Christopher Reeve attended Nassau Street School (now St. Paul School of Princeton) in Princeton, New Jersey.
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
1970
650 Great Rd, Princeton, NJ 08540, United States
Christopher Reeve went to Princeton Country Day School (now Princeton Day School).
College/University
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
1974
Ithaca, NY 14850, United States
Reeve attended Cornell University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Music Theory in 1974.
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
1975
60 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, United States
Christopher enrolled in the Juilliard School for Drama in New York City to pursue graduate studies, where he was a student under John Houseman.
Career
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
1970
Christopher Reeve standing by a lamp post posing for the photo.
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
1977
Christopher Reeve
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1986
Christopher Reeve
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
1989
8949 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211, United States
Christopher Reeve during "She's Out of Control" Los Angles Premiere - April 11, 1989 at Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, United States.
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
Dana and Christopher Reeve
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
1999
Christopher Reeve
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
2002
Christopher Reeve & Dana Reeve during Project A.L.S. 5th Annual New York City Gala "Tomorrow is Tonight" Benefit at Roseland in New York City, New York, United States.
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
2003
1260 6th Ave, New York, NY 10020, United States
Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve during 2003 Tony Awards - Arrivals at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, NY, United States.
Gallery of Christopher Reeve
2000
1095 NW 14th Terrace, Miami, FL 33136, United States
American actor Christopher Reeve speaks at the dedication ceremony for the University of Miami School of Medicine's Lois Pope Life Center, Miami, Florida, October 26, 2000.
Achievements
1997
Christopher Reeve & Johnny Grant during Christopher Reeve Honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, United States.
Christopher Reeve with girlfriend Gae Exton during Christopher Reeve Sighting in New York on the 9th of December, 1980 in New York City, United States.
8949 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211, United States
Christopher Reeve during "She's Out of Control" Los Angles Premiere - April 11, 1989 at Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, United States.
Christopher Reeve & Johnny Grant during Christopher Reeve Honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, United States.
1095 NW 14th Terrace, Miami, FL 33136, United States
American actor Christopher Reeve speaks at the dedication ceremony for the University of Miami School of Medicine's Lois Pope Life Center, Miami, Florida, October 26, 2000.
Christopher Reeve & Dana Reeve during Project A.L.S. 5th Annual New York City Gala "Tomorrow is Tonight" Benefit at Roseland in New York City, New York, United States.
Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve during AAFA American Image Awards To Benefit the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation at Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, New York, United States.
Christopher Reeve during Toyota Presents Super Skate V An All-Star Charity Hockey Game Featuring the New York Rangers and other Celebrities that have Joined Together for an Afternoon of Hockey Fun to Benefit The Christopher Reeves Paralysis Foundation Toyota Presents Super Skate at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, United States.
Actor Robin Williams poses with actor Christopher Reeve, wife Dana Reeve and son Will at the screening of "House Of D" during the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival May 7, 2004 in New York City.
(The whole world held its breath when Christopher Reeve st...)
The whole world held its breath when Christopher Reeve struggled for life on Memorial Day, 1995. On the third jump of a riding competition, Reeve was thrown headfirst from his horse in an accident that broke his neck and left him unable to move or breathe. In the years since then, Reeve has not only survived, but has fought for himself, for his family, and for the hundreds of thousands of people with spinal cord injuries in the United States and around the world. And he has written Still Me, the heartbreaking, funny, courageous, and hopeful story of his life.
(Christopher Reeve has mastered the art of turning the imp...)
Christopher Reeve has mastered the art of turning the impossible into the inevitable. In these candid reflections, Reeve shows that we are all capable of overcoming seemingly insurmountable hardships. He teaches us that for able-bodied people, paralysis is a choice, a choice to live with self-doubt and a fear of taking risks and that it is not an acceptable one. Reeve knows from experience that the work of conquering inner space is hard and that it requires some suffering, after all, nothing worth having is easy to attain. He asks challenging questions about why it seems so difficult if not impossible for us to work together as a society. Nothing Is Impossible reminds us that life is not to be taken for granted but to be lived fully with zeal, curiosity, and gratitude.
Christopher Reeve was an American actor, activist, and author. Best remembered for playing the part of Superman and went on to star in three sequels as well as a number of other films. Reeve later became a champion of stem cell research and other causes to help the disabled after a horseback-riding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. He is the author of Still Me and Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life.
Background
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was born on the 25th of September, 1952 in New York City, New York, United States. A native of Manhattan, he was the oldest of two sons born to Franklin D. Reeve and Barbara Pitney Lamb Johnson. Reeve's parents were divorced when he was about four years old and he moved with his mother and brothers, Christopher and Benjamin, to Princeton, New Jersey. Although he grew up there amid affluence, following his mother's remarriage to a stockbroker, he nevertheless had to cope with the lingering anger and tension that characterized his parents' relationship.
Education
Christopher Reeve attended Nassau Street School (now St. Paul School of Princeton) in Princeton, New Jersey and later he went to Princeton Country Day School (now Princeton Day School). He starred in virtually every stage production at his exclusive private high school and was involved with the local professional theatre.
After graduating from high school in 1970, Reeve attended Cornell University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Music Theory in 1974. Meanwhile, he continued his drama education, serving as a backstage observer at both the Old Vic in London and the Comedie-Francaise in Paris before enrolling in the Juilliard School for Drama in New York City to pursue graduate studies, where he was a student under John Houseman.
On May 18, 2005, he was posthumously awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick, and an honorary degree, a Doctor of Humane Letters at Stony Brook University's commencement on May 20, 2005.
In the spring of 1962, at age nine, Christopher auditioned for and won a bit part in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard, presented at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. The theater company became a second family for Reeve and gave him a calling for life. At McCarter, Reeve worked both on stage and off, performed with and learned from stage veterans, and grew into increasingly substantive roles. At age fifteen Reeve was accepted as an apprentice at the Williams town Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. He performed there for fourteen seasons, even at the height of his film career.
At Juilliard, Reeve attracted the attention of his peers and professors, which opened doors to him in New York’s competitive theater scene. Reeve’s first break came in the summer of 1974 when he was cast as the lovable bad guy Ben Harper in the Columbia Broadcasting System soap opera Love of Life. From February to April 1976 Reeve played the coveted second lead role opposite Katharine Hepburn in A Matter of Gravity during the show’s New York City run. The play gained Reeve favorable notice and prominence. When it closed, Reeve went to Los Angeles to explore his options in film. He accepted a small role in the disaster film Gray Lady Down in 1978, but frustrated in finding more work, he returned to New York City to resume his career on stage. Within weeks he won a role with the Circle Repertory Company in My Life by Corinne Jaecker.
In 1977, Reeve was invited to audition for the lead role in Superman, that came out in 1978. With the popularity of Superman, Reeve was thrust into Hollywood stardom. He enjoyed global recognition and suddenly had more work than he could handle in television, stage, and film, including the Superman sequels.
Among Reeve’s achievements were the love-struck writer Richard Collier in Somewhere in Time in 1980, Ira Levin’s play Deathtrap in 1982, The Bostonians in 1984, Street Smart in 1987, The Remains of the Day in 1993, Above Suspicion in 1995. A riding accident in 1995 had left Christopher Reeve paralyzed from the neck down.
During the spring of 1996, Reeve took on his first acting job since his accident when he agreed to do the voice of King Arthur in an animated feature entitled The Quest for Camelot. Later that year, in the fall, he made a cameo appearance in the television movie A Step Toward Tomorrow playing a disabled patient who offers psychological support to a young man injured in a diving mishap.
As an activist, Reeve traveled to Chile in 1987 and risked his life in support of seventy-seven Chilean actors threatened with execution by the Pinochet regime. In August 1996, Reeve was in Atlanta to serve as master of ceremonies at the Paralympic Games. He has also kept busy with countless speaking engagements, delivering motivational talks to eager audiences all over the country.
In 1996, Reeve founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation to raise funds for medical research on spinal cord injuries and in 1999 became chairman of the board. On 3 May 2002, Reeves opened the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, an information clearinghouse. Although advocacy was his principal activity after his accident, Reeve also maintained a busy schedule of speaking engagements and continued his work in film.
In April 1997, Reeve demonstrated his talents behind the camera when he made his debut as a director of the Home Box Office, HBO, movie In the Gloaming about a family struggling to cope with the impending loss of a son to AIDS. One of Mr. Reeve's last projects was directing The Brooke Ellison Story in 2004, about a girl who became a quadriplegic at 11 but rose above her disability to graduate from Harvard. Reeve’s autobiography, Still Me was written in 1998 and his memoir, Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life in 2002.
Reeve was an activist. Some of the causes Reeve supported were Amnesty International, Save the Children, The National Resources Defense Council, The Lindbergh Foundation, The Environmental Air Force, and People for the American Way. He was a founding member and past president of the Creative Coalition, an advocacy group of artists, and was one of the National Endowment For The Arts most passionate supporters. Environmental issues were of particular interest to Reeve. He addressed the United Nations to encourage the banning of drift net tuna fishing and he played a crucial role in securing a landmark agreement to protect the Hudson River and New York City's reservoir system.
Christopher assumed the role of national spokesman for the disabled especially those people who, like him, have suffered spinal-cord injuries. As a famous actor and one of the most visible disabled people in the United States, Reeve was using his celebrity status not only to secure financial support for research but also to lobby for insurance reforms that would increase the lifetime benefits cap for catastrophic illnesses or injuries in employer-sponsored health plans from the industry average of $1 million to at least $10 million.
Quotations:
"Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean".
"What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely. From an acting point of view, that's how I approached the part".
"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles".
"I have seen first-hand how Superman actually transforms people's lives. I have seen children dying of brain tumors who wanted as their last request to be able to talk to me and have gone to their graves with a peace brought on by knowing that their belief in this kind of character is intact. I have seen that Superman really matters. They're connecting with something very basic: the ability to overcome obstacles, the ability to persevere, the ability to understand the difficulty and to turn your back on it".
"Your body is not who you are. The mind and spirit transcend the body".
"Hollywood needs to do more. Let's continue to take risks. Let's tackle the issues. In many ways, our film community can do it better than anyone else".
"The key to success is letting the relationships in your life grow to the highest levels they possibly can not putting yourself first in life and remembering that the more you give away, the more you have".
"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable".
"A hero is someone who in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers goes ahead and overcomes anyway".
"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".
"I feel that every generation should have a Superman for its own time. I was the right Superman for the 1970s and early 1980s. If they want to do it again, there ought to be a Superman for this time".
Personality
Reeve began riding seriously during the filming of a television version of Anna Karenina in 1985 and became a competitive jumper. During a competition on 27 May 1995 in Culpeper, Virginia, Reeve’s horse balked at a jump. With his hands entangled in the reins, Reeve pitched forward and struck his head on the rail and then the hard turf. His spinal column snapped at the level of the highest cervical vertebra, and the skull separated from the spinal cord. Reeve awoke on 1 June 1995 quadriplegic and dependent on a mechanical ventilator. He also required a respirator to assist his breathing for the rest of his life. However, Christopher Reeve took on a new, even more, heroic role that of an activist for medical research, including the search for a cure for spinal cord injuries.
Reeve was a high achiever in his professional and sporting life and proved himself likewise in his rehabilitation. Highly self-disciplined, he maintained a strict diet to control his weight, undertook a daily three-to-four-hour regimen of activity-dependent therapy, and "willed" his body to remain healthy and whole in preparation to walk again. Years after the injury Reeve regained limited voluntary movement in the extremities and the ability to breathe without the ventilator for short periods. He became a symbol of hope, an advocate for persons with spinal cord injuries, and a spokesperson for the advancement of medical research on disorders of the central nervous system.
Reeve’s characterizations were studied and penetrating, his timing precise, and his diction impeccable. He was intrepid, always testing his limits but never careless.
Physical Characteristics:
Christopher Reeve was 6 feet 4 inches tall, with a strikingly handsome, square-jawed face and a strong athletic build.
Interests
flying, sailing, skiing, and horseback riding
Connections
In London during the filming of the first two Superman films, Reeve met and began a relationship with the British modeling executive Gae Exton. They had two children, Matthew Reeve that was born in 1979 and Alexandra Reeve Givens in 1982. The relationship ended in February 1987.
In 1992, Reeve met and married Dana Charles Morosini. Not long after, the couple gave birth to their child William Elliot Reeve.
Christopher Reeve: Young Actor (Childhood of Famous Americans)
Celebrated in his later years as a gifted actor and brave humanitarian, an illustrated biography explores the inspirations and life-changing moments in Christopher Reeve's childhood years that helped form him into the man, actor, and person he came to be.
2007
Christopher Reeve (A & E Biography)
A biography of the actor who became well known for his movie portrayal of Superman and for his activities in support of nerve damage research since the riding accident that left him a quadriplegic.
1999
Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve soared to fame in the role of Superman in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1995 his career was cut short by a freak horseback-riding accident that left him paralyzed. Displaying remarkable courage, Reeve pursued his goal of walking again someday. Meanwhile, he used his fame to help disabled people. By 2004 Reeve was still unable to walk. However, he regained feeling in some parts of his body.
1997
Christopher Reeve: Don't Lose Hope! (Defining Moments)
Highlights the life of actor Christopher Reeve, best known for playing Superman on the big screen, and his fight for rights for the disabled after a horse-jumping accident left him a quadriplegic.
2006
Somewhere in Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve
He was a hero in every sense of the word, the chiseled-from-granite star of four blockbuster Superman films and the romantic classic Somewhere in Time who, after being paralyzed in a freak horseback riding accident, became a symbol of hope for millions. Dana Reeve was no less heroic, standing steadfastly by her husband's side until his surprisingly sudden and unexpected death at age fifty-two. When Dana, a non-smoker, passed away from lung cancer just seventeen months after Chris's death, she left behind their thirteen-year-old son, Will, to be raised by friends and family. Dana was only forty-four years old. That fate could have dealt such a cruel hand to this golden couple seemed unfathomable. That they could endure it all with grace, courage, and humor defied belief.
Care Packages: Letters to Christopher Reeve from Strangers and Other Friends
This book is a thank-you letter. A long overdue reply to all of the people who, during one of the most difficult and painful periods my family has had to endure, took time and wrote to us; faxed us; phoned or visited us; prayed for us; joined hands for us; sent us flowers, gifts, white light, religious tokens and talismans, books, tapes, drawings, funny stories and jokes that made us laugh, tales of overcoming hardship that inspired us and gave us hope.
1999
Superhero: A Biography of Christopher Reeve
Superhero is a book on the life of Christopher Reeve, by Chris Nickson, author of biographies of David Boreanaz, Melissa Etheridge, and Matt Damon. Reeve was well known for his portrayal of Superman, but his acting career was cut short by a horse-riding accident that left him paralyzed. But Reeve continued to live his life as a real-world superhero, and this biography tells his remarkable story.