Who is Keanu Reeves

Keanu Charles Reeves was born on September 2, 1964 in Beruit, Lebanon. His father was a geologist and his mother was a costume designer. He has a dual Canadian-British citizenship. His heritage is a mix, including English, Chinese and Hawaiian ancestry.

He was named after an uncle. References for Hawaiian names give pronunciations for his name as "kay-AH-noo" but most often you hear people say "kee-AH-new." He was pressured to change his name to be less exotic when he first started acting, but his success has helped lead to a trend of actors with exotic names not changing them anymore.

He tends to be very private about his personal life and early in his career was known for answering personal questions with off-the-cuff answers where it was hard to tell if he was joking or serious. Now he still deflects inquires into his life, but the answers tend to be more thoughtful, although the enigmatic philosophical answer hasn't entirely fallen by the wayside.

He's been linked with a variety of actresses and girlfriends over the years but is still single. The daughter he had with girlfriend Jennifer Syme in late 1999 was stillborn and Syme herself was killed in a car accident in 2001.

For years Keanu lived primarily out of hotels despite making more than enough money to own a house. He's lives in a modern-style, smallish (by movie-star standards) house in the West Hollywood hills and frequent bystander and paparazzi pics show him riding his motorcycle around town. He is consistently photographed either going to the gym or going out to dinner.

* Is left-handed
* Has two younger sisters whose names also begin with the letter K
* Owns a custom Harley built by Jesse James, ex-husband of Speed and Lake House co-star Sandra Bullock
* Played hockey in school, holding down the position of goalie
* Likes to play chess and ping-pong
* Used to play bass in the bands Dogstar and Becky
* Has been known to take a cut in his salary on some projects so that the production can afford other well-known actors. He did this on Devil's Advocate (so they could sign Al Pacino) and on The Replacements (so they could sign Gene Hackman)
* Gave Harley Davidson motorcycles to each member of the Matrix stunt team as a thanks for their hard work.
* From time to time it's been said he's mentioned being afraid of the dark.
* Is fond of red wine and stocked up on rare Australian vintages when he was filming the Matrix in that country.
*His LA house is off-the-grid and nearby neighbors include Leonardo DiCaprio and Toby Maguire.

Buy Keanu Reeves posters and prints at Art.com

This satirical drama is directed by Rebecca Miller (wife of Daniel Day-Lewis), based on her book by the same name. When a woman's much older husband moves them to a retirement community and begins to have an affair, she herself begins to explore her own life, heading towards a quiet, nervous breakdown. This movie stars Robin Wright Penn (Pippa), Alan Arkin (Pippa's husband Herb), and Winona Ryder (the other woman in Herb's life). Keanu's character is Chris, a man in his thirties who moves back in with his parents in the retirement community due to life's circumstances, and becomes Pippa's lover. And as you can see here, in a screen capture I made from the trailer, his character has a large tattoo of Jesus on his chest.

The film premiered at the Berlinale in Germany in February, screening out of competition. It opened in the UK in July. The film was part of the Toronto International Film Festival in September and opened to limited release in the USA on October 16, 2009.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - IMDb.com