Keanu Reeves

Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of Patricia Taylor, a costume designer/performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., a geologist. Reeves' mother is English, and his father is American of Hawaiian-Chinese descent. Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Reeves' father worked as an unskilled laborer and earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling cocaine at the Hilo airport. He abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was 13, and Reeves does not currently have any relationship with him. Reeves is named after his uncle, Henry Keanu Reeves. Keanu is a Hawaiian word, which means when translated into English, 'Cool breeze over the Mountains'. When Reeves first arrived in Hollywood, his agent thought his first name was too exotic, so during the early days of his film career he was sometimes credited as K.C. Reeves.

Reeves has one full sister named Kim (born 1966 in Australia) who was diagnosed with leukemia in the early 1990s. Additionally, through his mother he has a half-sister named Karina Miller (born 1976 in Toronto) and through his father another half-sister named Emma Rose Reeves (born 1980 in Hawaii).

Reeves experienced an unstable childhood moving around the world frequently and living with numerous stepfathers. 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 but divorced in 1971. Reeves' mother then married Robert Miller, a rock promoter, in 1976, but the couple divorced in 1980. Her fourth husband, Jack Bond, was a hairdresser. That marriage broke up in 1994. Grandparents and nannies babysat Reeves and his sisters.

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. Half-jokingly, Reeves says that 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."

Reeves excelled more in hockey than in academics, as his educational development was challenged by dyslexia. He was a successful goalie at one of his high schools (De La Salle College "Oaklands"). His team nicknamed him "The Wall," and voted him MVP. Reeves says that he would dream of becoming an Olympic hockey player for Canada. After leaving De La Salle College, he attended a free school (Avondale Alternative), which allowed him to obtain an education while working as an actor; he later dropped out, never obtaining his high school diploma.

For nearly a decade following his initial rise to stardom, Reeves preferred to live in rented homes and hotels and was a long term resident of the Chateau Marmont. Reeves bought his first house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles around 2003, and also has an apartment on Central Park West in New York City.

In regards to his citizenship, Reeves is a naturalized Canadian citizen who also holds American and British citizenship through the principle of Jus sanguinis. Regardless of his triple citizenship, Reeves maintains Canadian citizenship & passport and identifies himself as a Canadian.

Reeves has never been married. In December 1999, Reeves' girlfriend Jennifer Syme gave birth to a stillborn daughter who was named Ava Archer Syme Reeves. In April 2001, Syme was killed in a car accident. She was buried next to their daughter in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Though these events happened soon after the release of the first Matrix movie, he has only once spoken about them publicly, saying that he doesn't believe that things happen "for a reason."

Quick Info
Born Keanu Charles Reeves
September 2, 1964, Beirut, Lebanon