Christopher reeve biography

The popularity of the film, and Reeve's winning portrayals of the Man of Steel and his alter ego, Clark Kent, spawned the release of Superman sequels inand Reeve also starred in Somewhere in TimeDeathtrapThe Aviator and a TV movie adaptation of Anna Kareninaduring which time he developed a fascination with horse riding. In May Reeve became paralyzed from the neck down when he sustained a severe cervical spinal injury in a horse-riding accident.

Despite being confined to a wheelchair and needing a respirator to assist with his breathing, he became heavily involved in campaigns supporting handicapped children and paraplegics, testifying before a Senate subcommittee in favor of federal funding for stem cell research. Reeve tirelessly sought to overcome the limitations of his condition, undergoing an experimental operation in that enabled him to breathe for hours without use of his respirator.

After launching the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation inthe actor merged his organization with the American Paralysis Association in to create a powerful advocate for the disabled in the quest to raise awareness, fund spinal cord research and forge medical breakthroughs. Reeve continued to work after ongoing rehabilitation. He returned to acting in a television production of Rear Windowfor which he picked up a Golden Globe nomination, and directed two television films with health themes, In the Gloaming and The Brooke Ellison Story Despite this, he became an outspoken advocate for spinal cord injury research and founded the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundationwhich provides support to those affected by paralysis.

Christopher Reeve was happily married to Dana Reevean American actress and singer, from until his death in He passed away on October 10,leaving behind a legacy not only as a celebrated actor but also as a devoted husband and father. We Value Your Feedback! Please ensure that your comment is respectful and relevant to the topic. Inhe said in an interview:.

Who christophers reeve biography why an accident happens? The key is what do you do afterwards. There is a period of shock, and then grieving, with confusion and loss. After that, you have two choices. One is to stare out the window and gradually disintegrate. And the other is to mobilize and use all your resources, whatever they may be, to do something positive.

That is the road I have taken. It comes naturally to me. I am a competitive person and right now I am competing against decay. I don't want osteoporosis or muscle atrophy or depression to beat me. In another interview, Reeve said he drew on the self-discipline he had gained in his early years in the theater:.

Christopher reeve biography: Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September

Nobody wants another actor. There's too many of them now already. To keep believing in yourself in spite of those kinds of obstacles is certainly good preparation for what I'm going through now. For most of his life, Reeve did not identify with any religion. He attended his stepfather's Presbyterian church as a young teenager. He subsequently voiced criticism of the organization.

Reeve described his wedding in as his "first act of faith". After his accident, many well-wishers suggested that prayer would make him feel better, but he did not find it helpful. In his book Nothing is Impossible: Reflections on a New LifeReeve said that he and his wife had regularly attended Unitarian services, starting in his late 40s. In the years following the accident, he had gradually come to believe that:.

Spirituality is found in the way we live our daily lives. It means spending time thinking about others. It's not so hard to imagine that there is some kind of higher power. We don't have to know what form it takes or exactly where it exists; just to honor it and try to live by it is enough. As these thoughts unfolded in the process of learning to live my new life, I had no idea that I was becoming a Unitarian.

At the age of 15, Reeve developed a passionate interest in political and social causes. He conducted a door-to-door campaign on behalf of Robert F. Kennedy in and participated in protests against the invasion of Cambodia in After the release of SupermanReeve used his celebrity status to enable him to support several philanthropic causes.

Through the Make-A-Wish Foundationhe visited terminally ill children. He joined the board of directors for the worldwide charity Save the Children. Inhe served as a track and field coach at the Special Olympics. In the s, Reeve campaigned for Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy and made speeches throughout the state. He served as a christopher reeve biography member for the Charles Lindbergh Fund, which promotes environmentally safe technologies.

As a pilot with the Environmental Air Force he gave government officials and journalists aerial tours over areas of environmental damage. In latein SantiagoChile, the country's dictator, Augusto Pinochetthreatened to execute 77 actors. Ariel Dorfman asked Reeve to help save their lives. Reeve flew to Chile and helped lead a protest march. The documentary Trump: What's the Deal?

The documentary also featured an interview in which Reeve called Trump's ambitions "the American dream gone berserk," adding, "You're allowed to dream as big as you want, but if your dreams step on the lives of ordinary people and ruin the quality of their life and their neighborhood, you have to be stopped. InReeve's friend Ron Silver started the Creative Coalition TCCa liberal organization aiming to teach celebrities how to speak knowledgeably about political issues.

The group's initiatives included environmental issues and defending the National Endowment of the Artswhich was under attack from conservative Republicans who objected to taxpayer funding of art they considered offensive. Reeve was elected as a co-president of TCC in The organization's work was noticed nationwide, and the Democratic Party asked Reeve to run for the United States Congress.

He replied, "Run for Congress? And lose my influence in Washington? In10 months after his injury, Reeve appeared at the 68th Academy Awards to a long standing ovation. He used the occasion to encourage Hollywood to make more films on social issues, saying, "Let's continue to take risks. Let's tackle the issues. In many ways our film community can do it better than anyone else.

Christopher reeve biography: Christopher Reeve played Superman in

Reeve left the Kessler Rehabilitation Center feeling inspiration from the other patients he had met. Because the media was constantly covering him, he decided to use his name to put focus on spinal cord injuries. He traveled across the country to make speeches and also hosted the Summer Paralympic Games in Atlanta and spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

For these efforts, he was placed on the cover of Time on August 26, Reeve was elected chairman of the American Paralysis Association and vice chairman of the National Organization on Disability. With Joan Irvine Smithhe co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, which is now one of the leading spinal cord research centers in the world. That is outrageous.

We need to make insurance companies provide the benefits they are supposed to, and we shouldn't have to fight for necessities. This bill passed. Reeve lobbied for expanded federal funding on embryonic stem cell research to include all embryonic stem cell lines in existence and for self-governance to make open-ended scientific inquiry of the research.

Reeve initially called this "a step in the right direction", admitting he did not know about the existing lines and would look into them further. He fought against the limit when scientists revealed an early research technique involved mixing the human stem cells with mouse cells contaminated most of the old lines. InReeve received Public Service Award from the American Society for Cell Biology for "outstanding public service in support of biomedical research.

InReeve lobbied for the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of[ ] which would allow somatic cell nuclear transfer research, but would ban reproductive cloning. He argued stem cell implantation is unsafe unless the stem cells contain the patient's own DNA and because somatic cell nuclear transfer is done without fertilizing an egg, it can be fully regulated.

In JulyReeve's continuing frustration with the pace of stem cell research in the US led him to Israel, [ ] a country that was then, according to him, at the center of research in spinal cord injury. During his visit, Reeve called the experience "a privilege" and said, "Israel has very proactive rehab facilities, excellent medical schools and teaching hospitals, and an absolutely first-rate research infrastructure.

In SeptemberReeve was awarded the Lasker Public Service Award "for his perceptive, sustained and heroic advocacy for medical research in general and victims of disability in particular. Commenting on Reeve's impact, Jerome Groopman said in "I think that people of prominence or great resources are the ones who act as catalysts in our society.

There was essentially no substantial funding of spinal-cord research before Reeve's injury, and now it is one of the hottest areas in neurobiology. Scientists are flocking to work in it, because science follows the money. During his teenage years, Reeve suffered from occasional bouts of asthma and christophers reeve biography. He had a rare condition called mastocytosiswhich made him vulnerable to anaphylaxisand more than once he had a severe reaction to a drug.

While at Kessler, he tried a drug which was theorized to help reduce damage to the spinal cord. The drug caused him to go into anaphylactic shock, and his heart stopped. He claimed to have had an out-of-body experience and remembered saying, "I'm sorry, but I have to go now", during the event. In his autobiography, he wrote, "and then I left my body.

I was up on the ceiling. I looked down and saw my body stretched out on the bed, not moving, while everybody—there were 15 or 20 people, the doctors, the EMTs, the nurses—was working on me. The noise and commotion grew quieter as though someone were gradually turning down the volume. Two days later, he gave it another try, but experienced the same anaphylactic reaction and was immediately given epinephrine.

At age 16, he developed alopecia areata. Generally, he was able to comb over the bald spots and often the problem disappeared for long periods. He was given a medication for it, but an adverse reaction caused all the hair on his body to fall out, including his eyebrows and eyelashes. During andReeve was frequently hospitalized for dysreflexiapneumonia, a collapsed lung, and two blood clots.

A titanium rod was inserted inside his humerus bone to stabilize his arm. He was warned that his leg might have to be amputated to prevent further spread of infection. Reeve sought help from specialists at Albany Medical Centerwho examined his "christopher reeve biography," removing the dead tissue and putting him on powerful antibioticsalthough he developed an allergy after eight days.

His leg fully healed a few months later. In early Octoberhe was being treated for an infected pressure ulcer that was causing sepsisa complication he had experienced many times before. On October 4,he spoke at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago on behalf of the institute's work; it was his last reported public appearance. That night, he went into cardiac arrest after receiving an antibiotic for the infection.

Eighteen hours later, on October 10,Reeve died at the age of However, both Reeve's wife, Dana, and his doctor, John McDonald, believed that an adverse reaction to a drug caused his death. His remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery[ ] where his ashes were sprinkled in the wind by his family. Reeve's widow, Dana, headed the Christopher Reeve Foundation after his death.

Although a non-smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer on August 9, She died at age 44 on March 6,[ ] and the foundation was subsequently renamed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. Following Reeve's death, the Society for Neuroscience added his name to their satellite symposium dedicated to stem cell research. Inthe Williamstown Theatre Festivalwhere Reeve often performed during his career, announced that it would begin a tradition of dedicating the final performance of every season to his memory and would establish a fund to support artists with disabilities.

Reeve's books are also part of the collection. In MarchPresident Barack Obama signed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act that aims "to enhance and further research into paralysis and to improve rehabilitation and the quality of life for persons living with paralysis and other physical disabilities. Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. American actor and activist — For the South African knife maker, see Chris Reeve. Reeve after the opening of The Marriage of Figaro in New York CityU. Mount Kisco, New YorkU. Dana Morosini. Reeve father Barbara Lamb Johnson mother.

Early life and education [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Early work [ edit ]. Superman films [ edit ]. Roles turned down by Reeve [ edit ].

Christopher reeve biography: Christopher Reeve was an American actor

Personal life [ edit ]. Relationships [ edit ]. Aviation and sailing [ edit ]. Equestrianism and injury [ edit ]. Hospitalization [ edit ]. Rehabilitation [ edit ]. Life with paralysis [ edit ]. Religious views [ edit ]. Activism [ edit ]. Disability activism [ edit ]. See also: Spinal cord injury research. Health problems and death [ edit ].

Legacy [ edit ]. Awards and honors [ edit ]. Filmography [ edit ]. Main article: Christopher Reeve filmography. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. Reeve regularly called the stables to check on him and was sent videos of his training sessions. Later, Buck was sold to new owners. Reeve said, "He's a beautiful, sweet-natured animal.

None of what happened was his fault. I'm hoping he'll have a long and happy life with his new owners. He's a wonderful horse. The helmet prevented brain damage. Both Reeve and Williams said the story was untrue. ISBN Featuring in-depth interviews with Reeve and Dana, and showing his rehabilitation process at Kessler, the special became a winner of the Peabody Awards.

References [ edit ]. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Archived from the original on December 3, Retrieved May 3, Atlanta, Georgia.

Christopher reeve biography: Christopher D'Olier Reeve was born

October 11, Archived from the original on December 7, Retrieved November 3, Archived from the original on September 21, Retrieved March 11, Archived from the original on October 19, February 6, Archived from the original on November 11, Retrieved November 12, Ryan Honored". The New York Times. April 16, Archived from the original on December 19, Retrieved December 16, Christopher Reeve.

Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse. BBC Radio 4. April 13, Archived from the original on June 12, Retrieved November 17, Princeton Day School Journal. Archived PDF from the original on December 31, Retrieved December 27, November 22, San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 20, The Cornell Daily Sun. October 13, Archived from the original on December 6, Retrieved November 25, May 24, Archived from the original on January 19, February 4, Archived from the original on May 2, Retrieved January 4, Archived from the original on July 22, Retrieved January 5, Christopher Reeve Homepage.

Archived from the original on February 25, Retrieved December 17, Superman Vs. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Despite his tragic accident, Christopher Reeve continued to live a full and meaningful life. He inspired millions with his resilience, optimism, and unwavering pursuit of his dreams. He passed away on October 10,at the age of 52, leaving behind a legacy of hope and perseverance.

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