Christopher Reeve September 25, 1952-October 10, 2004

We never thought that it could happen, but it did. Unfortunately, nature has found a way to kill the Man Of Steel. Christopher Reeve, the man we all came to know as Superman, died last night of heart failure. He was 52.

For the last 9 years, Chris had been paralyzed from the neck down after a horrible horse-riding accident. Soon after the accident he thought about ending it all. But then he looked at his kids and knew that he had to go on. Then he decided that he had to become an advocate for people like himself. He never lost hope that he would walk again. In fact, he was finally able to move a finger not too long ago and his legs and arms were getting stronger from physical therapy.

Born on September 28, 1952, Reeve was moved from New York City to Princeton, NJ by his mother after she divorced her husband. He started acting at age 10 onstage in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeoman of the Guard.

In 1974 he graduated from Cornell University and was chosen to attend Julliard under John Houseman. (Robin Williams was the other young actor chosen for that class. The two remained friends throughout Chris’ life.)

His first real acting gig (outside of small plays) was on the soap opera “Love Of Life.” Then he got a job on Broadway playing Katherine Hepburn’s grandson in A Matter Of Gravity.

Hollywood soon came calling in the form of a small role in Gray Lady Down, a submarine film that was released in 1978. But the role that he would always be remembered for was soon to come.

When the call went out that they needed a new Supermanfor a special effects extravaganza, Chris figured that he would try it out. Luckily, Warner Brothers and Richard Donner thought that the young unknown was perfect for the part. The movie went on to be a mega-hit and is still considered one of the best of the super-hero genre. There would be three sequels (only the first of which was worth a damn, but Chris used his clout to make the fourth one more socially conscious, something that would be a crusade for him later in life), but he didn’t want just Supermanon his resume. He wanted more challenging roles.

Around this time he met Gae Exton. The two would never marry, but they had two children together, Matthew and Alexandra.

In 1980 he would star in Somewhere In Time, a romantic time-traveling drama co-starring Jane Seymour (who would later name her son after Chris). Two years later her tried a thriller out with Sidney Lumet’s Deathtrap with Michael Caine and Dyan Cannon.

His acting jobs were never high profile outside of the Supermanmovies, but he kept going up until his accident in 1995. (Among my favorites have always been Noises Off… (1992) and Remains Of The Day (1993).) He turned down a lot of roles that would have brought him a lot of notice, but they weren’t very challenging. Dr. Loomis in Halloween, Total Recall, The Running Man, The Bounty, Body Heat, American Gigolo. None of them were good enough for Chris. (Although I think Body Heat would have been an interesting choice for him. Maybe he just wasn’t comfortable with the nudity.) Ironically, his last theatrical role before the accident was as a paralyzed cop who gets revenge on his wife and her lover.

In 1992, Chris married Dana Morosini. She would stay with him and be his biggest supporter throughout the rest of his life. They also had a son, Will, in 1992.

After the accident everyone thought his career was over. Actually, most thought that his life was probably over. But he rose to the challenge that fate brought to him. He became the mouthpiece for paralyzed people all over the world. He was a symbol of hope and of warning. If this could happen to Superman, then it could happen to anyone. And he was going to fight to find a way to cure himself and others like him. Even after the accident he was picky. He turned down the role of Mason Verger in Hannibal. He acted a few more times (most notably in a tv remake of the Hitchcock classic Rear Window) and directed two tv movies (1997’s In The Gloaming and this year’s The Brooke Ellison Story), but his main drive was to get his message out there. He spoke at the Oscars in 1996 to tell Hollywood that they needed to make more movies about social issues. He spoke to Congress to plead with them for better insurance for victims of catastrophic injuries such as his. He continued to try to make himself stronger and bring hope to others in his situation. In recent years he has petitioned the government to keep up the stem-cell research that could help paralyzed people or anyone with brain or spinal ailments. That, of course, has fallen on deaf ears with the current administration. They are too afraid of fetuses to do anything with them after they’ve died, however that might be.

And, of course, that is why he really was Superman. Yeah, he played the part in a few movies and visited kids in hospitals (which he loved to do even if he was a bit tired of the role itself), but it’s the activism and the fight and the hope that made him such an amazing person. Hopefully all of that will live on even though he is gone.

Others may play the role of Superman, but only Christopher Reeve will truly embody the spirit of the character so completely. He’s the Superman that I grew up with and did everything he could to live up to the ideal. We’ll all miss that.