Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an
American actor best known for his motion picture portrayal of the classic DC
comic book superhero Superman, beginning with the acclaimed Superman
(1978), for which he won a BAFTA Award.
Reeve appeared in other critically acclaimed films such as The Bostonians
(1984), Street Smart (1987) and The Remains of the Day (1993). He received a
Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his
performance in the television remake of Rear Window (1998).
On May 27, 1995, Reeve was left quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse
during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He used a wheelchair
and needed a portable ventilator to breathe for the rest of his life. He lobbied on
behalf of people with spinal cord injuries and for human embryonic stem cell
research, founding the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founding the
Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
Early life and education
Christopher Reeve was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City, the son
of Barbara Pitney Lamb (b. 1929 - 2000), a journalist, and Franklin D'Olier
Reeve (1928–2013), a teacher, novelist, poet, and scholar. Reeve was of
almost entirely English ancestry, with many family lines that had been in
America since the early 1600s. His paternal grandfather, Colonel Richard Henry
Reeve, had been the CEO of Prudential Financial (when it was called Prudential
Life Insurance Company) for over 25 years.
Reeve's father was a Princeton University graduate studying for a master's
degree in Russian at Columbia University prior to the birth of his son,
Christopher. Despite being born wealthy, Franklin Reeve spent summers
working at the docks with longshoremen. Reeve's mother had been a student at
Vassar College but transferred to Barnard College to be closer to Franklin,
whom she had met through a family connection. They had another son,
Benjamin, born on October 6, 1953.
Franklin and Barbara divorced in 1956, and she moved with her two sons to
Princeton, New Jersey, where they attended Nassau Street School. Later that
year, Franklin Reeve married Helen Schmidinger, a Columbia University
graduate student. Barbara Pitney Lamb married Tristam B. Johnson, a
stockbroker, in 1959. Johnson enrolled Christopher and his brother, Benjamin,
in Princeton Country Day School, which later merged with Miss Fine's School
for Girls to become the co-educational Princeton Day School. Reeve excelled
academically, athletically, and onstage; he was on the honor roll and played
soccer, baseball, tennis, and hockey. The sportsmanship award at Princeton
Day School's invitational hockey tournament was named in Reeve's honor.
Reeve admitted that he put pressure on himself to act older than he actually
was in order to gain his father's approval.
Reeve found his passion for acting in 1962 at age nine when he was cast in an
amateur version of the operetta The Yeomen of the Guard; it was the first of
many student plays. In mid-1968, at age fifteen, Reeve was accepted as an
apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown,
Massachusetts. The other apprentices were mostly college students, but
Reeve's older appearance and maturity helped him fit in with the others. In a
workshop, he played a scene from A View from the Bridge that was chosen to
be presented in front of an audience. After the performance, actress Olympia
Dukakis said to him, "I'm surprised. You've got a lot of talent. Don't mess it
up."[9] The next summer, Reeve was hired at the Harvard Summer Repertory
Theater Company in Cambridge for $44 per week. He played a Russian sailor
in The Hostage and Belyayev in A Month in the Country. Famed theater critic
Elliot Norton called his performance as Belyayev "startlingly effective." The 23-
year-old lead actress in the play, a Carnegie Mellon graduate, turned out to be
Reeve's first romance. She was engaged to a fellow Carnegie Mellon graduate
at the time; they mutually ended the relationship when he made a surprise visit
to her dorm room at seven in the morning and found Reeve with her. Reeve's
romance with the actress fizzled a few months later when the age difference
became an issue. Reeve was briefly involved with Scientology but opted out of
becoming a member. He subsequently voiced criticism of the organization.
Year Title Role Notes
1978 Gray Lady Down Phillips
BAFTA Award for Most
Promising Newcomer to
Superman / Clark Kent /
1978 Superman Leading Film Roles
Kal-El
Nominated - Saturn
Award for Best Actor
Somewhere in Nominated - Saturn
1980 Richard Collier
Time Award for Best Actor
Superman / Clark Kent / Nominated - Saturn
1980 Superman II
Kal-El Award for Best Actor
1982 Deathtrap Clifford Anderson
1982 Monsignor Father John Flaherty
Superman / Evil
1983 Superman III Superman / Clark Kent /
Kal-El
1984 The Bostonians Basil Ransome
1985 The Aviator Edgar Anscombe
1987 Street Smart Jonathan Fisher
Superman IV: The Superman / Clark Kent /
1987
Quest for Peace Kal-El
Switching
1988 Blaine Bingham
Channels
Frederick Dallas / Philip
1992 Noises Off
Brent
1993 Morning Glory Will Parker
The Remains of Congressman Jack
1993
the Day Lewis
Year Title Role Notes
1994 Speechless Bob 'Baghdad' Freed
Village of the
1995 Dr. Alan Chaffee
Damned
A Step Toward
1996 Denny Gabriel
Tomorrow
Director and executive
2006 Everyone's Hero producer; posthumous
release
Superman II: The
Superman / Clark Kent /
2006 Richard Donner Posthumous release
Kal-El
Cut
Christopher
2007 Reeve: Hope in Himself Posthumous release
Motion
Caractula
dedicatoria
Peliculas
imagenes
