'Superman' Christopher Reeve Dies at 52

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by Yahoo! News »'Superman' Christopher Reeve Dies at 52By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press WriterMOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve, who turned personal tragedy into a public crusade and from his wheelchair became the nation's most recognizable spokesman for spinal cord research, has died. He was 52.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.In the last week Reeve had developed a serious systemic infection from a pressure wound, a common complication for people living with paralysis. He entered the hospital Saturday.Dana Reeve thanked her husband's personal staff of nurses and aides, "as well as the millions of fans from around the world."Before the 1995 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."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."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'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. He moved an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about social issues."Hollywood needs to do more," he said in the 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."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 in a TV 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."In 2000, Reeve was able to move his index finger, and a specialized workout regimen made his legs and arms stronger. With rigorous therapy, involving repeated electrical stimulation of the muscles, 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.Dr. John McDonald treated Reeve as director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Washington University in St. Louis. He called Reeve "one of the most intense individuals I've ever met in my life.""Before him there was really no hope," McDonald said. "If you had a spinal cord injury like his there was not much that could be done, but he's changed all that. He's demonstrated that there is hope and that there are things that can be done."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 a theater in Princeton, N.J.After graduating from Cornell University in 1974, he landed a part as coldhearted bigamist Ben Harper (news) on the soap opera "Love of Life." He also performed frequently on stage, winning his first Broadway role as the grandson of Katharine Hepburn (news)'s character 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 role from among about 200 aspirants.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 a son and a daughter, but never wed.Reeve later married Dana Morosini; they had one son, Will, 12. 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.In his 1998 book, "Still Me," he recalled that after the accident, when he contemplating giving up, his wife told him: "I want you to know that I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you. And I love you."His children helped, too, he told interviewer Barbara Walters."I could see how much they needed me and wanted me ... and how lucky we all are and that my brain is on straight."

[Stang2Vibe]

I heard about this from my g/f's sister this morning. Very sad to hear. I thought that he was doing so well, and then this happened.R.I.P. Christopher Reeve. I know you were inspirational to many with little hope.

[Mavrik]

he may have only played Superman in the movies but he was a real life hero was well.rest in peace...

[Triton]

To my son's favorite super hero, rest in peace.Hopefully everyone will keep fighting with the determination that he had researching ways to help others.

[Charlievibe]

This was in our editorial section today, I just wanted to share it with you all. You may be able to access it through the link, but if not, I posted the whole editorial as well.---------------------------------------URL: http://www.commercialappeal.co....htmlIt's a bird, it's a plane,... no, it's a special manBy Wendi ThomasContactOctober 14, 2004It wasn't right that in 1995 a horse-riding accident left Superman unable to walk, much less fly.And it seems even more wrong that on Sunday, Superman, also known as Christopher Reeve, died.For thousands if not millions of children, including me, Superman was our encounter with the idea of invincibility.And even though I knew as a child that Superman wasn't real, it was comforting to think that in a perfect world maybe someone like him could exist.Like few other actors, Christopher Reeve was inseparable from the character he most famously portrayed. Clark Kent, Superman, Christopher Reeve -- a cinematic trinity.With his endearing smile and single black curl on his forehead, he was the only man who could wear nothing but blue Spandex from the waist down and still look masculine.Very little could stop Superman -- certainly not something as unremarkable as being thrown from a horse or as undignified as a death caused by complications of a bedsore.Even though Reeve loomed larger than life on the big screen, his outlook on his life as a quadriplegic somehow made him seem more limitless. His optimism that he would walk again, despite his incredible frailty, made him more of a super hero.His words broken with pauses forced by respirator-assisted breaths, his head held still by braces rising from his wheelchair, Reeve was the face of spinal cord research.He made millions believe, as he did, that one day science would enable the paralyzed to walk again. He became a champion of research to repair spinal cord injuries believed irreparable. He supported stem cell research, fighting to find a possible cure despite the controversy.In television interviews, a man who once ran faster than a speeding bullet now marveled when he was able to command a finger to move a few centimeters. A man who once walked up the sides of buildings was proud that in the water his feet mimicked walking.After his injury Reeve was told he'd never regain sensation in his lame limbs.By the time he died at 52 he was able to feel, if not move, more than 70 percent of his body.In his first "Superman" movie in 1978 the smitten Lois Lane, ever the reporter, asked Superman why he was, why he existed, why he was here.He said he was here for truth and justice and the American way, but I don't think that was it.Reeve's purpose, in the movies and the real world, was to give the doubtful reason to hope -- whether he was doing it as a virtually invincible man with few vulnerabilities, or as a man who, once vulnerable, still believed in his invincibility.Whether history will remember him as Superman or a super man remains to be seen.If you look up in the sky, it's not a bird or a plane.It's Christopher Reeve, a hero made more awesome by his humanity. And today he's leaping heavenly buildings in a single bound. -------------------------------------

[POLO]

he play other film to,in a film that is priest fall in love on a women,... i don"t remember the name of the film.and play a roll in smalville before he die.

[rasermon]

Too bad what happen to end his movie career. Another movie I really enjoyed by him was Somewhere in Time. If was filmed at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island here in Michigan.Grand Hotel http://www.grandhotel.com/default.htmlSomewhere in time http://www.somewhereintime.tv/