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Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 –
October 10, 2004) was an American actor, director, producer and writer
renowned for his film portrayal of Superman/Clark Kent.
Because of the similar surnames, people
sometimes surmise that Christopher Reeve is related to George Reeves, an
actor who portrayed a previous incarnation of Superman on television. It
should be noted that the two are not related, as the last names differ
slightly, and the similarity is merely coincidental.
Reeve was born in New York City to writer
Franklin Reeve and journalist Barbara Johnson. He received a Bachelor of
Arts degree at Cornell University in 1974, after which he was selected
to study at Juilliard School of Performing Arts under John Houseman.
While at Juilliard, he became friends with a wildly improvisational
classmate named Robin Williams and future Batman Kevin Conroy.
In 1995 Reeve was paralyzed in a riding
accident and for the rest of his life he was a wheelchair user, becoming
a spokesperson for disabled people and for stem cell research.
* * * *
Acting career
Reeve's first big break as an actor came in
1975 when he was selected to co-star opposite Katharine Hepburn in the
Broadway play A Matter Of Gravity. Reeve stayed with the play throughout
its year long run and was given very favorable reviews. He and Hepburn
became very close. Reeve credited the legendary actress with giving him
many valuable lessons on acting. Hepburn in turn praised her young
co-star. She predicted great things for him and joked that he would
"support me in my old age". Reeve joked back "I don't think I'll live
that long Miss Hepburn".
Reeve continued to work on the stage, as
well as on the soap opera Love of Life His first role in a Hollywood
film was a small part as a submarine officer in the disaster movie Grey
Lady Down in 1977. In 1978, he was selected to portray the international
icon Superman in the 1978 film directed by Richard Donner. This film was
an enormous success and inspired three sequels. Coincidentally,
Christopher Reeve's good friend Robin Williams also became a star that
same year with the television show Mork & Mindy. Superman was the kind
of part Reeve usually disdained. He was a stage actor at heart who
preferred doing classical period plays and films that really required
him to "act". He once said, "I want to challenge myself in my roles, not
run around on screen with a machine gun".
In 1980, Reeve co-starred with Jane Seymour
in Somewhere in Time, a time travel romance. Although this film was not
popular at the time it was released, it has since inspired a wide "cult"
following. Seymour thought so highly of Reeve that she named one of her
children after him.
In 1984, Reeve won critical acclaim for his
role as a 19th century southern lawyer in The Bostonians. He often said
this was the best movie role of his career. It was immediately
afterwards that he scored another triumph on the stage. This time it was
on a London stage. Reeve had always been fond of England and jumped at
the chance to co-star with his friend Vanessa Redgrave in The Aspen
Papers which was an adaptation of a Henry James novel. Critics were
astounded by his performance and headlines blurted "Superman can act!"
In 1987 he travelled to Chile, at that time
under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, to stand in solidarity with
several dozen actors and writers who had been threatened with death for
their left wing views. Aboard his aircraft, he piloted them to safety
and was widely praised as a humanitarian hero. In the same year, the
fourth Superman sequel was released. Reeve helped write the screenplay
because he wanted to send a powerful message about world peace. The plot
focused on Superman ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Also in 1987,
Reeve starred in the gritty Street Smart as a reporter who falsified a
story about a pimp. Morgan Freeman won an Academy Award nomination as
best supporting actor for his role as the pimp "Fast Black". Reeve's
performance was dismissed by the critics; one even mocked, "Look up in
the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane... it's Newsman!". In 1988, Reeve
co-starred with friends, Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner, in the
comedy Switching Channels. This was a modern day remake of the 1930s
stageplay "The Front Page" and also provided the first comical role for
Reeve. The movie flopped and Reeve was unable to land a major film role
for the next four years.
Reeve had a great love for the Williamstown
Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He served as an
apprentice and on its Board of Directors. Despite becoming famous as
Superman, he returned each summer until his accident. Reeve often
faulted fellow actors for shunning stagework claiming they were
dishonoring their craft. Reeve appeared in over 150 plays during his
career.
Later life
On May 27, 1995, Reeve was paralyzed from
the neck down after being thrown from his horse, "Eastern Express", in a
cross country riding competition at Culpeper, Virginia. Reeve later
admitted that he briefly thought of suicide after realizing the extent
of his disability. He credits his wife Dana Reeve with pulling him out
of his depression. She told him, "I still love you no matter what. You
are still you". Reeve has often said that these were the words that
literally saved his life. He largely retired from the production of
films after his paralysis, instead devoting his time to rehabilitation
therapy. With his wife Dana, he opened the Christopher and Dana Reeve
Paralysis Resource Center, a facility in Short Hills, New Jersey devoted
to teaching paralyzed people to live more independently. He also lobbied
against the U.S. government's restrictions on stem cell research.
Reeve also appeared in television movies
after his accident, for example, in 1998 he appeared in a re-make for TV
of the famous film Rear Window, originally by Alfred Hitchcock. This
re-make is set in the time in which it was made and is characterized by
its depiction of (useful) gadgets for wheelchair users. This
distinguishes the film clearly from the original. For example, in the
new film he sends emails by using speech recognition software (instead
of the telephone used in the original).
On April 25, 1998 Random House published
Reeve's autobiography, Still Me.
On February 25, 2003, he appeared in the
television series Smallville as Dr. Swann, who provides young Clark Kent
with insightful clues as to his origins. The episode, "Rosetta", was
warmly received by critics and the viewing public as a fitting
connection from one generation's Superman to the next. Reeve appeared in
the role again in the April 14, 2004 episode "Legacy". The character of
Dr. Swann died in the episode "Sacred," which aired on February 23,
2005. Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the Superman films
continued the plot as Swann's assistant. Her character, Dr. Bridgette
Crosby was eventually killed in the episode entitled "Spirit", which
aired on April 20, 2005.
On October 25, 2004, A&E aired Reeve's
second directorial project, "The Brooke Ellison Story." The film,
starring Lacey Chabert and based on a true story, is about the life of
an 11-year old girl who becomes a quadriplegic in a car accident (and
becomes the first quadriplegic to graduate from Harvard University.)
Reeve died of heart failure on October 10,
2004 after suffering cardiac arrest and falling into a coma the previous
day. He was only 52 years old. In the week prior to his death, Reeve was
being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a pressure ulcer, a
common ailment for paralytics, that had subsequently become seriously
infected.
He was
parrodied on South Park in an episode in season 7 # 702 called Krazy
Kripples.
[Added by PSP: His widow announced in
August 2005 that she has lung cancer. She passed away on March 6,
2006.]
* * * *
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
July 12, 2005
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