[wanderer78]

Obviously, everyone has heard this news by now. But I thought we might have our own discussion.







From Yahoo.com

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - Actor Christopher Reeve, who soared through the air and leapt tall buildings as "Superman," turned personal tragedy into a public crusade, becoming the nation's most recognizable spokesman for spinal cord research — from a wheelchair. Reeve went into cardiac arrest Saturday while at his Pound Ridge home, then fell into a coma and died Sunday at a hospital surrounded by his family, his publicist said. He was 52.

His advocacy for stem cell research helped it emerge as a major campaign issue between President Bush (news - web sites) and his Democratic opponent, John Kerry (news - web sites). His name was even mentioned by Kerry during the second presidential debate Friday evening.


Reeve, left paralyzed from the neck down after a riding accident and who pushed for funding to help others like himself, was hospitalized the following day. In the last week Reeve had developed a serious systemic infection from a pressure wound, a common complication for people living with paralysis.


Dana Reeve, Christopher's wife, thanked her husband's 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's life changed completely after he 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.


"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."


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 (news - web sites) award for best actor.


"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 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. He vowed to walk again.


"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," Reeve said.


Before the accident, 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.


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."


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."


Reeve was born Sept. 25, 1952, in New York City, son of a novelist and a newspaper reporter. About the age of 10, he made his first stage appearance — in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Yeoman of the Guard" at McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J.


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 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.

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. 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."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Pav]

Without Reeve's Superman, we wouldn't have had Michael Keaton's Batman, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man or even Tom Welling's version of a young Clark Kent in "Smallville." While, because of the actor's real-life heroism over the past nine years, "Superman" is destined to be only a part of his legacy, Christopher Reeve single-handedly made playing a superhero respectable.

[wanderer78]

I agree with that quote so much! Thanks for posting it. The reason I posted this thread about Mr. Reeve was b/c he's such a large part of comics mythology now. He added a lot of respect, class, and reality to what can be considered a two dimensional or silly medium.

[Pav]

Mythology definitely is the proper word. I'm so sorry for him. He was too young. He will be missed.

Farewell, Mr. Reeve

[Chris]

This is sad news.

His accident was tragic, but he used it to promote research into spinal cord injuries. So many people would have just given up. Hopefully the work doesn't stop after his death.

[Pav]

by the way, he was Reeve

[wanderer78]

Thanks Pavla! I feel silly about starting a "serious" thread, and then messing his name. I changed the title anyways.

[Pav]

You're not the only one, there's "Superman, Actor Christopher Reeves passed away" thread on the Movies board as well, I just got confused. Nobody is perfect.

[The Crow]

I still find it unbelieveable that he died. I don't know why. Even though he has been paralyzed for so long, I still sort of thought of him as Superman.

[wanderer78]

I mentioned this on the movie thread. But he gave a speech in the building I worked in. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, when he passed my work station. And now he's gone.

It's funny, that DC hasn't made any sort of statement. Their website hasn't even mentioned Mr Reeve's death. A lot of fans are in an uproar about it.

[ColinsChica]

I was really upset by the news but he was in alot of pain I'm sure. At least I know he is not only free of his chair and broken back but he now is able to really fly.

He made such an impact that he could never be forgotten.

[Pav]

I'm just watching The Remains of the Day with Christopher Reeve. I can't believe he's gone.

[wanderer78]

I've never seen that one. But CR was actually a very accomplished actor with a huge range.

[professirx]

Please come watch a c5-c6 paralyzed young man perform a Tribute to Christopher Reeve, called forever superman

Watch the video
http://www.professirx.com/movies/superman.wmv

Know the fan
http://www.professirx.com/

SPECIAL SUMMER OPEN HOUSE

Thursday, July 28, 2005, 5:00 PM

This Special Summer Open House will feature live music by ProfessirX and original entertainment by Ms. Nanette DeCillis. Live demonstration of Independence Technology's iBot! Please join us for tours of the laboratory and an update on the latest in spinal cord injury research by Dr. Wise Young. Call or email for directions and a parking permit.

W. M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience
The Spinal Cord Injury Project
604 Allison Road, D-251
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854 USA

Phone

732-445-2061
732-445-6573

Fax: 732-445-2063

Email

SCIProject@biology.rutgers.edu

[wanderer78]

Sad news about Dana Reeves.

From USATODAY.com

Dana Reeve: 'I feel Chris with me' By César G. Soriano, USA TODAY Wed Aug 10, 7:45 AM ET When actress Dana Reeve, widow of Superman star Christopher Reeve, announced Tuesday that she has lung cancer, she noted a familiar source of inspiration. "Now, more than ever, I feel Chris with me as I face this challenge," Reeve, 44, said in a statement. "I look to him as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope in the face of life's adversities." Reeve is chairwoman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. "I have an excellent team of physicians, and we are optimistic about my prognosis. ... I hope before too long to be hearing news of my good health and recovery." Reeve requested privacy and said she was disclosing the illness only because a tabloid was about to do so. The National Enquirer tabloid broke the news on its Web site. Reeve's announcement came two days after ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, 67, died of lung cancer. Her diagnosis was the latest tragedy to befall the Reeve family. Her husband of 12 years, actor Christopher Reeve, died Oct. 10 at 52. A horse-riding accident nine years earlier left him paralyzed from the neck down. In February, Dana Reeve's mother, Helen, died from complications of ovarian cancer surgery at age 71. Comedian Robin Williams and his wife, Marsha, longtime family friends, issued a statement saying that "our family sends all of our love and support to Dana and her family during this challenging time." Dana Reeve lives in Bedford, N.Y., with her son, Will, 13, the only child from the Reeves' marriage. She has two adult stepchildren, Alexandra and Matthew, from Reeve's earlier relationship with Gae Exton. After her husband's death, she put her career on hold to run his foundation. Reeve has become a familiar face on Capitol Hill, where she has lobbied for a bill to create the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act. She has advocated support for stem cell research. She sang on a children's book CD to benefit the foundation. "Dana Reeve has already faced more than her fair share of adversity, but I know that she will face this latest challenge, as she has the others, with strength, dignity, courage and grace," says Sen. Tom Harkin (news, bio, voting record), D-Iowa, who has worked with Reeve on several projects. Last month, Reeve canceled an appearance in Washington with actor Michael J. Fox in support of embryonic stem cell research, citing "family reasons."