The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is a famous source of information about movies, actors, directors and other people working in Hollywood. Keanu Reeves has been acting in Hollywood for over 23 years.
To celebrate the rise of Keanu Reeves and his role as Morpheus in The Matrix, I have created this blog to trace his career from River’s Edge to The Matrix.
Obviously, I am going to skip over a few things, because there are some movies that you just know will not be relevant to this discussion. Hopefully you will enjoy my thoughts on each of these movies.
Red pill or blue pill? You know the scene: Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) presents Neo (Keanu Reeves) with the choice of living in a world of illusion, believing what he’s been told, or seeing reality for what it is. Take the blue pill and you can go back to your normal life; take the red pill and you’ll see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
The Matrix wasn’t Reeves’ first film. In fact, he’d starred in several features before being cast as the computer hacker who learns that his entire world is an illusion. His first major role was in the 1986 cult hit River’s Edge, directed by Tim Hunter and based on a true story about teenagers dealing with murder.
Reeves played Matt, one of a group of friends who discover their friend Layne (Crispin Glover of Back To The Future) murdered his girlfriend after discovering she was pregnant. The group decides to keep this knowledge from the police. Reeves’ character is cold and distant from everyone, including his girlfriend Clarissa (Ione Skye), but he’s also fascinated by Layne’s crime.
Reeves seems out of place at first in River’s Edge — not quite as cool as some of the other actors
The Matrix is one of the most influential movies of the last 20 years. Without it, we wouldn’t have The Animatrix or Speed Racer, much less Cloud Atlas or Jupiter Ascending. As part of the hype for the upcoming Matrix reboot, I’m going to take a look back at the movie and its stars. I’ll start with Keanu Reeves, who played Neo.
Keanu Reeves is one of the great actors of our time. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Reeves spent his early life in Toronto and Western New York before moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. His breakout role was in River’s Edge (1986), playing a teenager who struggles to decide what to do when his best friend kills his girlfriend. The gritty movie was lauded as a realistic portrait of teen life, and made Reeves a star overnight.
His next big role was in Parenthood (1989). He plays an over-eager golfer whose carefree ways get him into trouble with his father-in-law. This performance showed that Reeves had range as an actor; just three years after River’s Edge he could take on comedy with ease.
Keanu Reeves is an actor who has been involved in Hollywood for over 20 years. He is best known for starring in the Matrix trilogy and many other films. He has also directed several movies, such as The Replacements (2001), My Own Private Idaho (1991) and A Scanner Darkly (2006).
Reeves was born on September 2nd 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon to Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr. and Patricia Taylor, a showgirl and costume designer. His mother is English, his father of Hawaiian heritage with Chinese ancestry. The couple met while working together at a nightclub where she was performing her act and he doing security work. Keanu spent his childhood moving around Canada and he attended four different high schools before graduating from Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto with a concentration in drama. He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
He began working in TV commercials and had small roles on TV shows such as Hangin Out (1984-1985), Young Again (1986-1987) and Babes In Toyland (1987). He was also cast as Ted Logan in the Bill & Ted franchise which included two films: Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bogus Journey (1991). His first leading role came when he starred opposite River
Hollywood favourite, Keanu Reeves, first gained international recognition from his role as Ted Logan in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its sequel Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.
He was born in Beirut on September 2nd, 1964. His mother Patricia was a showgirl and his father Samuel Nowlin Reeves a geologist. He has a younger sister named Kim.
His parents separated when he was only three years old and he went to live with his mother in Toronto, Canada. She later married Paul Aaron, a director of stage productions in Toronto. Keanu attended four high schools: De La Salle College “Oaklands”, the Etobicoke School of the Arts, Avondale Alternative Secondary School and finally the prestigious High School for the Performing Arts in Toronto (where he studied acting). After his graduation, he began acting at Toronto’s Actors Workshop studying under renowned acting coach Sanford Meisner.
He appeared in several high school plays. It was while performing in one of these productions that Keanu met actor River Phoenix who introduced him to his agent, Iris Burton.
