Today Keanu Reeves turns 59.
Abandoned by his father at the age of 3; raised with 3 different stepfathers; dyslexic; his dream of becoming a hockey player shattered by a bad accident; a daughter who died in childbirth; his wife who died in a car accident; the person he cared about most, his sister, who had leukaemia; his best friend, River Phoenix (Joaquin's brother, with whom he starred in Beautiful and Damned), who died of a drug overdose.
With all he has been through, Keanu misses no opportunity to help people in need. When he was shooting the film 'The Lake House' he overheard the argument of two cloakroom attendants; one was crying because she was going to lose her house if she didn't pay $20,000 and on the same day Keanu paid the sum of money into the woman's bank account; he has also donated stratospheric sums to hospitals. In 2010 some of his photos went around the world: for his birthday Keanu went into a bakery and bought himself a brioche with a single candle on it, eating it right in front of the bakery and offering coffee to people who stopped to talk to him.
After earning astronomical sums for the Matrix trilogy, the actor donated over 50 million dollars (yes, you read that right) to the staff who did the costumes and special effects: the real heroes of the trilogy, as he called them. He also donated a Harley-Davidson to each of the stuntmen. A total expenditure of over 75 million dollars.
For many successful films (The Devil's Advocate with Al Pacino and The Reserves with Gene Hackman, for example) he went so far as to cut his cachet by as much as 90% so that the production could hire another Hollywood star to act with.
In 1997, paparazzi spotted him spending a morning with a homeless man in Los Angeles, listening to him and sharing a few hours with him. Most stars when they make a charitable gesture declare it to the media. Keanu Reeves has never declared that he does charity simply as a matter of moral principle and not to look better in the eyes of fans. This man could buy everything, but instead he gets up every day and chooses one thing that cannot be bought: humility.
