One and only of the most mysterious actors to e’er hit it big, Keanu Reeves has been by turns loved, abused, and grudgingly honored by the movie-going world. As the controversy over his talent furors on, his career picks and paychecks show him inching toward A-list status. Reeves, whose given name means “cool breeze over the mountains” in Hawaiian, was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1964. His mother, Patricia, was a showgirl; his father, Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist. After their marriage dissolved, Keanu moved with his mother and younger sister Kim to New York City, then Toronto. Stepfather was Paul Aaron, a stage and movie director-he and Patricia divorced within a year, after which she went on to marry (and divorce) rock promoter Robert Miller and hair salon proprietor Jack Bond. Reeves never reconnected with his biologic father, who’s now in prison house on charges of cocain possession. In highschool, Reeves was lukewarm toward academics but took a keen interest in hockey game (as team goalkeeper, he earned the nickname “The Wall”) and drama. He sooner or later gave up of school to pursue an acting career.

Reeves started his playacting career at the age of nine. He appeared on stage at a production of Damn Yankees. At 15, he acted as Mercutio in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre. Reeves made his screen acting debut in a CBC Television comedy series, Hangin’ In. Throughout the early 1980s, he appeared in commercials (including one for Coca-Cola), short movies including the NFB drama One Step Away and stage work such as Brad Fraser’s cult hit Wolf Boy in Toronto.

Reeves’ 1st studio movie appearance was in the Rob Lowe hockey game movie Youngblood, which was recorded in Canada. In it, he played a Quebecois goalkeeper. Shortly after the movie’s release, Reeves drove to City of the Angels in his 1969 Volvo. His ex-stepfather Paul Aaron, a stage and television director, had convinced Erwin Stoff to be Reeves’ manager and agent before he even arrived in Los Angeles. Stoff has remained Reeves’ managing director, and has coproduced many of his movies.

After a few minor roles, Reeves received a more respectable role in 1986’s River’s Edge. Following the movie success, he spent the late 1980s appearing in a number of movies aimed at teenage audiences, including Permanent Record, and the unexpectedly successful 1989 comedy, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, which, along with its 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, typecast Reeves as a sweet-natured buffoon. Much of his subsequent portrayal in the press and much of the response to his acting has been influenced by his portrayal of the airheaded Ted. Reeves has said that “I used to have nightmares that they would put ‘He played Ted’ on my tombstone”.

On the early 1990s, Reeves started to break out of his teen-film period. He appeared in high-budget action movies like Point Break, for which he won MTV’s “Most Desirable Male” award in 1992. He was also involved in various lower-budget independent movies, including the well-received 1991 movie, My Own Private Idaho with his close friend, River Phoenix.

In 1994, Reeves’ career reached afresh high as a result of his starring role in the action movie Speed. His casting in the movie was controversial since, except for Point Break, he was primarily known for comedies and indie dramas. He had never been the sole headliner on a movie. The summer action movie had a fairly large budget and was helmed by novice cinematographer-turned-director Jan de Bont. The unexpected international success of the movie made Reeves and co-star Sandra Bullock into A-List stars.

Reeves’ career choices after Speed were eclectic: despite his successes, Reeves has never stopped accepting supporting roles, and he’s always been willing to support experimental efforts. He scored a hit with a romantic lead role in A Walk in the Clouds. He made news by refusing to participate in Speed 2: Cruise Control and choosing to play the name part in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Reeves got surprisingly good reviews for his interpretation of among Shakespeare’s most famous characters. Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times critic, wrote that “He quite embodied the innocence, the splendid fury, the animal grace of the leaps and bounds, the emotional violence, that form the Prince of Denmark…he’s one of the top three Hamlets I’ve seen, for a simple reason: he * is* Hamlet.”

Reeves’ other choices after A Walk in the Clouds, however, failed with critics and audiences. Big-budget movies such Johnny Mnemonic and Chain Reaction were critically panned and failed at the box office, while indie movies like Feeling Minnesota were also critical failures.

Reeves started to climb out of his career low after starring in the horror/drama The Devil’s Advocate alongside Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. Reeves deferred his salary for The Devil’s Advocate so that Pacino would be cast, as he would do later for the less successful The Replacements, guaranteeing the casting of Gene Hackman. The Devil’s Advocate did well at the box office, received good reviews, and proved that Reeves could play a grown-up with a career.

The 1999 science fiction hit, The Matrix, solidified Reeves’s place as an international superstar. Middle the first Matrix movie and its continuations, Reeves received positive reviews for his portrayal of an abusive husband in The Gift. Aside from The Gift, Reeves appeared in several movies that received mostly negative reviews and unimpressive box office grosses, including The Watcher, Sweet November and The Replacements. However, the two Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Something’s Gotta Give, and the 2005 horror-action movie, Constantine, proved to be box office successes and brought Reeves back into the public spotlight. His movie, A Scanner Darkly, based on the science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, received favorable reviews, and The Lake House, his romantic outing with Sandra Bullock, did well at the box office.

Reeves appeared in the 2008 movie Street Kings, and is currently working on the remake of the 1951 science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still in which he stars as Klaatu.

Since his early movies he’s been described as a “force of nature” by many of his dedicated fans. Few others have achieved this level of accolades.