1. Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, activist, director, and author.
181 Facts About Christopher Reeve
1. 2.
Christopher Reeve amassed several stage and screen credits in his 34-year career, including playing the title character in the Superman film series.
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Christopher Reeve won a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
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Christopher Reeve studied at Cornell University and the Juilliard School, making his Broadway debut in 1976.
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Christopher Reeve's breakthrough came with playing the title character in Superman and its three sequels.
6.
In 1995, Christopher Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia.
7.
Christopher Reeve used a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life.
8.
Christopher Reeve later directed In the Gloaming, acted in the television remake of Rear Window, and made two appearances in the Superman-themed television series Smallville.
9.
Christopher Reeve wrote two autobiographical books: Still Me and Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life.
10.
Christopher Reeve died in 2004 from heart failure at a hospital near his home in Westchester County, New York.
11.
Christopher Reeve was born on September 25,1952, in New York City, the son of Barbara Pitney Lamb, an associate editor of Town Topics, and Franklin D'Olier Christopher Reeve, a teacher, novelist, poet, and scholar.
12.
Christopher Reeve excelled academically, athletically, and onstage; he was on the honor roll and played soccer, baseball, tennis, and hockey.
13.
Christopher Reeve played the piano and sang in the choir as a soprano.
14.
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.
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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.
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Christopher Reeve's interest was solidified when at age 15, he spent a summer as an apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
17.
Christopher Reeve planned to go to New York City to find a career in theater.
18.
Christopher Reeve was accepted into Princeton University, Columbia University, Brown University, Cornell University, Northwestern University, and Carnegie Mellon University.
19.
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.
20.
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.
21.
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.
22.
Christopher Reeve was excited and kept re-reading the letter to make sure of what it said.
23.
Christopher Reeve was impatient with school and eager to get on with his career.
24.
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.
25.
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.
26.
Christopher Reeve traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, and saw theatrical productions throughout the United Kingdom.
27.
Christopher Reeve was inspired by the actors there, and often had conversations with them in bars after their performances.
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Christopher Reeve helped actors at The Old Vic with their American accents by reading the newspaper aloud for them.
29.
Christopher Reeve then flew to Paris to study the French theater.
30.
Christopher Reeve spoke fluent French, having studied it from the third grade through his first year in Cornell.
31.
Christopher Reeve managed to convince theater director John Clancy 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.
32.
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.
33.
Christopher Reeve declined, as he had not yet received his bachelor's degree.
34.
In one performance, Christopher Reeve, who played the hero, drew his sword out too high and accidentally destroyed a row of lights above him.
35.
Christopher Reeve later said this was the greatest ovation of his career.
36.
In 1974, Christopher Reeve auditioned for the soap opera Love of Life to pay tuition fees at Juilliard.
37.
When Christopher Reeve reminded the producers of their agreement, they responded that it wasn't set in writing.
38.
Christopher Reeve received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard in 1997.
39.
In between filming for the soap opera, Christopher Reeve took acting classes at the HB Studio and appeared in an Off-off-Broadway production of Berchtesgaden at the Theater for the New City.
40.
Christopher Reeve coached him not to play "on the nose", and he often followed that advice over the years.
41.
In late 1975, Christopher Reeve auditioned for the Broadway play A Matter of Gravity.
42.
At one of the performances, Christopher Reeve entered the stage, said his first line, and then promptly fainted.
43.
Christopher Reeve stayed with the play for nine months and was given favorable reviews.
44.
Christopher Reeve later regretted not staying closer and just sending messages back and forth.
45.
Christopher Reeve's first role in a Hollywood film was a small part as a junior officer in the 1978 naval submarine disaster movie Gray Lady Down, starring Charlton Heston.
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Christopher Reeve then acted in the play My Life at the Circle Repertory Company with friend William Hurt.
47.
The morning after the meeting, Christopher Reeve was sent a 300-page script.
48.
Christopher Reeve was thrilled that the script took the subject matter seriously, and that Donner's motto was verisimilitude.
49.
Christopher Reeve flew to London for a screen test, but he still did not believe he had much of a chance.
50.
Christopher Reeve went through an intense two-month training regimen with former British weightlifting champion David Prowse supervising.
51.
Christopher Reeve added 30-pound of muscle to his "thin" 188-pound frame.
52.
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.
53.
One of the reasons Christopher Reeve could not work out as much for Superman IV was an emergency appendectomy that he had in June 1986.
54.
Christopher Reeve found the role offered a suitable challenge because it was a dual role.
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Christopher Reeve was very aware of that and very happy with that role.
56.
The cast was unhappy, but Christopher Reeve later said he liked Lester and considered Superman II to be his favorite of the series.
57.
Christopher Reeve believed the producers Alexander Salkind, his son Ilya Salkind, and Pierre Spengler had decreased the credibility of Superman III by turning it into a Richard Pryor comedy rather than a proper Superman film.
58.
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.
59.
Christopher Reeve would have made a fifth Superman film after the rights to the character reverted to the Salkinds and Spengler if the film had a budget of the same size as Superman: The Movie.
60.
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.
61.
Christopher Reeve denied being Superman but displayed the character's superpowers throughout the episode.
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Christopher Reeve then returned to continue filming on the not yet finished production of Superman II.
63.
Christopher Reeve did two plays that season: The Front Page and The Cherry Orchard.
64.
In 1981, Christopher Reeve returned to Williamstown to play Achilles in the two-part, six-hour production of The Greeks.
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In 1982, Christopher Reeve stretched his acting range further and played a devious novice playwright with questionable motives regarding his idol and mentor Michael Caine, in Sidney Lumet's suspenseful dark comedy Deathtrap, based on the play by Ira Levin.
66.
In 1983, Christopher Reeve appeared in Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre, playing the dual roles of Prince Charming and the cowardly prince in Sleeping Beauty.
67.
Later that year, Christopher Reeve went to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, to work on the film The Aviator.
68.
Christopher Reeve readily accepted the role and volunteered to do his own piloting to achieve a more realistic look.
69.
Christopher Reeve was then offered the role of Basil Ransom in 1984's The Bostonians alongside Vanessa Redgrave.
70.
Christopher Reeve had no complaints, as this was exactly the kind of film he wanted to do.
71.
In March 1985, Christopher Reeve starred as Count Vronsky in the television film Anna Karenina, opposite Jacqueline Bisset.
72.
Christopher Reeve then returned to the stage, playing Tony in The Royal Family in Williamstown and the Count in a modern adaptation of The Marriage of Figaro on Broadway.
73.
Christopher Reeve starred opposite Morgan Freeman, who was nominated for his first Academy Award for the film.
74.
Christopher Reeve later stated that he made a fool of himself in the film and most of his time was spent refereeing between Reynolds and Turner.
75.
In 1988, Christopher Reeve played Major Johnnie Dodge in the two-part television film The Great Escape II: The Untold Story.
76.
Christopher Reeve starred in another production of Summer and Smoke, this time with Christine Lahti, at the Ahmanson Theatre.
77.
In 1989, Christopher Reeve played Polixenes in an Off-Broadway production of The Winter's Tale.
78.
Christopher Reeve was part of a rotating cast in John Tillinger's production of Love Letters at the Promenade Theatre; with Julie Hagerty, he performed in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston in 1989 and 1990.
79.
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.
80.
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.
81.
The most notable of these was Bump in the Night, in which Christopher Reeve played a child molester who abducts a young boy.
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Christopher Reeve felt it was important for parents of young children to see the film.
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In 1992, Christopher Reeve played one of the leads in Peter Bogdanovich's comedy Noises Off.
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Christopher Reeve acted in the short film Last Ferry Home.
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In 1993, Christopher Reeve starred opposite Charles Bronson in the television film The Sea Wolf, based on Jack London's novel of the same name.
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Scenes of Christopher Reeve riding are featured heavily in the story.
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In 1994, Christopher Reeve did a reading of Love Letters in Williamstown, and appeared as a narrator in a concert version of the musical Allegro at the New York City Center.
88.
In 1995, Christopher Reeve starred in John Carpenter's Village of the Damned, a remake of the 1960 British movie of the same name.
89.
Shortly before his accident, Christopher Reeve played a paralyzed police officer in the HBO movie Above Suspicion.
90.
Christopher Reeve accepted an offer to appear in Road to Avonlea without reading the script because Colleen Dewhurst, with whom he was close, spoke highly of the show.
91.
Christopher Reeve was one of the celebrity guest callers on Frasier in 1993.
92.
Christopher Reeve planned to direct his first film for the big screen, a romantic comedy entitled Tell Me True.
93.
In 1996, Christopher Reeve narrated the HBO documentary Without Pity: A Film About Abilities.
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Christopher Reeve then acted in a small role in the film A Step Toward Tomorrow.
95.
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.
96.
In early 1998, Christopher Reeve persuaded Michael Eisner, the CEO of Disney at the time, to give a two-hour prime-time slot on ABC to a spinal cord research fundraiser.
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Christopher Reeve narrated the abridged audiobook, which won him the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, the Audie Award for Solo Narration by the Author, and the Earphones Award from AudioFile.
98.
Also in 1998, Christopher Reeve starred in and served as executive producer of Rear Window, a remake of Hitchcock's 1954 film.
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Christopher Reeve was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance.
100.
In 2000, Christopher Reeve made guest appearances on the PBS series Sesame Street.
101.
Christopher Reeve narrated an unabridged audiobook for which he received his second Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album.
102.
In 2003, Christopher Reeve guest-starred in an episode of The Practice.
103.
Christopher Reeve submitted a story treatment to the show's creator, David E Kelley, that addresses the issues of health insurance policy and caregiver burnout.
104.
Christopher Reeve's final acting role was in the television series Smallville portraying Dr Virgil Swann.
105.
The scenes of Christopher Reeve and Welling feature music cues from 1978's Superman, composed by John Williams and arranged by Mark Snow.
106.
Christopher Reeve appeared in the episode "Legacy", in which he reunited with fellow stage actor John Glover, who played Lionel Luthor in the show.
107.
Christopher Reeve's wife Dana helped out, and his son Will was a cast member in the film.
108.
Christopher Reeve turned it down upon learning that the character was a paralyzed and facially disfigured child molester.
109.
However, Christopher Reeve returned to Exton upon learning that she was pregnant with their son Matthew Exton Christopher Reeve, who was born on December 20,1979.
110.
Christopher Reeve is a lawyer and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology.
111.
In June 1987, Christopher Reeve met his future wife Dana Morosini, a singer and actress.
112.
Christopher Reeve was a licensed pilot and began reaching major milestones in his early 20s: private, instrument, multi-engine, commercial, instructor, and glider.
113.
In 1976, Christopher Reeve purchased his first aircraft, a second-hand Cherokee 140.
114.
Christopher Reeve flew solo across the Atlantic twice and was a pilot for the Environmental Air Force.
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Christopher Reeve knew how to fly a Stearman and did his own piloting in the film The Aviator.
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Christopher Reeve enjoyed gliding; his personal record was 32,000 ft.
117.
Christopher Reeve sailed in the Caribbean and to Bermuda a few times.
118.
Christopher Reeve began his involvement in horse riding in 1985 after learning to ride for the film Anna Karenina.
119.
Christopher Reeve was initially allergic to horses, so he took antihistamines.
120.
Christopher Reeve trained on Martha's Vineyard, and by 1989, he began eventing.
121.
Christopher Reeve purchased a 12-year-old American thoroughbred horse named Eastern Express, nicknamed "Buck", while filming Village of the Damned.
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Christopher Reeve trained with Buck in 1994 and planned to do Training Level events in 1995 and move up to Preliminary in 1996.
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Christopher Reeve finished in fourth place out of 27 in the dressage, before walking his cross-country course.
124.
Christopher Reeve was concerned about jumps 16 and 17 but paid little attention to the third jump, which was a routine one-metre-tall fence shaped like the letter "W".
125.
Christopher Reeve fell forward off the horse, holding on to the reins.
126.
Christopher Reeve's hands became tangled in them, and the bridle and bit were pulled off the horse.
127.
Christopher Reeve landed head first on the far side of the fence, shattering his first and second vertebrae.
128.
Christopher Reeve was taken first to the local hospital, before being flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center.
129.
Christopher Reeve's doctor explained to him his first and second cervical vertebrae had been destroyed and his spinal cord damaged.
130.
Christopher Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe without a ventilator.
131.
Christopher Reeve went through inner anguish in the ICU, particularly when he was alone during the night.
132.
Christopher Reeve announced that he was my proctologist, and that he had to examine me immediately.
133.
Christopher Reeve put wires underneath both laminae and used bone from Reeve's hip to fit between the C1 and C2 vertebrae.
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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.
135.
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.
136.
At home, 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.
137.
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.
138.
Christopher Reeve regularly exercised in a swimming pool and could push off with his legs from the side of a pool and make a snow angel movement with his arms.
139.
Christopher Reeve had a sense of proprioception, which is critical for movement control.
140.
Christopher Reeve's doctors were surprised by his improvements, which they attributed to his intensive exercise regimen.
141.
In February 2003, Christopher Reeve became the third patient in the United States to undergo an experimental procedure in which electrodes were implanted in his diaphragm to help him breathe without a ventilator.
142.
In November 2003, Christopher Reeve appeared in public without a ventilator for the first time since his accident.
143.
In December 1995, Christopher Reeve moved back to his home in Bedford, New York.
144.
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.
145.
For most of his life, Christopher Reeve did not identify with any religion.
146.
Christopher Reeve attended his stepfather's Presbyterian church as a young teenager.
147.
Christopher Reeve described his wedding in 1992 as his "first act of faith".
148.
At the age of 15, Christopher Reeve developed a passionate interest in political and social causes.
149.
Christopher Reeve conducted a door-to-door campaign on behalf of Robert F Kennedy in 1968 and participated in protests against the invasion of Cambodia in 1970.
150.
Christopher Reeve joined the board of directors for the worldwide charity Save the Children.
151.
Christopher Reeve served as a board member for the Charles Lindbergh Fund, which promotes environmentally safe technologies, and lent support to causes such as Amnesty International, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and People for the American Way.
152.
In 1983, Christopher Reeve was elected to Actors' Equity Association Council.
153.
Christopher Reeve received an Obie Award and the Annual Walter Briehl Human Rights Foundation award.
154.
Christopher Reeve spoke out against Donald Trump's developing projects on West End Avenue in the late 1980s.
155.
Christopher Reeve was an early member of the group, along with Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, and Blythe Danner.
156.
Christopher Reeve was elected as a co-president of TCC in 1994.
157.
The organization's work was noticed nationwide, and the Democratic Party asked Christopher Reeve to run for the United States Congress.
158.
In 1996,10 months after his injury, Christopher Reeve appeared at the 68th Academy Awards to a long standing ovation.
159.
Christopher Reeve left the Kessler Rehabilitation Center feeling inspiration from the other patients he had met.
160.
Christopher Reeve traveled across the country to make speeches and hosted the 1996 Summer Paralympic Games in Atlanta and spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
161.
Christopher Reeve was elected chairman of the American Paralysis Association and vice chairman of the National Organization on Disability.
162.
Christopher Reeve served as a board member for several organizations' aim to improve quality of life for people with disabilities.
163.
The scholarship changed its name to the Christopher Reeve Acting Award in 2023.
164.
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.
165.
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.
166.
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.
167.
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.
168.
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.
169.
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.
170.
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.
171.
Christopher Reeve sustained injuries in various sports activities, such as a broken ankle while skiing and a fractured rib from a riding mishap while training for Anna Karenina.
172.
Christopher Reeve had a rare condition called mastocytosis, which made him vulnerable to anaphylaxis, and more than once he had a severe reaction to a drug.
173.
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.
174.
Christopher Reeve was given a medication for it, but an adverse reaction caused all the hair on his body to fall out, including his eyebrows and eyelashes.
175.
Christopher Reeve was warned that his leg might have to be amputated to prevent further spread of infection.
176.
Christopher Reeve sought help from specialists at Albany Medical Center, who examined his leg, removing the dead tissue and putting him on powerful antibiotics, although he developed an allergy after eight days.
177.
On October 9,2004, Christopher Reeve attended his son Will's hockey game.
178.
Christopher Reeve fell into a coma, and was taken to Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York.
179.
Christopher Reeve's remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery, where his ashes were sprinkled in the wind by his family.
180.
All of Christopher Reeve's children serve on the board of directors of the foundation.
181.
In 2005, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where Christopher Reeve often performed during his career, announced that it would begin a tradition of dedicating the final performance of every season to his memory and would establish a fund to support artists with disabilities.