Christopher Reeves dies
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| Mon, 10-11-2004 - 1:16pm |
whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a
worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died Sunday of heart
failure, his publicist said. He was 52.
Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while
at his New York home, his publicist, Wesley Combs told The Associated
Press by phone from Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.
Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a
pressure wound, a common complication for people living with
paralysis. In the past week, the wound had become severely infected,
resulting in a serious systemic infection.
"On behalf of my entire family, I want to thank Northern Westchester
Hospital for the excellent care they provided to my husband," Dana
Reeve, Christopher's wife, said in a statement. "I also want to thank
his personal staff of nurses and aides, as well as the millions of
fans from around the world who have supported and loved my husband
over the years."
Reeve broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse
during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Va.
Enduring months of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer and
longer periods without a respirator, Reeve emerged to lobby Congress
for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury and to
move an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films
about social issues.
He returned to directing, and even returned to acting in a 1998
production of "Rear Window," a modern update of the Hitchcock
thriller about a man in a wheelchair who becomes convinced a neighbor
has been murdered. Reeve won a Screen Actors Guild award for best
actor in a television movie or miniseries.
"I was worried that only acting with my voice and my face, I might
not be able to communicate effectively enough to tell the story,"
Reeve said. "But I was surprised to find that if I really
concentrated, and just let the thoughts happen, that they would read
on my face. With so many close-ups, I knew that my every thought
would count."
In his public appearances, he was as handsome as ever, his blue eyes
bright and his voice clear.
"Hollywood needs to do more," he said in the March 1996 Oscar awards
appearance. "Let's continue to take risks. Let's tackle the issues.
In many ways our film community can do it better than anyone else.
There is no challenge, artistic or otherwise, that we can't meet."
In 2000, Reeve was able to move his index finger, and a specialized
workout regimen made his legs and arms stronger. He also regained
sensation in other parts of his body.
Reeve's support of stem cell research helped it emerge as a major
campaign issue between President Bush and John Kerry. His name was
even mentioned by Kerry earlier this month during the second
presidential debate.
As for the strain of traveling to Hollywood, Reeve said: "I refuse to
allow a disability to determine how I live my life. I don't mean to
be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is
very helpful toward recovery."
His athletic, 6-foot-4-inch frame and love of adventure made him a
natural, if largely unknown, choice for the title role in the
first "Superman" movie in 1978. He insisted on performing his own
stunts.
Although he reprised the role three times, Reeve often worried about
being typecast as an action hero.
"Look, I've flown, I've become evil, loved, stopped and turned the
world backward, I've faced my peers, I've befriended children and
small animals and I've rescued cats from trees," Reeve told the Los
Angeles Times in 1983, just before the release of the
third "Superman" movie. "What else is there left for Superman to do
that hasn't been done?"
Though he owed his fame to it, Reeve made a concerted effort to, as
he often put it, "escape the cape." He played an embittered, crippled
Vietnam veteran in the 1980 Broadway play "Fifth of July," a
lovestruck time-traveler in the 1980 movie "Somewhere in Time," and
an aspiring playwright in the 1982 suspense thriller "Deathtrap."
"After the first `Superman,' I had the compulsion to do parts that
were really weird," Reeve told The Associated Press in 1987. "That
freaked people out. I've passed that."
More recent films included John Carpenter's "Village of the Damned,"
and the HBO movies "Above Suspicion" and "In the Gloaming," which he
directed. Among his other film credits are "The Remains of the
Day," "The Aviator," and "Morning Glory."
Yet Reeve always will be known to movie fans as the strapping,
boyishly handsome stage veteran whose charm and humor brought a new
dimension to the characters of Superman and his alter-ego, Clark
Kent. The film co-starred Margot Kidder as Lois Lane.
Reeve said in public appearances promoting the "Superman" films, he
tried to get children to better themselves.
"They should be looking for Superman's qualities — courage,
determination, modesty, humor — in themselves rather than passively
sitting back, gaping slack-jawed at this terrific guy in boots,"
Reeve said.
Reeve was born Sept. 25, 1952, in New York City, son of a novelist
and a newspaper reporter. He in around 10 when he made his first
stage appearance — in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Yeoman of the
Guard" at McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J.
He starred in virtually all of the theatrical productions at the
exclusive Princeton Day School. By age 16, he had joined the actors'
union.
After graduating from Cornell University in 1974, he landed a part as
coldhearted bigamist Ben Harper (news) on the television soap
opera "Love of Life." He also performed frequently on stage, winning
his first Broadway role as the grandson of a character played by
Katharine Hepburn (news) in "A Matter of Gravity."
Reeve's first movie role was a minor one in the submarine disaster
movie "Gray Lady Down," released in 1978. "Superman" soon followed.
Reeve was selected for the title role from among about 200 aspirants.
Active in many sports, Reeve owned several horses and competed in
equestrian events regularly. Witnesses to the May 1995 accident said
Reeve's horse had cleared two of 15 fences during the jumping event
and stopped abruptly at the third, flinging the actor headlong to the
ground.
Doctors said he fractured the top two vertebrae in his neck and
damaged his spinal cord. When he finally was released from a
rehabilitation institute in December 1995, he thanked staffed
members "who have set the stage for my continued journey." He
underwent further rehabilitation at his home in upstate New York.
While filming "Superman" in London, Reeve met modeling agency co-
founder Gae Exton, and the two began a relationship that lasted
several years. The couple had two sons, but were never wed.
Reeve later married Dana Morosini; they had one son, Will, 11. His
wife became his frequent spokeswoman after the accident.
Reeve also is survived by his mother, Barbara Johnson; his father,
Franklin Reeve; his brother, Benjamin Reeve; and his two children
from his relationship with Exton, Matthew, 25, and Alexandra, 21.
No plans for a funeral were immediately announced.
A few months after the accident, he told interviewer Barbara Walters
that he considered suicide in the first dark days after he was
injured. But he quickly overcame such thoughts when he saw his
children.
"I could see how much they needed me and wanted me ... and how lucky
we all are and that my brain is on straight."
___
On the Net:
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation:
http://www.christopherreeve.org
| Mon, 10-11-2004 - 1:51pm |
