Share on Facebook
Christopher Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, and activist, famous for his portrayal of the superhero character - Superman.
- Reeve is the first and only actor to star in a DC Comics title character as Superman in more than three films.
- He has the honor of playing a titular hero more times than any other actor in the American history.
- Till 2011, he held the record of being cast as the same comic book character more times than any other actor, which he lost to Huge Jackman, who starred as Marvel Comics hero Wolverine in five movies.
- Until 2013, he was the only actor in the history of “Superman” franchise to play both the roles of Clark Kent/Superman in more than one live-action film. However, in 2013, it was announced that Henry Cavill will reprise the role for the 2016 movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
- He was the first actor to play the role of Superman to have been born after the character was created in 1938.
- He is also the youngest actor ever to be cast as Superman as he was only 24 years old when he first starred as the character in the Richard Donner’s 1978 movie “Superman.”
- Honoring his contributions to the Arts and Entertainment industry, he was posthumously inducted into the 2012 New Jersey Hall of Fame.
- He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on April 15, 1997.
- He won a Grammy Award in the "Best Spoken Word Album" category for his autobiography "Still Me" which was a best seller.
- At the 68th Annual Academy Awards in 1996, he received a two-minute standing ovation, while introducing a film montage recognizing how Hollywood has tackled social issues.
- He was the very first caller into Dr. Frasier Crane's radio show on the situation comedy “Frasier” in the year 1993.
- He was posthumously awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick, and an honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters) at Stony Brook University's commencement on May 20, 2005.
- He was honored with the Grand Cross of the Bernardo O'Higgins Order, the highest Chilean distinction for foreigners
- At 6 ft 4 in, he was the tallest of the nine actors who have played the DC comics character of Superman in movies and television.
- Christopher D'Olier Reeve was born on September 25, 1952 to Franklin D'Olier "F.D." Reeve, a teacher, novelist, poet and scholar and Barbara Pitney, a journalist. He has a younger sibling Benjamin Reeve.
- While his schooling days at Princeton Country Day, Reeve was on the honor roll as he distinguished himself by excelling academically, athletically and onstage. The school’s Sportsmanship Award is named after him.
- It was in the year 1962, when he was nine years old, that he found his passion for acting, as he played his first role in the students play “The Yeomen of the Guard.”
- Around 6 years later, he joined as an apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
- His performance in a scene from “A View from the Bridge,” was praised by actress Olympia Dukakis who said "I'm surprised. You've got a lot of talent. Don't mess it up."
- Following several plays, his first debut role in Hollywood was a minor part as a submarine officer in a 1978 movie “Gray Lady Down.”
- The same year, he was cast in the title role of Clark Kent/Superman in “Superman.” The movie’s casting director Lynn Stalmaster placed a picture of Reeve on the list for audition, nearly three times, only for the producers to reject it every time. However, Stalmaster managed to arrange a meeting between director Richard Donner, producer Ilya Salkind and Reeve, after which he was sent a 300-page script. He immediately flew to London for a screen test.
- The director and producers of the movie were in fact searching for the actor since 1975 before finalizing Reeve for the role of Superman, just 35 days before the filming of the movie was due to begin. More than 200 actors auditioned for the role.
- In preparation for his role in the movie “Superman,” he had to undergo an intense bodybuilding regime supervised by David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, for two months. He doubled his food intake and adopted a high protein diet for his role.
- Later, in an interview, he said that he based his portrayal of Clark Kent on Cary Grant's character in the 1938 movie “Bringing Up Baby.”
- He refused to wear fake muscles under the suit and continuously worked out during the entire shooting of the movie “Superman” which led to re-shooting of the shots taken at the beginning of the shoot as it did not match the later shots. Reeve underwent a strict physical training session for months once he landed the role, going from 170 pounds to 212 pounds in the period from pre-production to filming.
- In addition to playing Clark Kent and Superman, he also provided his voice to the Metropolis air traffic controller.
- He was actually a qualified hang glider pilot, who flew gliders as a hobby. It was reported that he used this piloting experience to make the flying scenes in the movie “Superman,” feel more believable. This was mentioned when describing him as a natural when it came to the flying scenes.
- His performance in the movie “Superman” was well received and Newsweek reporting Christopher Reeve's entire performance is a delight. Ridiculously good-looking, with a face as sharp and strong as an ax blade, his bumbling, fumbling Clark Kent and omnipotent Superman are simply two styles of gallantry and innocence."
- He won a BAFTA Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for his role as Clark Kent/Superman.
- During the filming of his 1980 movie “Somewhere in Time,” a local theatre showed his previous hit movie “Superman,” where many of his “Somewhere in Time” cast members joined the locals. Accidentally, the sound went out early into the screening, after which Reeve, who was in the audience stood up and delivered all the lines.
- Though he played the title role of Superman in the movie series, he received top billing only in the third film “Superman III.” He was billed after Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman in the first movie, while he received second billing after Hackman in “Superman II.”
- Following his success with the “Superman” series, he accepted to play the part of Clifford Anderson in the 1982 movie “Deathtrap,” just because he wanted to avoid being typecast by his superhero persona.
- According to his Autobiography “Still Me,” for his role as Basil Ransome in the 1984 “The Bostonians,” Reeve was paid only $100,000, which was around a tenth of his established payment at that time. However, he was cast in the role, only due to his insistence that money was not an issue. He chose to play the part though his agent advised him saying, it will be one foot in the grave of his career.
- His performance in the movie “The Bostonians,” was praised by Katharine Hepburn, who was leading lady in the Hollywood for more than 60 years. She called Reeve and told that he was "absolutely marvelous" and "captivating" in the film.
- For a specific period of time during the principal photography for the movie “The Bostonians,” he lived on his much cherished sail-boat "Chandelle."
- He considers his 1985 movie “The Aviator,” to be the first of his few failure movies which knocked him off the A-list in Hollywood. He had mentioned in his biography that after those movies, he had to read or audition for major roles for the rest of his career.
- Though he is famous for the portrayal of the comic book character Superman, he was never a fan of any comics. He took the role of Clark Kent/Superman, because the dual persona offered a suitable challenge.
- His fourth movie as Superman “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” was a box office bomb, and the lowest-grossing Superman film to date. He publicly regretted his involvement in the movie and he believed the film’s failure to be a huge blow to his career.
- Reeve accepted the offer to star in “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” only when the studio agreed to finance his project “Street Smart” (1987), which he considers as one of his failure movies.
- In the late 1980s, he trained for a horse riding competition and took courses for five to six days a week. He learnt to ride for his movie “Anna Karenina,” though he had to take antihistamines for his allergy to horses.
- He campaigned for Senator Patrick Leahy and also served as a board member for the Charles Lindbergh Fund.
- In the year 1987, he went to Chile during the military dictatorship to support about 77 Chilean artists (actors and directors) whose lives were threatened by the death squads of dictator Augusto Pinochet.
- He bought a 12-year-old American thoroughbred horse named Eastern Express, while filming “Village of the Damned.” He nicknamed the horse “Buck.” Though Buck was well trained, on May 27, 1995, the horse made a refusal and stopped suddenly during a fence jump, due to which Reeve fell forward shattering his first and second vertebrae, leaving him totally paralyzed.
- He was offered the lead role in the 1995 movie “Kidnapped,” which was planned to be shot in Ireland. However, he lost his chance to Armand Assante due to his accident.
- Ironically, the last character he played in his entire career, before the accident was as a paralyzed individual in the 1995 “Above Suspicion.” In an interview after his accident, he stated that he believed the year 1995 to be his comeback year with leading roles in a couple of movies. However, his comeback was cut short due to the accident.
- Considering his condition after the accident, that he would never move even a body part again, he mouthed to his wife Dana that "Maybe we should let me go." But it was only due to her support that he was willing to live on a respirator, than death.
- In a Superbowl XXXIV commercial set in the future for a medical company, Reeve was portrayed via computer animation as being able to walk. The company received record number of calls from Reeve’s fans, the next day asking how their Superman was cured.
- He and his wife Dana opened a center, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, devoted to teaching paralyzed people to live more independently in Short Hills, New Jersey.
- He died on October 10, 2004, at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York after suffering heart failure while being treated for a severely infected pressure wound. At the time of his death, he had regained partial movement in his fingers and toes, and said he could feel a pin prick anywhere on his body as well as differentiate hot and cold temperatures.
- Throughout his career, he had turned down a number of roles in famous movies including “American Gigolo,” “The Bounty,” “The Running Man,” “Total Recall,” “Hannibal,” “Man from Atlantis,” and “Romancing the Stone.”
