Christopher Reeve was a famous actor, director and activist. He became famous through portraying the character of Superman.
So let’s find out some trivia and facts about the actor and his life.
- His full name was Christopher D’Olier Reeve
- He was born on September 25, 1952
- He died on October 10, 2004
- He was an American actor, director, and activist
- He is best known for playing the main character and title role in the film Superman (1978) and its three sequels
- He was born in New York City
- He was raised in Princeton, New Jersey
- Reeve discovered a passion for acting and the theater at the age of nine
- He studied at Cornell University and the Juilliard School
- He made his Broadway debut in 1976
- After his acclaimed performances in Superman and Superman II, Reeve declined many roles in action movies, choosing instead to work in small films and plays with more complex characters
- He later appeared in critically successful films such as The Bostonians (1984), Street Smart (1987), and The Remains of the Day (1993)
- And in the plays Fifth of July on Broadway and The Aspern Papers in London’s West End
- On May 27, 1995, Reeve broke his neck when he was thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia
- The injury paralyzed him from the shoulders down, and he used a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life
- From his wheelchair, Reeve returned to creative work
- He directed In the Gloaming (1997)
- He acted in the television remake of Rear Window (1998)
- He also made several appearances in the Superman-themed television series Smallville
- He, also, wrote two autobiographical books, Still Me and Nothing is Impossible
- Over the course of his career, Reeve received a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award
- Beginning in the 1980s, Reeve was an activist for environmental and human-rights causes and for artistic freedom of expression
- After the accident, he lobbied for spinal cord injury research, including human embryonic stem cell research, and for better insurance coverage for people with disabilities
- His advocacy work included leading the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and co-founding the Reeve-Irvine Research Center
- Reeve died on October 10, 2004
- He died 15 days after his 52nd birthday
- Reeve’s first role in a Hollywood film was a very small part as a junior officer in the 1978 naval submarine disaster movie Gray Lady Down, starring Charlton Heston
- He then acted in the play My Life at the Circle Repertory Company with friend William Hurt
- During My Life, Stark Hesseltine told Reeve that he had been asked to audition for the leading role as Clark Kent/Superman in the big budget film Superman (1978)
- Lynn Stalmaster, the casting director, put Reeve’s picture and résumé on the top of the pile three separate times, only to have the producers throw it out each time
- Through Stalmaster’s persistent pleading, a meeting between director Richard Donner, producer Ilya Salkind, and Reeve was arranged
- The morning after the meeting, Reeve was sent a 300-page script
- He was thrilled that the script took the subject matter seriously, and that Richard Donner’s motto was verisimilitude
- Reeve flew to London for a screen test, and on the way was told that Marlon Brando was going to play Jor-El and Gene Hackman was going to play Lex Luthor
- Reeve still did not think he had much of a chance
- On the plane ride to London, he imagined how his approach to the role would be
- He based his portrayal of Clark Kent on Cary Grant in his role in Bringing Up Baby
- After the screen test, his driver said, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but you’ve got the part”
- Portraying Superman would be a stretch for the 24-year-old actor
- He was 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) tall, but his physique was slim
- Reeve went through an intense two-month training regimen that former British weightlifting champion David Prowse supervised
- The training regimen consisted of running in the morning, followed by two hours of weightlifting and ninety minutes on the trampoline
- He added thirty pounds (14 kg) of muscle to his “thin” 189-pound (86 kg) frame
- He later made even higher gains for Superman III (1983)
- Though for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), he decided it would be healthier to focus more on cardiovascular workouts
- One of the reasons Reeve could not work out as much for Superman IV was an emergency appendectomy he had in June 1986
- For his performance, Reeve won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
- While filming the first two Superman movies in England, Reeve began a ten-year relationship with modeling executive Gae Exton
- They had a son, Matthew Exton Reeve, on December 20, 1979, and a daughter, Alexandra Exton Reeve, in December 1983
- Both were born in London, England
- In February 1987, Reeve and Gae Exton separated amicably with joint custody of their children
- Reeve returned to New York
- Matthew and Alexandra remained in London with their mother and often spent their holidays with Reeve
- In June of 1987, Reeve met his future wife Dana Morosini, a singer and actress
- By 1991, they were living together but Reeve, remembering his parents’ painful divorce and other failed marriages in his family, could not bring himself to commit
- After they almost broke up, Reeve began about a year of therapy, primarily to talk through his fears about marriage
- They were married in April 1992
- Their son William was born on June 7 that year
- The couple remained happily married until Reeve’s death
- Reeve began his involvement in horse riding in 1985 after learning to ride for the film Anna Karenina
- He was initially allergic to horses, so he took antihistamines
- He trained on Martha’s Vineyard, and by 1989, he began eventing
- His allergies soon disappeared
- He had suffered leg injuries as a teen while skiing, and he later broke three ribs in a riding accident he described, along with the leg injuries, on The Tonight Show in March 1987
- On May 27, 1995, Reeve’s horse made a refusal
- Witnesses said that the horse began the third fence jump and suddenly stopped
- Reeve fell forward off the horse, holding on to the reins
- His hands became tangled in the reins, and the bridle and bit were pulled off the horse
- He landed head first on the far side of the fence, shattering his first and second vertebrae
- This cervical spinal injury, which paralyzed him from the neck down, also halted his breathing
- Paramedics arrived three minutes later and immediately took measures to get air into his lungs
- He was taken first to the local hospital, before being flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center
- He had no recollection of the accident
- In December 1995, Reeve moved back to his home in Pound Ridge, New York
- By two years after the accident, Reeve said that he was “glad to be alive, not out of obligation to others, but because life was worth living”
- Reeve continued to require round-the-clock care for the rest of his life, with a team of ten nurses and aides working in his home
- Reeve suffered from asthma and allergies since childhood
- At age 16, he began to suffer from alopecia areata, a condition that causes patches of hair to fall out from an otherwise healthy head of hair
- Generally, he was able to comb it over and often the problem disappeared for long periods, but he wore a wig for the third and fourth Superman films
- The condition became more noticeable after he became paralyzed, so he shaved his head
- In 2002 and 2004, Reeve survived several serious infections believed to have originated from his bone marrow
- He recovered from three that could have been fatal
- In early October 2004, he was being treated for an infected pressure ulcer that was causing sepsis, a complication he had experienced many times before
- On October 4, 2004, he spoke at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago on behalf of the institute’s work; it was his last reported public appearance
- On October 9, 2004, Reeve attended his son Will’s hockey game
- That night, he went into cardiac arrest after receiving an antibiotic for the infection
- He fell into a coma, and was taken to Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York
- Eighteen hours later, on October 10, 2004, Reeve died at the age of 52
- No official autopsy was performed on the actor
- However, both Reeve’s wife Dana and his doctor John McDonald believed that an adverse reaction to a drug caused Reeve’s death
- His body was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery, and his ashes were scattered
- A memorial service for Reeve was held at the Unitarian Church in Westport, Connecticut, which both Reeve and Dana had attended
- Reeve’s widow, Dana Reeve, headed the Christopher Reeve Foundation after his death
- Although a non-smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer on August 9, 2005
- She died at age 44 on March 6, 2006
- The foundation was subsequently renamed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
- Reeve’s children Matthew, Alexandra, and William all serve on the board of directors for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
- While Will is also a reporter for ABC News
- In 2015, Alexandra and her husband welcomed a son, Christopher Russel Reeve Givens
- Google is showing a Doodle in some countries on September 25, 2021, for Christopher Reeve’s 69th birthday
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