18 Facts About Dana Reeve

Dana Charles Reeve was an American actress and singer.

Dana Reeve was the wife of actor Christopher Reeve and mother of television reporter and anchor Will Reeve.

In 2004 she and husband Christopher Dana Reeve received honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters from Middlebury.

Dana Reeve performed at theatres on Broadway, off-Broadway, and at numerous regional theatres.

Dana Reeve sang the title song on the soundtrack of the HBO drama In the Gloaming, directed by her husband.

Dana Reeve had another cameo in her husband's movie The Brooke Ellison Story as a teacher.

Dana Reeve authored the book Care Packages: Letters to Christopher Reeve from Strangers and Other Friends.

The children's book Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again: A Musical Storybook Inspired by Christopher Dana Reeve was published in 2005 and included an audio to accompany the book with Mandy Patinkin reading the story as well as Dana Reeve and Bernadette Peters singing.

On February 2,2005, eight days before the death of her mother Helen, Reeve attended President George W Bush's State of the Union address seated in the Capitol gallery in Washington, DC, as the guest of Congressman Jim Langevin.

Several months before her death, Dana Reeve taped the PBS documentary The New Medicine focusing on the growing trend in medical care combining holistic and traditional treatment.

Dana Reeve worked on the animated movie Everyone's Hero, a project with the working title Yankee Irving when her husband was the director at the time of his death.

Dana Reeve had never smoked cigarettes, a primary risk factor, but early in her career often sang in bars and hotel lobbies with exposure to secondhand smoke.

Dana Reeve was diagnosed with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, which is primarily seen in patients without contributing factors, such as smoking or asbestos exposure.

In 2005, Dana Reeve received the "Mother of the Year Award" from the American Cancer Society for her dedication and determination in raising her son after the loss of her husband.

Dana Reeve appeared at Madison Square Garden on January 12,2006, and sang the Carole King song "Now and Forever" in honor of New York Rangers hockey player Mark Messier, whose number was retired that evening.

Dana Reeve died on March 6,2006, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Dana Reeve arranged for her 13-year-old son Will to live with their next-door neighbors so he could finish school instead of being forced to move in with relatives elsewhere.

Reeve and her husband were the namesake of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act signed by President Barack Obama in March 2009.