“He said the most difficult thing to cope with was simply the loss of physical contact with the human race.”
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Figure timeline
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, activist, director, and author. He amassed many stage and screen credits in his 34-year career, including playing the title character in the Superman film series (1978–1987). He won a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He was also known for his activism.
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entertainment · American actor and activist (1952–2004) · television actor · film actor · film director · stage actor · voice actor · actor · director · film producer · screenwriter · also Christopher Reeve, Christopher D'Olier Reeve, Reeve
Born 25 September 1952 · Died 10 October 2004 · Q174311
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2026· 27 entries
“s Alyn hospital, where he met 24-year-old woman Rahab Badar, who can now walk when aided after years of therapy following a car accident seven years ago.”
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“s Weizmann Institute of Science.”
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“Everything takes planning. I can never be alone. . . . Those are exterior things. But then also the real intimacy, the way it used to be with my wife, with my children. I haven”
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“And I have extra ordinary privileges. I have the very best medical care. I have financial resources. I haven”
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“And that combined with a certain amount of self-discipline, which I learned from my earliest years in the theater, helps me to keep going.”
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“The thought that kept going through my mind was: I”
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“Either in the past or the future. I have never had a dream in which I am disabled in a wheelchair.”
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“s annual award for public service.”
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“She taught me that quite the opposite is supposed to happen. You must bring your own convictions, things you really love and hate to the character, and then adjust after that.”
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“But sensory recovery... to feel touch, after years of going without it, is very meaningful. It makes a huge difference. It means I can feel my kids”
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“s immersed in: the foundation, publicising the new book, writing speeches, examining screenplays he may direct. He has already, since his injury, directed a television movie and starred in a television remake of Hitchcock”
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“There are religious groups - the Jehovah”
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“My mind just goes miles away. It”
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“s next week, and although he has made amazing progress, he won”
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“t quite drown the hissing inhalation and exhalation of the ventilator. He”
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“Stem cells are the future of medicine. Please support (the ballot) and stand up for those who can”
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“We’re going to lose incredibly valuable time. “When matters of public policy are being decided, no religion should have a seat at the table—that is what is provided for in the Constitution,”
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“have an undue influence in the debate.”
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“We’re giving away our pre-eminence in science and medicine,”
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“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.”
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“To put two hours about spinal cord injury on prime-time TV is unheard of. We wanted to make it a celebration of life. Show the triumphs that can happen.”
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“the less said about Superman IV the better.”
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“She was 67 and I was 22, but I thought that was quite an honor. ... I believe I was fairly close to what a child or grandchild might have been to her.”
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“Mr. Reeve. It is terribly important that you become a serious classical actor. Unless, of course, they offer you a shitload of money to do something else.”
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Public attention spiked: 22,580 Wikipedia readers in one day, 5.5× the usual 4,128, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 13,638 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.3× the usual 4,128, with 0 article edits.
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2018· 1 entry
Jane Seymour revealed that Reeve and Exton had broken up prior to filming Somewhere in Time, and during production, Reeve and Seymour fell in love
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2014· 1 entry
And, as of 2025, he reports for ABC News
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2012· 1 entry
Awarded New Jersey Hall of Fame (2012).
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2006· 1 entry
“s version of Superman II, titled Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, was released on DVD in November 2006 and was dedicated in memory of Reeve. Lester directed Superman III, released in 1983, solo. Reeve believed the producers Alexander Salkind, his son Ilya Salkind, and Pierre Spengler had decreased the credibility of Superman III by turning it into a Richard Pryor comedy rather than a proper Superman film. Reeve missed Donner and believed Superman III”
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2005· 1 entry
And received a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 2008
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2004· 9 entries
Died 2004-10-10.
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Awarded Grand Cross of the Order Bernardo O'Higgins (2004).
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A third film was never made, while Hope in Motion and its follow-up, Choosing Hope, were released on DVD in 2007
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From cardiac arrest at a hospital near his home in Westchester County, New York
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“What I do is based on powers we all have inside us; the ability to endure; the ability to love, to carry on, to make the best of what we have — and you don’t have to be a ‘Superman’ to do it.”
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“Perhaps it is my job to offend some scientists. I'm not asking them to be reckless or unprofessional, but I do want to reinforce a sense of urgency.”
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“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.”
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“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
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Reeve directed the A&E film The Brooke Ellison Story
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2003· 3 entries
Awarded Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award (2003).
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Made an appearance in the episode "Rosetta", in which Dr
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Reeve guest-starred in an episode of The Practice
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2002· 1 entry
His grade was changed to C, indicating some degree of muscle movement and sensation
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2001· 2 entries
Awarded ASCB Public Service Award (2001).
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Reeve's son Matthew began filming a three-part series detailing Reeve's recovery process and advocacy for spinal cord injury research
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2000· 2 entries
Reeve started to regain the ability to make small movements with his fingers and other parts of his body
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Reeve made guest appearances on the PBS series Sesame Street
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1999· 2 entries
Awarded Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for Still Me (1999).
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The American Paralysis Association and Reeve's own foundation, established in 1996, were merged into the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which aims to speed up research through funding and to use grants to improve the qual
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1998· 3 entries
Random House published Reeve's autobiography, Still Me
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Reeve starred in and served as executive producer of Rear Window, a remake of Hitchcock's 1954 film
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That his father's "love for his children always seemed tied to performance" and he put pressure on himself to act older than he actually was to gain his father's approval
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1997· 3 entries
TCC established the Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award
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And lose my influence in Washington?" In 1997, TCC established the Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award.
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And raised over $20,000 for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation
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1996· 3 entries
10 months after his injury, Reeve appeared at the 68th Academy Awards to a long standing ovation
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Reeve narrated the HBO documentary Without Pity: A Film About Abilities
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“And the human trials were only delayed because of lawsuits brought against him by a small pharmaceutical company that had funded some of his early work and wanted a bigger piece of the pie now that he was about to work on humans. This is simply profiteering.”
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1995· 4 entries
Reeve's horse made a refusal
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Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia
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“glad to be alive, not out of obligation to others, but because life was worth living.”
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Named one of her twin sons Kristopher in his honor (Reeve also became his godfather)
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1994· 3 entries
Reeve did a reading of Love Letters in Williamstown, and also appeared as a narrator in a concert version of the musical Allegro at the New York City Center
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Reeve was elected as a co-president of TCC in 1994.
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And planned to do Training Level events in 1995 and move up to Preliminary in 1996
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1993· 3 entries
Two years before Reeve's accident, the Salkinds sold the rights to the character of Superman again, this time to Warner Bros
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Reeve starred opposite Charles Bronson in the television film The Sea Wolf, based on Jack London's novel of the same name
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A teacher at Flowing Wells High School was fired for staging a play with homosexual themes during the school's arts week
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1992· 2 entries
“I just put down my fork and asked her to marry me.”
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Reeve played one of the leads in Peter Bogdanovich's comedy Noises Off
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1991· 2 entries
Road to Avonlea and Tales from the Crypt in 1992
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The 1991 documentary Trump: What's the Deal?, which was suppressed for years, showed Reeve deliver a critical speech on the topic at a public event.
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1990· 2 entries
Reeve starred in the American Civil War film The Rose and the Jackal, in which he played Allan Pinkerton, the head of President Lincoln's new Secret Service
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By 1990, they were living together, but Reeve, remembering his parents' painful divorce and other failed marriages in his family, could not bring himself to commit.
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1989· 3 entries
Reeve's friend Ron Silver started the Creative Coalition (TCC), a liberal organization aiming to teach celebrities how to speak knowledgeably about political issues
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Reeve played Polixenes in an Off-Broadway production of The Winter's Tale
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Sold Chandelle and bought a sloop sailboat, Cambria 46, which he named the Sea Angel
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1988· 1 entry
Reeve played Major Johnnie Dodge in the two-part television film The Great Escape II: The Untold Story
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1986· 1 entry
Reeve was still struggling to find scripts he liked
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1985· 2 entries
DC Comics named Reeve as one of the honorees in the company's 50th-anniversary publication, Fifty Who Made DC Great, for his work on the Superman film series
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After learning to ride for the film Anna Karenina
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1983· 3 entries
Reeve appeared in Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre, playing the dual roles of Prince Charming and the cowardly prince in Sleeping Beauty
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Reeve was elected to Actors' Equity Association Council
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Their second child, daughter Alexandra Reeve Givens, was born on November 25, 1983.
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1982· 1 entry
Reeve stretched his acting range further and played a devious novice playwright with questionable motives regarding his idol and mentor Michael Caine, in Sidney Lumet's suspenseful dark comedy Deathtrap, based on the pla
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1981· 1 entry
Reeve returned to Williamstown to play Achilles in the two-part, six-hour production of The Greeks
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1979· 1 entry
Reeve served as a track and field coach at the Special Olympics
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1976· 1 entry
Reeve purchased his first aircraft, a second-hand Cherokee 140
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1975· 1 entry
Briefly explored Scientology but chose not to become a member
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1974· 1 entry
Reeve auditioned for the soap opera Love of Life to pay tuition fees at Juilliard
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1973· 1 entry
Approximately 2,000 students auditioned for 20 places in the freshman class at Juilliard
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1968· 1 entry
And participated in protests against the invasion of Cambodia in 1970
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1962· 1 entry
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
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1956· 1 entry
And she moved with Christopher and his younger brother, Benjamin, to Princeton, New Jersey, where they attended Nassau Street School and then Princeton Day School (PDS)
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1952· 1 entry
Born 1952-09-25.
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