Keanu Reeves

I have always liked Keanu Reeves. He strikes me as being rather humble. There were those endearing Keanu memes of him sitting alone on a bench eating his sandwich.

and he was very smart when it came to The Matrix movies. He took a lower upfront fee in exchange for a higher cut of overall profits. Warner Bros did not think the movie would be a success so they agreed. Instead of the $10 million they originally offered him, he ended up being paid almost $300 million in the first year of release and is still paid about $5 million a year from it, 24 years later.

…so my heart melted when I read this

This is Keanu Reeves riding the subway.

He was abandoned by his father at just 3-years-old and grew up with 3 different stepfathers. He is dyslexic and his dream of becoming a hockey player was shattered by a serious accident. His daughter died at birth. His wife died in a car accident, and his best friend, River Phoenix, died of an overdose. He also stayed by his sister’s side as she battled leukemia.

No bodyguards, no luxury houses. Keanu lives in an ordinary apartment and likes wandering around town and often seen riding a subway in NYC. When he was filming the movie “The Lake House,” he overheard the conversation of two costume assistants, one crying as he would lose his house if he did not pay $20,000 – On the same day, Keanu deposited the necessary amount in his bank account. In his career, he has donated large sums to hospitals including $75 million of his earnings from “The Matrix” to charities. In 1997 some paparazzi found him walking one morning in the company of a homeless man in Los Angeles, listening to him and sharing his life for a few hours.

In life, sometimes the ones most broken from inside are the ones most willing to help others. This man could buy everything, and instead every day he wakes up and chooses one thing that cannot be bought.