cast in the teen-who-commit-a-murder film River's Edge (released in May 1987) with Crispin Glover.
Incredibly, director Thom Eberhardt headlined Reeves in his comedy The Night Before (released in April 1988) Lori Laughlin, but by then, English director Stephen Frears had cast him in a major supporting role in his film of Dangerous Liasons (released in December 1988) with Glenn Close.
This was followed by what might be considered his most iconic role, that of Ted in the wacky comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (released in February 1989) with Alex Winter. The film, aimed squarely at teens, was enormously popular, so Reeves went on to reprise his role for 13 eopisodes of the animated Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures aired over the Fox Network from September to December 1990.
Director Katherine Bigelow cast Reeves as an FBI agent going undercover to break a gang of bank-robbing surfers (!) in Point Break (released in July 1991) with Patrick Swayze. The success of Point Break allowed Reeves to engage himself with smaller projects, such as director Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (released in July 1991) with River Phoenix.
Entering the Bigtime, director Francis Ford Coppola got Reeves to play Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula (released in November 1992) with Gary Oldman as Dracula, then he joined the cast of Kenneth Branagh's film of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (released in July 1993), then, for director Bernado Bertolucci, he played Prince Siddhartha in Little Buddha (released in December 1993) with Bridget Fonda.
Reeves returned to the Hollywood action film with Speed (which played the Chinese in June 1994) with Sandra Bullock, which became a huge hit, boosting the profiles of everyone involved. He co-starred with Al Pacino in the legal who-dunnit, The Devil's Advocate (which played the Chinese in October 1997).
Finally, a movie came along which forever broke Reeves' connection to the Bill and Ted movies: Playing Neo, the hero of The Matrix (which played the Chinese in March, 1999) with Laurence Fishburne. The film was such a whopping hit that two more films were shot back-to-back and released in short order: The Matrix Reloaded (which played the Chinese in May 2003) with Carrie-Anne Moss, and The Matrix Revolutions (which played the Chinese in November 2003) with Laurence Fishburne.
Totally fine with working on blockbusters, a new franchise character for him was
the chain-smoking occultist Constantine (which played the Chinese in February 2005) with Rachel Weisz. It didn't work. But Reeves bounced back as the dreamy ghostly lover in The Lake House (released in June 2006) with Sandra Bullock, which mopped up.
Reeves was perfect as Klatu in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (released in December 2008) with Jennifer Connelly, but slowed his workload for a few years. He had gone to Japan to shoot 47 Ronin (released in December 2013) with Hiroyuki Sanada, then went all Hollywood again with John Wick (released in October 2014) with Michael Nyqvist. It was followed by the sequel John Wick: Chapter 2 (released in February 2017) with Riccardo Scamarcio.
For a real change of pace, Reeves guested as Tex on 13 of the 20 episodes of Swedish Dicks streamed over Viaplay from August 2016 to January 2018. He starred in the thriller Siberia (released in July 2018) with Boris Gulyarin, but it tanked. Just before the opening of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (which played the Chinese in May 2019) with Halle Berry, Reeves was asked to come down to the Chinese to make his footprints in the Forecourt.
Reeves did the voice for Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4 (which played the Chinese in June 2019) with Tom Hanks. One more Bill & Ted movie can't hurt, right? Bill & Ted Face the Music was released in August 2020. The lastest addition to the Matrix franchise in The Matrix Resurrections (which played the Chinese in December 2021). There are more John Wick movies in the works, with the latest being John Wick: Chapter 4 (which played the Chinese in March 2023). Keanu is a busy guy these days. |
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| TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Keanu Reeves Forecourt block. Executed by Santos Resendiz, Tuesday, May 14, 2019. 30 x 20 inches. |
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| TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Keanu Reeves Forecourt ceremony. Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Keanu Reeves stares out as he places his hands in the cement. |
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