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Los Angeles Times
June 05, 1994

News Report

[Keanu] Reeves' mother was British, his father was a geologist of Chinese-Hawaiian descent (Keanu means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian), and his family bounced from Beirut to Australia to New York City before settling in Toronto, Canada, where Reeves spent his teen-age years. Reeves knew he wanted to be an actor by the time he was 14, but can't recall what his fantasy of the life of a successful actor was at the time. "I don't remember what that boy was thinking, but there were various things that probably led to my interest in acting," he says. "My mother worked in rock 'n' roll doing costumes for people like Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton--in fact, when Alice Cooper was recording 'Welcome to My Nightmare' in Toronto he stayed at our house. So, I was around performers from a fairly young age."