Keanu Reeves

Born in Beirut, raised in Toronto, Reeves broke through as the slacker time-traveler in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), then pivoted hard into action with Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994). A string of misfires preceded The Matrix (1999), which made him Neo and, for a time, the highest-paid actor alive when he returned for the 2003 sequels. After years of diminishing returns he found late-career liftoff in John Wick (2014), playing a vengeance-driven assassin across four films and counting. Between takes he co-founded a motorcycle company, played bass in Dogstar, co-created the BRZRKR comic series, and kept doing the small gestures - subway rides, random acts of decency - that turned his public image into a kind of secular sainthood.