139 Facts About Christopher Reeve

Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, author, and activist, best known for playing the title character in the film Superman and three sequels.

Christopher Reeve studied at Cornell University and the Juilliard School and made his Broadway debut in 1976.

On May 27,1995, Christopher Reeve broke his neck when he was thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia.

Christopher Reeve returned to creative work, directing In the Gloaming and acting in the television remake of Rear Window.

Christopher Reeve made several appearances in the Superman-themed television series Smallville, and wrote two autobiographical books, Still Me and Nothing is Impossible.

Christopher Reeve was born on September 25,1952, in New York City, the son of Barbara Pitney Lamb, a journalist; and Franklin D'Olier Christopher Reeve, a teacher, novelist, poet, and scholar.

Christopher Reeve excelled academically, athletically, and onstage; he was on the honor roll and played soccer, baseball, tennis, and hockey.

Christopher Reeve wrote in 1998 that his father's "love for his children always seemed tied to performance" and he put pressure on himself to act older than he actually was in order to gain his father's approval.

Christopher Reeve found his passion for acting in 1962 at age nine when he was cast in an amateur version of the operetta The Yeomen of the Guard; it was the first of many student plays.

Christopher Reeve's interest was solidified when at age fifteen, he spent a summer as an apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Christopher Reeve planned to go to New York City to find a career in theater.

Christopher Reeve was accepted into Princeton University, Columbia University, Brown University, Cornell University, Northwestern University, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Christopher Reeve said he chose Cornell primarily because it was distant from New York City and this would help him avoid the temptation of working as an actor immediately versus finishing college, as he had promised his mother and stepfather.

Christopher Reeve joined the theater department in Cornell and played Pozzo in Waiting for Godot, Segismundo in Life Is a Dream, Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Polixenes in The Winter's Tale.

Late in his freshman year, Christopher Reeve received a letter from Stark Hesseltine, a high-powered New York City agent who had discovered Robert Redford and who represented actors such as Richard Chamberlain, Michael Douglas, and Susan Sarandon.

Christopher Reeve was very excited and kept re-reading the letter to make sure of what it said.

Christopher Reeve was impatient with school and eager to get on with his career.

Christopher Reeve received favorable responses to his introductions and auditions arranged by Hesseltine but had to forgo several desirable opportunities because they began before school ended.

The next year, Christopher Reeve received a full summer contract with the San Diego Shakespeare Festival, with roles as Edward IV in Richard III, Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Dumaine in Love's Labour's Lost at the Old Globe Theatre.

Christopher Reeve traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, and saw theatrical productions throughout the United Kingdom.

Christopher Reeve was inspired by the actors there, and often had conversations with them in bars after their performances.

Christopher Reeve helped actors at the Old Vic with their American accents by reading the newspaper aloud for them.

Christopher Reeve then flew to Paris to study the French theater.

Christopher Reeve spoke fluent French, having studied it from the third grade through his first year in Cornell.

Christopher Reeve managed to convince theater director Jim Clause and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as a theater major, he would achieve more at Juilliard in New York City than at Cornell.

Christopher Reeve's audition was in front of 10 faculty members, including John Houseman, who had just won an Academy Award for The Paper Chase.

Christopher Reeve declined, as he had not yet received his bachelor's degree.

In one performance, Christopher Reeve, who played the hero, drew his sword out too high and accidentally destroyed a row of lights above him.

Christopher Reeve later said this was the greatest ovation of his career.

In late 1975, Christopher Reeve auditioned for the Broadway play A Matter of Gravity.

Christopher Reeve stayed with the play throughout its year-long run and was given very favorable reviews.

Christopher Reeve later regretted not staying closer and just sending messages back and forth.

Christopher 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.

Christopher Reeve then acted in the play My Life at the Circle Repertory Company with friend William Hurt.

The morning after the meeting, Christopher Reeve was sent a 300-page script.

Christopher Reeve was thrilled the script took the subject matter seriously, and Donner's motto was verisimilitude.

Christopher Reeve flew to London for a screen test, and on the way was told Marlon Brando was going to play Jor-El and Gene Hackman was going to play Lex Luthor.

Christopher Reeve went through an intense two-month training regimen with former British weightlifting champion David Prowse supervising.

Christopher Reeve added thirty pounds of muscle to his "thin" 189-pound frame.

Christopher Reeve later made even higher gains for Superman III, though for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, he decided it would be healthier to focus more on cardiovascular workouts.

One of the reasons Christopher Reeve could not work out as much for Superman IV was an emergency appendectomy he had in June 1986.

Christopher Reeve found the role offered a suitable challenge because it was a dual role.

Christopher Reeve was very aware of that and very happy with that role.

Christopher Reeve joined the board of directors for the worldwide charity Save the Children.

The cast was unhappy, but Christopher Reeve later said he liked Lester and considered Superman II to be his favorite of the series.

Christopher Reeve believed the producers Alexander Salkind, his son Ilya Salkind, and Pierre Spengler decreased the credibility of Superman III by turning it into a Richard Pryor comedy, hence making it a not very good film.

Christopher Reeve missed Donner and believed Superman III only really good element was the automobile junkyard scene in which Evil Superman fights Good Clark Kent in an internal battle.

Christopher Reeve would have made a fifth Superman film after the rights to the character reverted to Alexander Salkind, Ilya Salkind, and Pierre Spengler if the film had a budget the same size as of Superman: The Movie.

In that same year, Christopher Reeve made a guest appearance on The Muppet Show, where he performed "East of the Sun " on a piano for Miss Piggy, who had a crush on him.

Christopher Reeve denied being Superman but displayed the character's superpowers throughout the episode.

Christopher Reeve then returned to continue filming on the not yet finished production of Superman II.

In 1982 Christopher Reeve stretched his acting range further and played a devious novice playwright with questionable motives regarding his lover and mentor Michael Caine, in Sidney Lumet's suspenseful dark comedy film Deathtrap, based on the play by Ira Levin.

Christopher Reeve felt this gave him the opportunity to play "a morally ambiguous character who was neither clearly good nor clearly bad, someone to whom life is much more complex than the characters I've played previously".

Christopher Reeve blamed the failure of the film on poor editing.

Christopher Reeve was then offered the role of Basil Ransom in 1984's The Bostonians alongside Vanessa Redgrave.

Christopher Reeve had no complaints, as he was happy to be doing a role of which he could be proud.

Christopher Reeve was a licensed pilot and flew solo across the Atlantic twice.

Christopher Reeve joined The Tiger Club, a group of aviators who had served in the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.

The film was shot in Kranjska Gora, and Christopher Reeve performed all his own stunts.

In 1984, Christopher Reeve appeared in The Aspern Papers with Vanessa Redgrave.

Christopher Reeve then played Tony in The Royal Family and the Count in a modern adaptation of the play The Marriage of Figaro.

Christopher Reeve starred opposite Morgan Freeman, who was nominated for his first Academy Award for the film.

Christopher Reeve later stated he made a fool of himself in the film and most of his time was spent refereeing between Reynolds and Turner.

The film did poorly, and Christopher Reeve believed it marked the end of his movie star career.

Christopher Reeve auditioned for the Richard Gere role in Pretty Woman but walked out on the audition because they had a half-hearted casting director fill in for Julia Roberts.

Christopher Reeve was taking horse-riding lessons and trained five to six days a week for competition in combined training events.

Christopher Reeve built a sailboat, The Sea Angel, and sailed from the Chesapeake to Nova Scotia.

In 1990, Christopher Reeve starred in the American Civil War film The Rose and the Jackal, in which he played Allan Pinkerton, the head of President Lincoln's new Secret Service.

In 1992, Christopher Reeve played a lead role in the movie comedy Noises Off, in which he played a character named Frederick Dallas.

The most notable of these was Bump in the Night, in which Christopher Reeve played a child molester who abducts a young boy in New York City.

Christopher Reeve felt it was important for parents of young children to see the film.

In Massachusetts, Christopher Reeve could take a Concorde and see them at any time.

Christopher Reeve did not object to all long-distance journeys; he went to New Mexico to shoot Speechless, co-starring Michael Keaton.

Christopher Reeve then went to Point Reyes to shoot John Carpenter's film Village of the Damned, a remake of a 1960 British movie of the same name.

Shortly before his accident, Christopher Reeve played a paralyzed police officer in the HBO movie Above Suspicion.

Christopher Reeve did research at a rehabilitation hospital in Van Nuys and learned how to use a wheelchair to get in and out of cars.

Christopher Reeve's injury occurred less than a week after the premiere of the film.

Christopher Reeve planned to direct his first big screen film, a romantic comedy entitled Tell Me True.

In 1996, Christopher Reeve narrated the HBO film Without Pity: A Film About Abilities.

Christopher Reeve then acted in a small role in the film A Step Toward Tomorrow.

In 1997, Christopher Reeve made his directorial debut with the HBO film In the Gloaming with Robert Sean Leonard, Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, Bridget Fonda, and David Strathairn.

Christopher Reeve was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance.

The book spent eleven weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and Christopher Reeve won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

On February 25,2003, Christopher Reeve appeared in the television series Smallville as Dr Virgil Swann in the episode "Rosetta".

The scenes of Christopher Reeve and Welling feature music cues from 1978's Superman: The Movie, composed by John Williams and arranged by Mark Snow.

Christopher Reeve appeared in the Smallville episode "Legacy", in which he met again with fellow stage actor John Glover, who played Lionel Luthor in the show.

Christopher Reeve's wife Dana helped out, and his son Will was a cast member in the film.

In June 1987, Christopher Reeve met his future wife Dana Morosini, a singer and actress.

Christopher Reeve began his involvement in horse riding in 1985 after learning to ride for the film Anna Karenina.

Christopher Reeve was initially allergic to horses, so he took antihistamines.

Christopher Reeve trained on Martha's Vineyard, and by 1989, he began eventing.

Christopher Reeve had 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.

Christopher Reeve purchased a 12-year-old American thoroughbred horse named Eastern Express, nicknamed "Buck" while filming Village of the Damned.

Christopher Reeve trained with Buck in 1994 and planned to do Training Level events in 1995 and move up to Preliminary in 1996.

Christopher Reeve finished in fourth place out of 27 in the dressage, before walking his cross-country course.

Christopher Reeve was concerned about jumps 16 and 17 but paid little attention to the third jump, which was a routine three-foot-three fence shaped like the letter 'W'.

Christopher Reeve fell forward off the horse, holding on to the reins.

Christopher Reeve's hands became tangled in them, and the bridle and bit were pulled off the horse.

Christopher Reeve landed head first on the far side of the fence, shattering his first and second vertebrae.

Christopher Reeve was taken first to the local hospital, before being flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center.

Christopher Reeve's doctor explained to him his first and second cervical vertebrae had been destroyed and his spinal cord damaged.

Christopher Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe without a ventilator, but had not sustained any brain damage.

Christopher Reeve went through inner anguish in the ICU, particularly when he was alone during the night.

Christopher Reeve put wires underneath both laminae and used bone from Reeve's hip to fit between the C1 and C2 vertebrae.

Christopher Reeve inserted a titanium pin and fused the wires with the vertebrae, then drilled holes in Reeve's skull and fitted the wires through to secure the skull to the spinal column.

Christopher Reeve developed a deep fondness for many of the staff at Kessler, and through conversations with the other patients gradually started to see himself as being part of the disabled community.

Christopher Reeve exercised for up to four or five hours a day, using specialized exercise machines to stimulate his muscles and prevent muscle atrophy and osteoporosis.

Christopher Reeve believed that intense physical therapy could regenerate the nervous system, and wanted his body to be strong enough to support itself if a cure for paralysis were found.

Christopher Reeve's doctors were shocked by his improvements, which they attributed to his intensive exercise regimen.

In December 1995, Christopher Reeve moved back to his home in Pound Ridge, New York.

Christopher 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.

Christopher Reeve gradually resolved to make the best of his new life, with a busy schedule of activism, film work, writing and promoting his books, public speaking, and parenting.

For most of his life, Christopher Reeve did not identify with any religion.

Christopher Reeve attended his stepfather's Presbyterian church as a young teenager.

Christopher Reeve described his wedding in 1992 as his "first act of faith".

Christopher Reeve served as a board member for the Charles Lindbergh Fund, which promotes environmentally safe technologies.

Christopher Reeve lent support to causes such as Amnesty International, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and People for the American Way.

Christopher Reeve received an Obie Award and the Annual Walter Brielh Human Rights Foundation award.

Christopher Reeve was an early member of the group, along with Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, and Blythe Danner.

Christopher Reeve was elected as a co-president of the Creative Coalition in 1994.

The organization's work was noticed nationwide, and the Democratic Party asked Christopher Reeve to run for the United States Congress.

In 1996, ten months after the injury paralyzed him, Christopher Reeve appeared at the 68th Academy Awards to a long standing ovation.

Christopher Reeve left the Kessler Rehabilitation Center feeling inspiration from the other patients he had met.

Christopher Reeve served as a board member for several organizations aim to improve quality of life for people with disabilities.

Christopher Reeve lobbied for expanded federal funding on embryonic stem cell research to include all embryonic stem cell lines in existence and for self-governance to make open-ended scientific inquiry of the research.

Christopher Reeve initially called this "a step in the right direction", admitting he did not know about the existing lines and would look into them further.

Christopher Reeve fought against the limit when scientists revealed an early research technique involved mixing the human stem cells with mouse cells contaminated most of the old lines.

In 2002, Christopher Reeve lobbied for the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001, which would allow somatic cell nuclear transfer research, but would ban reproductive cloning.

Christopher Reeve argued stem cell implantation is unsafe unless the stem cells contain the patient's own DNA and because somatic cell nuclear transfer is done without fertilizing an egg, it can be fully regulated.

In June 2004, Christopher Reeve provided a videotaped message on behalf of the Genetics Policy Institute to the delegates of the United Nations in defense of somatic cell nuclear transfer, which a world treaty was considering banning.

In July 2003, Christopher Reeve's continuing frustration with the pace of stem cell research in the US led him to Israel, a country that was then, according to him, at the center of research in spinal cord injury.

Christopher Reeve claimed to have had an out-of-body experience and remembered saying, "I'm sorry, but I have to go now", during the event.

In 2002 and 2004, Christopher Reeve survived several serious infections believed to have originated from his bone marrow.

Christopher Reeve recovered from three that could have been fatal.

On October 9,2004, Christopher Reeve attended his son Will's hockey game.

Christopher Reeve fell into a coma, and was taken to Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York.

Eighteen hours later, on October 10,2004, Christopher Reeve died at the age of 52.

Christopher Reeve's ashes were sprinkled in the wind by his family.

Reeve's children Matthew, Alexandra, and William all serve on the board of directors for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, while Will is a reporter for ABC News.