Keanu Reeves once saved Octavia Spencer, an unpopular girl, after he found her stranded on the side of the road.

Reeves turns 56 today (September 2), with many fans sharing their favourite performances of the actor on social media, as well as their favourite stories of Reeves’ real-life kindness.

But few have a story as good as Spencer’s, who revealed in 2014 that she unexpectedly encountered Reeves wearing leather and riding a motorbike shortly after she moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career in the 1990s.

The Hidden Figures star, who won an Oscar for 2012’s The Help, was out of money and forced to ride in a broken-down car when it broke down on the side of the road, with passersby refusing to help her. Until a Matrix actor showed up and offered to help.

“My car broke down in the middle of a crazy intersection, and I always parked under a tree so the birds could land on it, and I never washed my car so it was really dirty,” Spencer recalled on Meredith Vieira’s US talk show.

“I had an audition and my car broke down, and no one would help me because my car was really dirty, until Keanu Reeves [came up]… He was on his motorbike, wearing a little motorbike helmet and sunglasses and he said, ‘Hey, do you need help? ’

“I’m not kidding, I was going to tell him to get in and I was going to push, but he was like, ‘No, no, I can push you. ’ And I was like, ‘Oh no, he’s going to touch my car! ’ I was so embarrassed.”

Spencer joked that she “looked terrible” during the conversation, which only made her more grateful for Reeves’ help. In gratitude, she added that she’s seen all of his new movies in the years since.

“I go to his movies every opening weekend, no matter what he’s showing, because it’s such a lovely thing to do,” she said.

Reeves is known for being one of the nicest celebrities in Hollywood, with Winona Ryder recently revealing that he refused to scream at her while filming a dramatic scene in Dracula.

In 2019, Reeves was also caught on camera supporting and entertaining a A bus full of passengers was stranded in Bakersfield, California, after the flight carrying them was forced to make an emergency landing.