Keanu Reeves has had the support of his mother, Patricia Taylor, throughout his longstanding career in Hollywood. Patricia and Keanu's father, the late Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr., who died in 2018, welcomed the future actor in 1964. Keanu has remained close with his mother and has been estranged from his father since he was a child, due in part to his parent's breakup around the time he was 3 years old.
Growing up, Keanu lived all around the world, being born in Lebanon, and then moving to Australia when he was still a toddler. After Samuel and Patricia split up, she took Keanu and his little sister Kim to New York City and then Toronto, where the actor would spend his teen years.
Keanu tends to keep his personal life out of the spotlight and doesn’t often open up about his parents or his childhood. But throughout the years, he has given some insight into what his globetrotting early days looked like — from his estranged relationship with his father to the love and support he received from his mother.
Keanu's mother Patricia hails from England, while his father Samuel was Chinese and Hawaiian. Because of his father, Keanu has Asian heritage, which he opened up about with NBC News in 2021.
In the Matrix movies, Keanu does quite a bit of martial arts, something he said he views as a way to honor his heritage.
Keanu’s parents met in Beirut when they were both in their early 20s. “My mother and father were like 22, 21,' the Speed star told Charlie Herzfeld in 2019 on his Conversations with Charlie podcast. “So they met, they fell in love and they had a baby, and that was me. Then they stayed there for a few months and they ended up going to Australia,' Keanu explained.
Keanu’s mom has lived a star-studded life of her own. Before working in Hollywood, Patricia was a showgirl in Paris. On the Conversations with Charlie podcast, Keanu said that his mother also took odd jobs “picking up pins” in the city’s fashion houses, where she learned to love making and designing clothes.
Later in her life, Patricia became a fashion designer and made stage costumes for musicians like Dolly Parton and Anne Murray. She even did costumes for TV shows, including the popular kid’s show, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.
Samuel left the family when Keanu was 3 and the actor has said the last time he spoke with his father was at age 13. He told Rolling Stone in 2000, 'The story with me and my dad’s pretty heavy.'
In the early '70s, Patricia briefly married producer and director Paul Aaron, followed by music promoter Robert Miller from 1976 to 1980. Her fourth marriage was to Jack Bond, which lasted a few years in the early '90s and ended in a divorce in 1994.
But it was her second husband, Aaron, who helped Keanu break into the entertainment industry. On the Conversations with Charlie podcast, Keanu said, “He was around for a few years and then I stayed in contact. He was one of my introductions into show business. I was a PA on one of his movie of the weeks when I was like 15.”
Keanu had a big night at the 2020 Oscars — not only was the actor presenting an award that evening, but his film Toy Story 4 also won the award for Best Animated Feature. To celebrate the night, Keanu brought his mom as his date and the two walked the red carpet together.
On the red carpet, Ryan Seacrest spoke to the mother-son duo and asked Patricia if she knew anything about Keanu’s upcoming film The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth film in the series that was released the following year. Patricia responded coyly with 'Nothing,' adding she “only [knew] about Matrix 1, 2, and 3.'
