Memorial Page for Christopher Reeve (née Christopher D'Olier Reeve)

Christopher Reeve (born 25 September 1952 in New York City; died 10 October 2004 in Mount Kisco, New York) was an American actor, director and activist. He became world-famous in 1978 as the title hero of Richard Donner’s “Superman”. After a riding accident in 1995 he was paralysed and dependent on a ventilator. From then on he used his fame to push spinal cord research forward and to give paralysis a public face. In 1999 he became chairman of his own foundation, known today as the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

Childhood and training

Reeve grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. His parents divorced when he was four, and his mother raised him. He attended Nassau Street School and Princeton Country Day School, did well academically and acted in student productions. He took odd jobs at the local McCarter Theatre, and at 15 he first appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, to which he later stayed connected as a board member.

He continued his education: first at Cornell University, from which he graduated in 1974, then at the Juilliard School in New York, where John Houseman taught him. His first television role was in the soap opera “Love of Life”.

Broadway and first films

On 3 February 1976 Reeve made his Broadway debut at the Broadhurst Theatre, playing Nicky opposite Katharine Hepburn in “A Matter of Gravity”; the production ran for 79 performances. Two years later he appeared on the big screen for the first time, as a junior officer in the submarine drama “Gray Lady Down”.

Superman

At 24 he auditioned for the lead in a big comic-book adaptation. He seemed an unlikely fit: tall but slim, and trained for more serious roles. He got the part and won praise for inventing a modern, sensitive kind of hero. Richard Donner’s “Superman” became a worldwide success in 1978, with Marlon Brando as Jor-El, Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor and Margot Kidder as Lois Lane. Three sequels followed, with Reeve again as the Man of Steel and his mild-mannered alter ego Clark Kent.

Against typecasting

While the series was running, Reeve looked for down-to-earth parts in more serious films: “Somewhere in Time” (1980) opposite Jane Seymour, “Deathtrap” (1982) with Michael Caine, directed by Sidney Lumet, and James Ivory’s “The Bostonians” (1984). “Street Smart” (1987), the comedy “Noises Off” (1992) and, again with Ivory, “The Remains of the Day” (1993) followed.

He also stayed on stage. On Broadway he played a disabled Vietnam veteran in Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July”; his theatre credits also include “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Summer and Smoke” and “Love Letters”.

Away from work, Reeve sought the outdoors. He was a pilot who twice crossed the Atlantic solo; he skied, sailed, scuba dived, played tennis and canoed alone into the wilderness, and he was an accomplished pianist.

The accident

In 1985, at the age of 33, Reeve took up horseback riding; from 1989 he competed in events, including cross-country jumping. On 27 May 1995 he was thrown from his horse at a competition in Culpeper, Virginia, and injured his spinal cord. He broke his neck and was paralysed from then on, dependent on a ventilator.

Months of gruelling rehabilitation followed, in which he practised breathing for longer and longer periods without the ventilator. Then he returned home with a new purpose. His wife Dana had told him that he was still himself and that she loved him; he later called those words life-saving.

Advocacy and a return to work

Reeve used his name to speed up research and move politics. He testified before a Senate subcommittee in favour of federally funded stem cell research, campaigned to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health within five years, and supported a New York State bill that makes up to 8.5 million dollars a year available for spinal cord research.

His work in front of and behind the camera continued as well. For the HBO documentary “Without Pity: A Film About Abilities”, about living with disability, he won an Emmy in 1997. His directorial debut “In the Gloaming” aired on HBO on 20 April 1997; the film received five Emmy nominations and six Cable ACE Awards, including one for best director. His autobiography “Still Me” appeared in 1998, and its audio edition earned him a Grammy in February 1999. A second book, “Nothing Is Impossible”, followed in 2002.

His first major role after becoming paralysed came in a new version of the Hitchcock story “Rear Window”, on which he also served as executive producer. It brought him a Golden Globe nomination and, in 1999, the Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor in a television movie. In August 2004 he completed his last work as a director, “The Brooke Ellison Story”, about a woman who became quadriplegic at the age of eleven and went on to graduate from Harvard.

Death in Mount Kisco

In early October 2004 Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a pressure wound, a common complication of paralysis. The wound had become severely infected and caused a systemic infection. On the Saturday he went into cardiac arrest at home and fell into a coma; on Sunday, 10 October 2004, he died at the age of 52. His foundation gives heart failure as the cause of death.

Dana Reeve thanked the hospital, the nursing staff and the millions of people who had supported her husband over the years. She died in March 2006. Since then the foundation has carried both their names.

Legacy

The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation grew out of a movement that refused to accept the long-standing dogma that an injured spinal cord can never recover. His three children Matthew, Alexandra and Will are still involved in its work today.