Long before the likes of Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill rose to fame for playing Clark Kent/Superman. Christopher Reeve sealed his reputation as a classic stage actor, but also as a low-budget movie star when he starred in Superman (1978).
Later in life, Reeve, who also starred in other hit films such as The Bostonians (1984) and Street Smart (1987), had a career as an activist, director and producer while he was became a quadriplegic following a riding accident in 1995.
Christopher Reeve – Bio
Reeve was born Christopher D’Olier Reeve, the first of his parents’ two children; Barbara Pitney Lamb and Franklin D’Olier Reeve, September 25, 1952 in New York. Her father, who was the son of Colonel Richard Henry Reeve, CEO of Prudential Financial, was a teacher, novelist, poet and academic, while her mother was a journalist. He is of English descent.
Christopher Reeve was raised by both parents until 1956, when they divorced. His mother took custody of him and his brother and moved from New York to Princeton, New Jersey. In Princeton, the Reeve boys attended Nassau Street School before transferring to Princeton Country Day School after their mother remarried to stockbroker Tristam B. Johnson in 1959. Reeve was said to be an outstanding student because he excelled in his studies, sports and on stage. The young lad competed in all sports and was acting well above his age, qualifying for the charts.
Around the age of 15, thanks to his good looks and ability to act beyond his years, Reeve was accepted as an apprentice by a student at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Reeve’s gigs earned him a $44 weekly role at the Harvard Summer Repertory Theater Company in Cambridge the following summer. In 1970 he graduated from high school. He hoped to immediately pursue an acting career, as his talents were already beginning to be applauded. However, following the advice of his mother and stepfather, Reeve applied to college and was accepted to a number of schools, including Cornell University, which he chose to attend.
While still in college, Christopher Reeve signed to acting New York agent Stark Hesseltine, who helped him land a few summer gigs. Before his third year, Reeve flew to Europe and traveled to the UK and France, where he watched many theater productions. Upon returning to the United States and completing his third year of college at Cornell Reeve, he transferred to Julliard where he became classmates with Robin Williams.
In 1974, Christopher Reeve received his bachelor’s degree and then began working full time. His first roles were in the Broadway play A Matter of Gravity and the 1975 soap opera Love of Life. Clark Kent. / Superman in Superman (1978), and the rest became history.
What was the cause of his death
Christopher Reeve battled a lot of health issues during his lifetime. As a child he suffered from asthma and allergies, then from the age of 16 he began to suffer from a condition called alopecia areata which caused clumps of hair to fall from a person’s head usually in good health. These conditions never threatened his life, however, as his first near-death experience occurred when he shattered his first and second vertebrae after landing on his head while riding a horse in 1995. he accident left him paralyzed from the neck down and confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
In the early 2000s, Reeve suffered multiple infections, three of which may have been fatal, to his bone marrow. In 2004, after receiving routine treatment for an infected pressure ulcer that caused sepsis, Reeve went into cardiac arrest and then into a coma as a reaction to the antibiotic used. He remained in a coma for eighteen hours before dying on October 10, 2004.
wife and children
Christopher Reeve was married to Dana Reeve (née Morosini), a stage and television actress and singer-turned-disability activist. The couple married on April 11, 1992, shortly before welcoming their first and only child together, a son named William Elliot Reeve, on June 7, 1992.
From his relationship with Gae Exton which lasted from 1978 to 1987, Reeve had two more children; Matthew Exton Reeve, born December 20, 1979 and Alexandra Exton Reeve, born December 1983. Matthew Reeve is an Emmy Award-nominated producer and director. He and his sister later served on the board of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.