Hapa-haole (English-Hawaiian-Chinese) actor Keanu Charles Reeves was born on this day in Beirut, Lebanon. His first name is Hawaiian for “cool breeze over the mountains.”

“I'm a meathead. I can't help it, man,” he once said. “You've got smart people and you've got dumb people.” Honest and self-effacing, Reeves holds Canadian citizenship and left high school to follow the call of acting.

The 1994 thriller Speed, with Sandra Bullock, catapulted him into fame. But it was his role as Neo in The Matrix trilogy that crowned him a cinematic icon and spiritual seeker.

“It's hard to act in the morning. The muse isn't even awake,” he once joked. A lover of motorcycles and solitude, Reeves is a private soul and a generous spirit. On set, he is known as a team player—quiet, kind, deeply present.

He played bass with his band Dogstar, once turning down an $11 million sequel to Speed so he could go on tour. “It was good, clean fun for a Friday night,” he said, savoring the experience more than the paycheck.

“You give over so much time and energy to acting,” he reflected. “You have to replenish yourself. You have to live life to talk about life.” After personal losses and years of healing, his grace and humility now shine through every role—on screen and off. Keanu reminds us that presence is its own kind of power.