In May 27 1995 Reeve was rendered a quadriplegic during an equestrian competition near Culpeper, Virginia, and was confined to the wheelchair for the remainder of his life. He became the spokesman for disabled population & the vocal supporter of stem cell research. Reeve lobbied indefatigably for stem cell locate to help outdoor enthusiasts of spinal cord injuries.

In October 10, 2004 after suffering cardiac arrest and falling into a coma the previous day, Christopher Reeve died of heart failure at 52 years of age. inside the week before his demise, Reeve was existence treated at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York for a pressure ulcer, a most common complaint for paralytics, that had later be seriously septic.

Acting career

Reeve was natural inside New York City to writer Franklin Reeve and journalist Barbara Johnson. He attended Cornell University as a member of the class of 1974, but left prior to earning his degree & began researching at a Juilliard Drama School under John Houseman. When at Juilliard, he became friends using Robin Williams, when well as by using Kevin Conroy who would later become a voice actor for the animated Batman television series.

Reeve's 1st large 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 by using a play throughout its season-long dog & tend super favorable reviews. He & Hepburn became super close. Reeve credited a legendary actress by having returning him numbers of worthful lessons in acting. Hepburn successively praised her immature co-star. She predicted wonderful items for him & joked that he would "support me in my old age." Reeve is reported to use joked back, "I don't think I'll live that long Miss Hepburn."

Reeve continued to operate on the stage, besides when on the soap opera "Love of Life". His 1st role around the Hollywood film was the little section as a undersea officer in the disaster motion picture Gray Lady Down in 1977.

Sustaining his stunning dependable looks & tall stature, Reeve is said to stand drawn eyes once walking into auditions. This paid off whilst he beat retired hundreds to thousands of others for the role of Superman in the 1978 film directed by Richard Donner. This film was an tremendous profits & elysian terzetto sequels. Coincidentally, Christopher Reeve's skillful friend Robin Williams too became a star that equivalent month sustaining the television show Mork & Mindy. Contrary to myth, Christopher Reeve is non related George Reeves, who played Superman in television in the 1950's. George Reeves' very title was, in point of fact, George Brewer, & a similarity in their list is merely cooccurring.

Although he was sure as shooting tall plenty for the role, Reeve's build was definitely unmuscular, & he began the step by step instruction regime under previous British weightlift prizewinning Dave Prowse, world health organization, a short instance down the road, would benefit fame when the human who would give physical form to Darth Vader in George Lucas' immensely popular Star Wars.

Superman was a sort of section Reeve unremarkably disdained. He another time said, "I want to challenge myself in my roles, not run around on screen with a machine gun." However, Reeve did buy that he may play a character using depth & challenge himself by having a role. He said that there experienced to exist as something additional to the Clark Kent character, otherwise smart shoppers upright got the "pair of glasses standing in for a character." Christopher Reeve in essence redefined Superman, there is no little effort looking for what a spherical icon a character was & however is. To this day, population look at Superman within Christopher Reeve.

Within 1980, Reeve co-starred with Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time, a time travel romance. Although this film was non popular at the instance it was freed, it has since elysian a wide "cult" following. Seymour thought and so extremely of Reeve that she known as one of her toddlers when him.

Around 1984, Reeve won critical acclaim for his role as a 19th century southern lawyer in The Bostonians. He typically said this was a better pic role of his career. It was immediately after that he scored an additional triumph on the stage. This period it get on the London stage. Reeve got universally been fond of Engl& and climbed at a risk to co-star sustaining his friend Vanessa Redgrave in The Aspen Papers which was an adaptation of a Henry James novel. Critics were astounded by his performance & newspaper headline blurted "Superman can act!"

Inside 1987 he travelled to Chile, at that time under a dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, to st& in solidarity using many twelve actors and writers world health organization got been threatened by owning demise for their left wing views. Aboard his aircraft, he piloted the two to safety & was widely praised as a human-centred hero. In the equivalent month, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was released. Reeve helped write the screenplay because he wanted to send a right message all about globe peace. A plot focused in Superman ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Besides within 1987, Reeve starred in the gritty Street Smart as the reporter world health organization falsified the story just about a pander. Morgan Freeman won an Academy Award nomination when better supporting actor for his role as a fancy man "Fast Black". Reeve's performance was dismissed per critics; of these possibly mocked, "Look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane... it's Newsman!". Around 1988, Reeve co-starred with friends, Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner, in the comedy Switching Channels. This was the modern day remaking of the 1930s stageplay "The Front Page" and also provided the uncommon comedic role for Reeve. Even so, a picture flopped at a box office and Reeve was unable to land a major film role for the next iv years.

Reeve experienced a great love for the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He served as an prentice & in its Board of Directors. Despite becoming illustrious when Superman, he returned every summertime until his accident. Reeve typically faulted fellow actors for shunning stagework claiming it were dishonoring their craft. Reeve appeared within terminated 150 plays when you took his career.

Later life
In May 27, 1995, Reeve was paralyzed from either the neck down fallowing existence thrown from his horse, "Eastern Express," in the cross country riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia. Reeve late admitted that he briefly thought of suicide after realizing the extent of his disablement. He credits his married woman 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 typically said that these were a words that literally kept his life. He largely retired from either a production of films when his palsy, instead devoting his period to rehabilitation therapy. Using his married woman Danthe, he opened a Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, a facility inside Short Hills, New Jersey, devoted to teaching paralyzed humans to survive supplementary independently. He & Dana too chaired a Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which funds research in palsy & works to improve a peoples of the handicapped. Up to now, a Foundation has awarded $55 million inside the food & drug administration grants and $7.Five million around quality-of-life grants. Fallowing Chris' demise, Dana continued to chair a Foundation. Reeve likewise lobbied against a U.S. government's restrictions in stem cell research (and, according to this, his widow woman endorsed John Kerry for president in 2004 shortly after his dying). [http://www.accessibility.com.au/news/internat/reeve_vs_biggies.htm]

Reeve too appeared within television movies after his accident. For instance, inside 1998 he appeared in the remaking for TV of the illustrious film Rear Window, originally directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This remaking is placed in the instance where it was processed & is characterized by its depiction of adaptative gear for wheelchair users. This clearly distinguishes a film from either a original. E.g., in the freshly film he sends electronic mail by applying speech recognition software (instead of the telephone used in the original).

In April 25, 1998 Random House published Reeve's autobiography, Still Me.

In February 25, 2003, he appeared in the television series Smallville as Dr. Swann, world health organization will bring immature Clark Kent with insightful clues as to his origins. A episode, "Rosetta", was warmly received by critics & a viewing public as a fitting connection from either of these generation's Superman to the next. Reeve appeared in the role once more in the April 14, 2004 episode "Legacy". A character of Dr. Swann died in the episode "Sacred," which aired in February 23, 2005. Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the Superman films continued the plot when Swann's helper. Her character, Dr. Bridgette Crosby, was finally flushed in the episode entitled "Spirit", which aired in April 20,2005.

In 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.)

Selected quotes
"I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

"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, 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."

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."

"If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."

"''In 1977, Christopher Reeve convinced me that a man can fly. Now he's convinced me that he will walk again." (Richard Donner, Superman: A Moving picture director)

Selected filmography
Superman: The Movie (1978) Somewhere in Time (1980) Superman II (1980) Deathtrap (1982) Monsignor (1982) Superman III (1983) The Aviator (1985) Street Smart (1987) Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) Switching Channels (1988) Noises Off (1992) The Remains of the Day (1993) Speechless (1994) Village of the Damned (1995) The Brooke Ellison Story'' (2004) (director)