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.

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.

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.

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 third 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.

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 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.

So where does the former Superman star get his undaunted courage? Well, according to his brother Ben, a nonpracticing Massachusetts lawyer who also attended the screening, not from God. 'We're devout atheists, so that wasn't it,' explained the ever-nonpracticing Ben."

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. Patients with the type of paralysis Reeve had live an average of 7 years, he lasted over 9 years.



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