When it comes to Keanu Reeves, he is best known as one of the most humble and kindest movie stars in Hollywood. The 53-year-old actor who’s well known for his roles in blockbuster movies including The Matrix, Speed, and John Wick is not one to brag about his successes and fame. So it comes as no surprise when earlier this year, it was revealed that the Hollywood superstar has secretly been financing countless children’s hospitals.
So just in case you just needed another reason to love Keanu – look no further! The Matrix star has been running a private charity foundation for more than ten years that funds children’s hospitals and cancer research.
Keanu Reeve’s Private Charity Foundation
In the 1990s, Reeve’s youngest sister, Kim was diagnosed with leukemia. Though Keanu Reeves was his sister’s primary caretaker, she battled with her illness for a decade before it went into remission. During his younger sister’s battle with cancer, Keanu Reeves not only established his own foundation in her honor, but he also gave donations to several cancer charities all while being sure to not have his name get associated alongside them.
The foundation he created sought funding for cancer research while supporting both children’s wards and kid’s hospitals. In 2009, Reeves told Ladies’ Home Journal, “I have a private foundation that’s been running for five or six years, and it helps aid a couple of children’s hospitals and cancer research. I don’t like to attach my name to it, I just let the foundation do what it does.”
It Doesn’t Stop There
But this isn’t the first of Keanu’s charitable works. Racing for Kids, PETA, and SickKids Foundation, are just a handful of charities and foundations Keanu Reeves has supported. And in 2008, he volunteered to work the phones at a Stand Up to Cancer telethon. He even offered to be the goalkeeper for an ice hockey match intended to support “SCORE” (Spinal Cord Opportunities for Rehabilitation Endowment) that was founded to support players who suffered from spinal injuries.
It seems as though community give-back goes even deeper for Reeves, as all encounters documented with him all seem to be quite familiar. Those who have had the opportunity to work for or alongside him all boast of his sincere generosity and kindness.
Reddit user, bo2dd2, who worked with him on the set of Chain Reaction said, “Every day for the last few weeks of filming, Keanu treated the stagehands and grunt workers (including myself) by taking us out for free breakfast and lunch. He was genuinely a very nice guy to work with. Since then, I’ve worked on about 30 different sets and have never met an actor as generous and friendly as him.” He went on to explain that a family friend was in the business of constructing movie sets. Keanu heard how he had been suffering from family troubles, and donated $20,000 to the man’s family. For Christmas, on the set of Matrix Reloaded, Keanu gifted every member involved in handling special effects a Harley Davidson motorcycle. And if all that wasn’t generous enough, he gifted millions of his earnings from The Matrix to those who were employed within the trilogy.
Keanu is Great on and off the Big Screen
So there you have it! It would seem as though Keanu is just as cool as the special effects you see in The Matrix, and his gifts go deeper than his passion and talent on the big screen. I think we all can agree that his continuous and generous give-back to communities near and far makes him worthy of being crowned as an undercover silent hero.
