The One with Christopher Reeves

Before I fell asleep last night I was hit with this shocking news..

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Superman' Star Christopher Reeve Dies
 
BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) - Christopher Reeve, the star of the ``Superman'' movies whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died Sunday of heart failure, his publicist said. He was 52.

Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home, his publicist, Wesley Combs told The Associated Press by phone from Washington, D.C., on Sunday night. His family was at his side at the time of death.

Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a pressure wound, a common complication for people living with paralysis. In the past week, the wound had become severely infected, resulting in a serious systemic infection.

``On behalf of my entire family, I want to thank Northern Westchester Hospital for the excellent care they provided to my husband,'' Dana Reeve, Christopher's wife, said in a statement. ``I also want to thank his personal staff of nurses and aides, as well as the millions of fans from around the world who have supported and loved my husband over the years.''

Reeve broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Va.

Enduring months of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer and longer periods without a respirator, Reeve emerged to lobby Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury and to move an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about social issues.

``Hollywood needs to do more,'' he said in the March 1996 Oscar awards appearance. ``Let's continue to take risks. Let's tackle the issues. In many ways our film community can do it better than anyone else. There is no challenge, artistic or otherwise, that we can't meet.''

He returned to directing, and even returned to acting in a 1998 production of ``Rear Window,'' a modern update of the Hitchcock thriller about a man in a wheelchair who becomes convinced a neighbor has been murdered. Reeve won a Screen Actors Guild award for best actor.

``I was worried that only acting with my voice and my face, I might not be able to communicate effectively enough to tell the story,'' Reeve said. ``But I was surprised to find that if I really concentrated, and just let the thoughts happen, that they would read on my face. With so many close-ups, I knew that my every thought would count.''

In 2000, Reeve was able to move his index finger, and a specialized workout regimen made his legs and arms stronger. He also regained sensation in other parts of his body. He had vowed to walk again.

``I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. I don't mean to be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is very helpful toward recovery,'' Reeve said.

Reeve's support of stem cell research helped it emerge as a major campaign issue between President Bush and John Kerry. His name was even mentioned by Kerry earlier this month during the second presidential debate.

His athletic, 6-foot-4-inch frame and love of adventure made him a natural, if largely unknown, choice for the title role in the first ``Superman'' movie in 1978. He insisted on performing his own stunts.

Although he reprised the role three times, Reeve often worried about being typecast as an action hero.

``Look, I've flown, I've become evil, loved, stopped and turned the world backward, I've faced my peers, I've befriended children and small animals and I've rescued cats from trees,'' Reeve told the Los Angeles Times in 1983. ``What else is there left for Superman to do that hasn't been done?''

Though he owed his fame to it, Reeve made a concerted effort to, as he often put it, ``escape the cape.'' He played an embittered, crippled Vietnam veteran in the 1980 Broadway play ``Fifth of July,'' a lovestruck time-traveler in the 1980 movie ``Somewhere in Time,'' and an aspiring playwright in the 1982 suspense thriller ``Deathtrap.''

More recent films included John Carpenter's ``Village of the Damned,'' and the HBO movies ``Above Suspicion'' and ``In the Gloaming,'' which he directed. Among his other film credits are ``The Remains of the Day,'' ``The Aviator,'' and ``Morning Glory.''

Reeve was born Sept. 25, 1952, in New York City, son of a novelist and a newspaper reporter. About the age of 10, he made his first stage appearance - in Gilbert and Sullivan's ``The Yeoman of the Guard'' at McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J.

After graduating from Cornell University in 1974, he landed a part as coldhearted bigamist Ben Harper on the television soap opera ``Love of Life.'' He also performed frequently on stage, winning his first Broadway role as the grandson of a character played by Katharine Hepburn in ``A Matter of Gravity.''

Reeve's first movie role was a minor one in the submarine disaster movie ``Gray Lady Down,'' released in 1978. ``Superman'' soon followed. Reeve was selected for the title role from among about 200 aspirants.

Active in many sports, Reeve owned several horses and competed in equestrian events regularly. Witnesses to the 1995 accident said Reeve's horse had cleared two of 15 fences during the jumping event and stopped abruptly at the third, flinging the actor headlong to the ground. Doctors said he fractured the top two vertebrae in his neck and damaged his spinal cord.

While filming ``Superman'' in London, Reeve met modeling agency co-founder Gae Exton, and the two began a relationship that lasted several years. The couple had two sons, but were never wed.

Reeve later married Dana Morosini; they had one son, Will, 11. Reeve also is survived by his mother, Barbara Johnson; his father, Franklin Reeve; his brother, Benjamin Reeve; and his two children from his relationship with Exton, Matthew, 25, and Alexandra, 21.

No plans for a funeral were immediately announced.

A few months after the accident, he told interviewer Barbara Walters that he considered suicide in the first dark days after he was injured. But he quickly overcame such thoughts when he saw his children.

``I could see how much they needed me and wanted me... and how lucky we all are and that my brain is on straight.''

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In the words of Chris Rock "Superman can't walk! Superman can't walk.."

Superman's dead.

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BIOGRAPHY

Christopher Reeve was born September 25, 1952, in New York City. His mother, Barbara, a journalist, divorced his father, Franklin, a professor and writer, in 1956, and relocated to Princeton, New Jersey, with four-year-old Chris and younger brother Benjamin.

Reeve began appearing in school plays at age eight, and at nine, was chosen to play in the local professional theater's production of Yeoman of the Guard. At 15, he received a summer apprenticeship at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. Following his graduation from high school, he toured the U.S. in The Irregular Verb to Love, which starred veteran actress Celeste Holm.

BEGINNINGS

Reeve entered Cornell University, majoring in Music Theory and English. He also spent some time studying theater in England and France, and worked at the prestigious Old Vic theater in London and the Comedie Francaise in Paris. He studied under John Houseman at The Juilliard School in New York City, where he was Robin Williams' roommate. To help pay for his education, Reeve got a role on CBS's Love of Life, a daytime soap. In the meantime, he was cast in A Matter of Gravity, a Broadway play starring screen legend Katharine Hepburn. He was forced to quit his final year of study, as his professional career was beginning to take off.

Reeve ventured off to Los Angeles in late 1976 and landed a small role in the submarine adventure flick, Gray Lady Down. He then went back to New York to appear in My Life, an off-Broadway production. During that play's run, he auditioned for the part of Superman, which he won, despite his then skinny physique. To gain muscle for the role, he underwent a strict bodybuilding program supervised by David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original series of Star Wars films. Reeve's portrayal of the Man of Steel was more believable than any of his screen or TV predecessors, as a hero with a brain, a heart and a sense of humor.

THE MAN OF STEEL STEALS THE SHOW

Superman: The Movie became one of the most successful films of the year following its December 1978 release. Reeve was honored with a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Award as Most Promising Newcomer for his performance. During the film's 18-month shoot in England, Reeve met Gae Exton, a modeling executive. Their children, Matthew and Alexandra, are the fruits of their 10-year relationship. The couple parted in 1987, retaining joint custody of both children.

Reeve next appeared in Somewhere In Time (1980), a tale of time-travel and romance, co-starring Jane Seymour. He continued performing live, spending the summer of 1980 doing theater in Williamstown, and appearing on Broadway in Fifth of July. Superman II was also released that year.

More movie roles kept him busy throughout the '80s. In 1982, he played Micheal Caine's playwright lover in Deathtrap, and an American priest in Monsignor. He returned to the role that made him famous for Superman III in 1983. He appeared in two period dramas, The Bostonians (1984), a Merchant Ivory production, and a CBS-TV adaptation of Anna Karenina (1985) opposite Jacqueline Bisset.

In 1987, Reeve starred with Oscar nominee Morgan Freeman in Street Smart, and reprised his role as the Man of Steel for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. That same year, he traveled to Chile to lead a demonstration in support of 77 artists that faced death sentences from the Pinochet regime. In 1988, he received a special OBIE Award, as well as an honor from the Walter Briehl Human Rights Foundation for his courageous crusade to free the artists.

By the early '90s, Reeve's commitment to advocacy work was competing with his professional career. Environmental issues were of particular concern to him. He married actress/singer Dana Morosini in 1992; their son Will was born the same year. Reeve reunited with the Merchant Ivory team for The Remains of the Day (1993), and in a clever bit of casting, the Superman actor fought Batman star Michael Keaton for Geena Davis' affections in Speechless (1994).

TRAGEDY STRIKES

In May 1995, Reeve was thrown from his horse during an equestrian event in Virginia. His hands had been tangled in the horse's bridle, and he seriously fractured the upper vertebrae of his spine after landing head first. He was immediately paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe. On-site medics saved his life, and after he was rushed to hospital, surgeons literally reattached his head to his spine.

To help increase public awareness about spinal cord injury and raise money for research, Reeve made his first public appearance just four months after his accident, in a 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters. In 1996, he accepted invitations to appear at the Academy Awards, to host the Paralympics in Atlanta, and to speak at the Democratic Convention.

Reeve returned to acting with a role in the made-for-TV movie A Step Toward Tomorrow in 1996. The following year, he made his directorial debut with In The Gloaming, starring friend Glenn Close. The HBO film received five Emmy nominations, and won six CableAce Awards, including Best Dramatic Special and Best Director.

Random House published Reeve's autobiography, Still Me in April 1998. His recording of the book took the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album in 1999. For his performance in Rear Window (1999), his first major role since becoming paralyzed, Reeve was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries. He also served as executive producer of the film.

REAL-LIFE SUPERHERO

Reeve found himself on the frontlines in the debate over stem cell research into various medical conditions. In 2001, he joined scientists in a lawsuit aimed at overturning a U.S. government decision to stop funding the controversial testing. In 2002, Reeve urged President Bush and Catholic church leaders to reassess their opposition to research that might free him and others like him from their wheelchairs.

In May 2002, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center was opened. In September, Reeve announced that he had regained some movement and sensation in his hands and feet. He's now able to move his right wrist, the fingers of his left hand, and his feet, and can breathe without the aid of his ventilator for 90 minutes at a time.

Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life, his second book, was released in September 2002, in time for his 50th birthday. Reeve ended 2002 and began 2003 by helping lead the New Year's Eve countdown in Times Square along with his wife, Dana, and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In February 2003, Reeve can add a guest-starring role as scientist Dr. Swann in an episode of the WB's Smallville, wherein the silver screen's Man of Steel offers TV's young Clark Kent "revelatory insight into his superhero destiny." Having played the superhero four times already, Reeve certainly has the qualifications for the part, which may turn into a recurring role for the actor.

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More readings of Reeves available online. It's quite a pity. Will be rushing for contract and SLS now. Library research later. Whee. So happening.

Sigh