"The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way."
– Keanu Reeves –
Keanu Reeves
Secretly Financing Children’s Hospitals
Most people don’t know the details of his life or personality. When Keanu was just three years old, his father, who had previously been incarcerated for the sale of heroin, left his son and abandoned his family. The last time Keanu saw his father was when he was 13 years old. Throughout his childhood, he actually lived throughout the world with various stepfathers, in places ranging from Sydney, Australia to New York, United States to Toronto, Canada. He attended many different high schools, what he described as challenging. Keanu suffered from a tragedy when his long-term partner, Jennifer Syme gave birth to a stillborn daughter, eight months into her pregnancy. Just weeks later, Syme passed away in a car accident at the age of 29.
Keanu Reeves has a long history of philanthropy. He set up a cancer charity but requested to be anonymous. In a 2014 interview he said his sister Kim had battled leukemia for more than a decade. He’s supported PETA,The Sick Kids Foundation and Stand Up to Cancer. His private foundation seeks to fund research into cancer, supporting both children’s wards and kids’ hospitals. He’s never tried to claim credit for any of it, nobody even knew he was doing this.
In 2008, Reeves also volunteered to man the phones at a Stand Up to Cancer telethon, and during a charity ice hockey match he volunteered to be the goalkeeper, as the match was for “SCORE” (Spinal Cord Opportunities for Rehabilitation Endowment), which was founded in order to support players who suffered from spinal injuries.
He’s been quoted as saying, “Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I have already made for the next few centuries.” It’s been widely reported he gave $80 to $100 million of his $114 million in earnings made from the Matrix sequels to the special effects, makeup and other crew members. Every day for the last few weeks of filming, Keanu treated the stage hands and crew workers by taking them for free breakfast and lunch. Reeves heard about how one of the construction crew members was having some personal family problems and gave this man $20,000.
An avid motorcyclist, he co-founded the Arch Motorcycle Company. During the filming of the Matrix Reloaded, Reeves rewarded every single member of the team that handled special effects with a Harley Davidson motorcycle for Christmas.
Keanu Reeves is to be applauded not only for his acting skills but even more so for his kindness and generosity.
