Thank God I’m 60 years old today. I was born on the 2nd of September 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. my mother was a dancer and costume designer, while my father was a geologist.
When I was just 3 years old, my father abandoned us. From there, I was raised only by My mother, Patricia.
During My childhood I moved around a lot from Hawaii, Australia, New York and finally Canada.
After settling in Toronto, Canada, My mother worked as a costume designer working in the rock and roll industry. Interestingly, this resulted in Alice Cooper taking care of me when I was young
I attended high school in Canada but was often expelled, so I ended up attending four different schools. Eventually, I dropped out when I was 17 to pursue acting.
I was named after My uncle, Henry Keanu Reeves. Keanu means “fresh breeze over the mountains” in Hawaiian.
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While My mother is English, My father’s side is a little more diverse. My father is an American from Hawaii of Chinese-Hawaiian, English, Irish and Portuguese descent.
Even so, I’m a Canadian citizen and considers myself as such.
While in high school, I considered playing ice hockey for the Canadian Olympics team, but changed My mind and decided to be an actor when I was just 15 years old.
When I turned 19, I moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting full-time.
I was able to get commercial gigs and short films. However, My first appearance in a studio film was in “Youngblood” in 1986, where I played a goalkeeper.
My first leading role was in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” which turned out to be unexpectedly successful.
The turning point in my career was when I landed the lead role in “Speed” in 1994. After this hit hit boosted My career, I was successful enough to be more selective about My work. Since then, I happily been supporting roles in experimental films as well.
In addition to acting, I was also the bassist for the band Dogstar. we were together from 1991 to 2002. During our career, we played with Bon Jovi, Rancid, Weezer, and toured the US and Asia.
I became best friends with River Phoenix while filming a movie. When I saw the script for “My Own Private Idaho”, I thought River was perfect for the role. I drove my motorcycle over 1,000 miles to deliver the script to River and convince him to take on the role.