covery, Reeve struggled constantly to ward off infec-
tions. On October 10, 2004, he succumbed to a heart
attack after being treated with an antibiotic for sep-
sis, a blood infection.
Impact Immediately after his accident, Reeve later
admitted, he considered suicide. That he refused to
surrender, that he maintained his courage—and
grace—under such catastrophic pressure made him
an international symbol of the human spirit. Per-
haps more important, however, was Reeve’s determi-
nation to raise awareness about the promise of con-
troversial medical research and his campaign to
protect the rights of victims of catastrophic acci-
dents.
Further Reading
Havill, Adrian.Man of Steel: The Career and Courage of
Christopher Reeve. New York: Signet, 1996.
Karp, Gary, and Stanley D. Klein, eds.From There to
Here: Stories of Adjusting to Spinal Cord Injuries.
Horsham, Pa.: No Limits Communication, 2004.
Reeve, Christopher.Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections
on a New Life. New York: Random House, 2002.
Joseph Dewey
See also Academy Awards; Americans with Disabil-
ities Act of 1990; Audiobooks; Cable television; Film
in the United States; Genetic engineering; Health
care; Health care reform; Stem cell research; Televi-
sion.
Reeves, Keanu
Identification Canadian American actor
Born September 2, 1964; Beirut, Lebanon
An actor who enjoys experimenting with roles, Reeves
helped reshape audience expectations for action and
science-fiction blockbusters in the 1990’s.
While Keanu Reeves’s first widely known film wasBill
and Ted’s Excellent Adventure(1989), in which his por-
trayal of a time-traveling party lover earned a cult fol-
lowing, the young Canadian actor had already
starred in several movies after moving to the United
States in the mid-1980’s. He followed his first big
commercial success with a sequel,Bill and Ted’s Bogus
Journey(1991), as well asPoint Break(1991), a buddy-
cop film with Patrick Swayze set among the Califor-
nia surfing scene;My Own Private Idaho(1991), a
quirky independent film on which Reeves became
close to costar River Phoenix;Bram Stoker’s Dracula
(1992); andMuch Ado About Nothing(1993), based
on William Shakespeare’s play. With this eclectic
mix, Reeves hoped not to be pigeonholed as the
airheaded Ted, and he was successful to some de-
gree, earning particularly good reviews forMy Own
Private Idaho.
It was not until the movieSpeed(1994), however,
that Reeves became a household name. Reeves
bulked up and got a buzz haircut for the role of po-
lice officer Jack Traven, thus creating an Everyman
action-hero persona popular with both male and fe-
male audiences. Reeves’s on-screen chemistry with
the not-yet-widely-known Sandra Bullock, as well as
the movie’s fast-paced, clever plot and dazzling spe-
cial effects, madeSpeedwildly popular, and Reeves
began earning multimillion-dollar salaries. In spite
of this success, Reeves did not partake of the glamor-
ous Hollywood lifestyle, in part because of his grief
over River Phoenix’s death from a drug overdose in
October of 1993.
Following the universally pannedJohnny Mnemonic
(1995), Reeves continued to experiment with roles,
including the romanticA Walk in the Clouds(1995),
the offbeatFeeling Minnesota(1996), and the creepy
The Devil’s Advocate (1997), which costarred Al
Pacino. Reeves’s next big breakthrough occurred
with the action-filled yet cerebral science-fiction film
The Matrix(1999), in which he played Thomas Ander-
son, a corporate drone by day and a hacker named
Neo by night, who discovers that the entire world is a
virtual reality environment created by machines who
have enslaved what is left of the human race. Reeves’s
understated confusion fit the role perfectly, and his
facility during the groundbreaking kung fu fight
scenes was impressive.The Matrixwas an instant cult
favorite and a huge financial success, cementing
Reeves’s reputation as a reliable box-office draw.Impact Keanu Reeves’s career throughout the
1990’s, while varied in both the genre and the success
of his chosen projects, contained two unmistakable
high points that widely influenced the industry:Speed,
which led audiences to expect smarter action movies
with more everyday heroes than the industry had pre-
viously seen, andThe Matrix, which introduced revo-
lutionary special effects and showed that audiences’
interest in high-concept science fiction had not
ended with theStar WarsandTerminatormovies.706 Reeves, Keanu The Nineties in America