Christopher Reeve

The Casting No One Wanted

In 1977, Christopher Reeve was a broke stage actor living in a tiny New York apartment. Richard Donner was looking for an unknown face to play Superman because the big stars of the day had turned the role down. Robert Redford asked for too much money, and Clint Eastwood said he wasn't interested in flying. Reeve weighed barely 75 kilos when he landed the part.

He had to eat red meat and lift weights for months under the supervision of David Prowse. He gained thirteen kilos of pure muscle before the cameras started rolling at the London studios. But the contract had a catch. The studio made him sign on for several sequels before knowing whether the first one would work at the box office.

And the risk paid off.

The 1978 film grossed more than $300 million worldwide. Reeve became the face of a franchise that now seems prehistoric but helped invent the modern superhero movie. Yet he hated being typecast. That is why he took roles in period dramas such as Somewhere in Time in 1980 to prove he could act without special effects.

The fall in Virginia

On May 27, 1995, Reeve was competing in an equestrian event in Culpeper. His horse was startled by a jump just over three feet high, and the actor was thrown over the animal's ears. The impact with the ground was brutal. He broke his neck at the base of the skull and was instantly paralyzed from the neck down.

He spent months in rehab centers trying to accept that his career in action movies was over. Doctors gave him little hope of regaining movement. But his wife, Dana Reeve, became the pillar who kept him from emotional collapse during the first weeks of his hospital stay.

Paralysis did not fully stop him.

In 1998, he starred in a television version of Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. He shot all of his scenes in a real wheelchair with a hidden ventilator. The role earned him a Golden Globe nomination and showed that his expressive ability remained intact despite his physical immobility.

His scientific legacy

Reeve spent his final years pressing the US government to fund stem cell research. He founded the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to help people with spinal cord injuries. In 2002, through intensive physical training, he regained some sensation in his limbs. It was a medical breakthrough no one expected from a patient with his diagnosis.

In 2024, the premiere of the documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story revealed that his friendship with Robin Williams was what kept his mental health afloat. Williams paid for the medical team needed so Reeve could live at home instead of in a clinic. They had been close friends since they shared a room at the Juilliard School of drama in the 1970s.

Christopher Reeve died on October 10, 2004 in Mount Kisco. Heart failure caused by an infection in a pressure sore ended his life. He was 52 years old and left behind millions of dollars in medical debt that his foundation took years to settle.