Christopher D'Olier Reeve (25 September 1952 - October 10, 2004) is an American actor. He reached the star for his acting achievements. In particular, he is best known for his film shots of Superhero Superhero Superman classic comics, starting with the acclaimed Superman (1978), which he won the BAFTA Award.
Reeve appeared in other critical films such as The Bostonians (1984), Street Smart (1987) and The Remains of the Day (1993). She received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance in the Rear Window television remake (1998).
On May 27, 1995, Reeve was left paralyzed after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian race in Culpeper, Virginia. She uses a wheelchair and needs a portable ventilator for the rest of her life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries and for human embryonic stem cell research, founded Christopher Reeve Foundation and founded Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
Video Christopher Reeve
Early life and education
Christopher Reeve was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City, son of Barbara Pitney (Lamb) (1929-2000), a journalist, and Franklin D'Olier Reeve (1928-2013), a teacher, novelist, poet, and scholar. Reeve is almost fully British ancestor, with many family lines that have existed in America since the early 1600s. His father's grandfather, Colonel Richard Henry Reeve, was CEO of Prudential Financial (then called Prudential Life Insurance Company) for over 25 years.
Reeve's father was a Princeton University graduate who studied for a master's degree in Russian at Columbia University before the birth of his son, Christopher. Despite being born rich, Franklin Reeve spent the summer working on the dock with a longshoremen. Reeve's mother was a student at Vassar College but moved to Barnard College to get closer to Franklin, whom she met through family connections. They have another son, Benjamin, born on October 6, 1953.
Franklin and Barbara divorced in 1956, and he moved with his 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, at Princeton Country Day School, who later joined Miss Fine's School for Girls to become Princeton Day School. Reeve excelled academically, athletically, and on stage; he is on a roll of honor and plays soccer, baseball, tennis, and hockey. The sportsmanship award at the Princeton Day School hockey tournament was named in the honor of Reeve. Reeve admits that she puts pressure on herself to act older than she really is to get her father's approval.
Reeve found his passion in 1962 at the age of nine when he played a role in the amateur version of Yeomen of the Guard operetta ; it was the first of many student dramas. In mid-1968, at the age of fifteen, Reeve was accepted as an apprentice at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The other students were mostly students, but older Reeve's appearance and maturity helped him adjust to others. In a workshop, he plays a scene from A View from the Bridge selected to be presented in front of an audience. After the show, Olympia Dukakis actress said to her, "I'm surprised you have a lot of talent, do not mess it up." The following summer, Reeve was hired at the Harvard Summer Repertory Theater Company in Cambridge for $ 44 a week. He plays a Russian sailor at The Hostage and Belyayev at A Month in the Country. Renowned theater critic Elliot Norton called his performance as Belyayev "very effective". The 23-year-old main actress in the drama, a Carnegie Mellon graduate, turned out to be Reeve's first romance. He was engaged to a Carnegie Mellon graduate at the time; they ended each other's relationship when he made a surprise visit to his dorm room at seven in the morning and found Reeve with him. Reeve's romance with the actress failed a few months later when the age difference became a problem. Reeve was briefly involved with Scientology but chose not to become a member. He then voiced criticism of the organization.
Cornell
After graduating from Princeton Day School in June 1970, Reeve acted in a drama in Boothbay, Maine and planned to go to New York City to seek a career in the theater. Instead, on the advice of his mother, he applied for college. He was accepted at Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Northwestern, and Princeton. Reeve claims that he chose Cornell primarily because this is a three and a half hour journey from New York City, where he plans to start his career as an actor, despite the fact that Princeton is much closer to town, while Columbia is located just a few miles from downtown theater district New York.
Reeve joins the theater department at Cornell and plays Pozzo at Waiting for Godot , Segismundo at Life Is a Dream , Hamlet at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead , and Polixenes at The Winter's Tale . At the end of his first year, Reeve received a letter from Stark Hesseltine, a high-powered agent who had invented Robert Redford and represented actors like Richard Chamberlain, Michael Douglas, and Susan Sarandon. Hesseltine has seen Reeve in A Month in the Country and wants to represent it. The two met and decided that instead of dropping out, Reeve could come to New York once a month to meet a casting agent and producer to find a job for summer vacations. That summer, she toured the production of Forty Rust with Eleanor Parker.
The following year, Reeve received a full season contract with the San Diego Shakespeare Festival, with the role of Edward IV at Richard III, Fenton at The Merry Wives of Windsor and Dumaine at > Love's Labor's Lost in the Old Globe Theater.
Before his third year of college, Reeve took a three-month hiatus. He flew to Glasgow and saw theatrical production throughout the United Kingdom. He was inspired by the actors and often had conversations with them in the bar after the show. He helps actors at Old Vic with their American accent by reading newspapers aloud for them. He then flies to Paris, where he speaks French fluently for the whole of his stay; he has learned it from third grade to his second year at Cornell. She watched many shows and immersed herself in culture before finally returning to New York to meet her boyfriend again.
Juilliard
After returning to the US from Europe, Reeve chose to focus only on acting, although Cornell University has some general education requirements for graduation that he has not completed. He succeeded in convincing the theater director Jim Clause and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences that, as a theater majors, he would achieve more at Juilliard (Group 4, 1973-1975), than at Cornell. They agreed that his first year at Juilliard would be counted as his senior year at Cornell.
In 1973, about 2000 students auditioned for 20 places in the new class at Juilliard. Reeve's audition is in front of 10 faculty members, including John Houseman, who has just won an Academy Award for The Paper Chase. Reeve and Robin Williams are the only students selected for the Juilliard Advanced Program. They have several classes together where they are the only students. In their dialect class with Edith Skinner, Williams has no trouble mastering all dialects naturally, while Reeve is more conscientious about it. Williams and Reeve developed a close friendship.
In a meeting with John Houseman, Reeve was told, "Mr. Reeve, it's important that you become a serious classical actor, unless, of course, they offer you a lot of money to do something else." Houseman then offered him a chance to leave school and join the Acting Company, amongst players like Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, and David Ogden Stiers. Reeve refused, as he had not received his bachelor's degree from Juilliard.
In early 1974, Reeve and the other Juilliard students toured the New York City high school system and performed The Love Cure. In one show, Reeve, who acted as a hero, drew his sword out too high and accidentally destroyed it. a row of lights on it. The students clapped and cheered. Reeve later said that this was the biggest applause of his career. After completing his first year at Juilliard, Reeve graduated from Cornell in Class of '74.
At the end of 1975, he auditioned for the Broadway drama A Matter of Gravity. Katharine Hepburn watched her audition and threw her as her grandson in the drama. With Hepburn's influence over the CBS network, Reeve composed the Love of Life schedule and the drama so he could do both. Because of his busy life, he ate sweets and drank coffee as a substitute for food, and suffered from fatigue and malnutrition. On the first night of the play, Reeve enters the stage, says his first sentence, and then immediately fainted. Hepburn turned to the audience and said, "This boy is really stupid, he does not eat enough red meat." The replacement finished playing for her, and Reeve was treated by a doctor who advised her to eat a healthier meal. He lives by playing throughout the year running and given very favorable reviews. He and Hepburn get very close. He said, "You will be a big star, Christopher, and support me in my old age." He replied, "I can not wait long." A romance between the two is rumored in several gossip columns. Reeve said, "He's sixty-seven and I'm twenty-two, but I think it's an honor... I believe I'm pretty close to what a child or grandchild might have for him." Reeve says that his father, who is a literary professor and coming to many shows, is the one who captivates Hepburn the most. When the drama moved to Los Angeles in 1976, ReeveÃ, - to the disappointment of Hepburn - broke up. They remained in contact for many years after the drama took place. Reeve later regrets not staying any closer than just sending a message back and forth.
Reeve's first role in a Hollywood movie is a small section as a submarine officer in the 1978 Navy disaster movie Gray Underworld. He then acted in the drama My Life at Circle Repertory Company with friend William Hurt.
Maps Christopher Reeve
Careers
Superman
During My Living Stark Hesseltine told Reeve that she had been asked to audition for the lead role as Clark Kent/Superman in the big budget film Superman (1978). Lynn Stalmaster, the casting director, puts a picture of Reeve and rÃÆ'Ã… © sumÃÆ'Â © on a stack three separate times, just for the producers to throw it away each time. Through persistent Stalmaster applicants, a meeting between director Richard Donner, producer Ilya Salkind and Reeve was set in January 1977 at the Sherry Netherland Hotel on Fifth Avenue. The morning after the meeting, Reeve sent a 300 page script. He is very pleased that the script takes the subject matter seriously, and that Richard Donner's motto is verisimilitude . Reeve immediately flew to London for a screen test, and on the way was told that Marlon Brando would play Jor-El and Gene Hackman would play Lex Luthor. Reeve still did not think she had much chance. Despite standing 6 ft 4 in (193 cm), he is a "skinny WASP." On the way to London, he envisioned how his approach to the role was. He then said, "In the late 1970s, the masculine image has changed... It is now acceptable for a man to show tenderness and vulnerability, I feel that the new Superman should reflect the image of contemporary men." He based his work on Clark Kent on Cary Grant in his role in Bringing Up Baby. After the screen test, the driver said, "I should not have told you this, but you have that part."
Reeve is a talented athlete. Describing Superman's role will be a stretch for the young actor, but he is tall enough for the role and has the necessary blue eyes and handsome features. However, his physical very thin. He refused to wear the false muscles under the suit and underwent a two-month intensive training regimen supervised by former British heavyweight champion David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in a lawsuit in original Star Wars movies . The training regimen consisted of running in the morning, followed by two hours of weight lifting and ninety minutes on a trampoline. In addition, Reeve doubled her dietary intake and adopted a high protein diet. He added thirty pounds (14 kg) of muscle to his skinny body 189 pounds (86 kg). He then made a higher profit for Superman III (1983), though for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), he decided it would be healthier to focus more on cardiovascular exercise.
Reeve was never a Superman or a comic book buff, even though she had watched Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves. Reeve found the role offered the appropriate challenge because it was a double role. He said, "there must be a different style between Clark and Superman, otherwise you only have a pair of glasses that stand for a character."
In the comments path for the director's edition Superman II: Richard Donner Cut, creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz talks about how Reeve talked to him about playing Superman and then playing Clark Kent. Mankiewicz then corrects Reeve, telling him that he always, always playing Superman and when he is Clark Kent, he "plays Superman who plays Clark Kent." Mankiewicz described him as Reeve as a role in that role.
The film grossed $ 300,218,018 worldwide (not adjusted for inflation). Reeve received positive reviews of her performance:
- "The whole appearance of Christopher Reeve is great, very handsome, with a face as sharp and as strong as an ax knife, a clumsy and fussy Clark Kent and a mighty Superman are just two forces of valor and innocence." Ã, - Newsweek
- "Christopher Reeve has become an instant international star on the basis of his first major film role, Clark Kent/Superman.The movie reviewers - regardless of their opinion of the film - have almost agreed in their praise of Reeve's double portrayal. he switches back and forth between the persona. "Ã, - Starlog
- Win a BAFTA Film Award for the Most Promising Newcomer to Lead Movie Role.
Christopher Reeve also guested on Smallville , a successful American television show about Clark Kent/Superman's childhood. He appears as Doctor Virgil Swann, helping Clark Kent understand his legacy, at Seasons 2 and 3, until the character is finally "killed". She appears in two episodes titled "Rosetta" and "Legacy", while her death is known in the fourth episode of the "Sacred" season.
Reeve uses her celebrity status for some philanthropic causes. Through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, she visits severely ill children. She joins the Board of Directors for a worldwide charity, Save the Children. In 1979, he served as a track and field coach at the Special Olympics, alongside O. J. Simpson.
Sequel
Many of Superman II were filmed at the same time as the first film. After most of the tape was taken, the producers disagreed with director Richard Donner about things, including money and special effects, and they were separated. He was replaced by director Richard Lester, whose script was changed and re-recorded some footage. The cast was not happy, but Reeve later said that he liked Lester and considered Superman II as his favorite of the series. Due to fans' encouragement, Richard Donner's version of Superman II entitled Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut , was released on DVD in 2006 and dedicated to Reeve.
Superman III , released in 1983, was filmed entirely by Lester. Reeve believed that the producers spoiled him by turning him into a comedy Richard Pryor. He missed Richard Donner and believed that Superman III was the only saving grace of the junkyard scene where the wicked Superman fought Clark Kent in internal combat, Reeve's portrayal of wicked Superman was highly praised, even though the film was critically highlighted.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was released in 1987. After Superman III, Reeve swears that he's done with Superman. However, he accepts the role on the condition that he will have partial creative control over the manuscript. The nuclear disarmament plot is the idea. Production rights are granted to Cannon Films, which cuts the budget to half to $ 17 million. This film is a critical failure and disappointment at the box office, became the best-selling film Superman to date. Reeve then said, "what less is said about Superman IV better." Reeve's two children had an unidentified appearance in the deleted scene where Superman saved a girl and reunited her with her brother after Nuclear Man created a tornado.
1980-1986
Reeve's first role after 1978 Superman was as Richard Collier in the 1980s romantic fantasy Somewhere in Time . Jane Seymour plays Elise McKenna, her love interest. The film was shot on Mackinac Island in mid-1979 and is Reeve's favorite movie ever filmed. After the movie is over, the plan is for a limited release and to build word of mouth, but profitable preliminary test play and studio decides on a broad release, which ultimately proves to be the wrong strategy. The initial reviews stung the film as being too sentimental and melodramatic and the strikes of the actors prevented Reeve and Seymour from doing publicity. The film was soon closed, though Jean-Pierre DorlÃÆ' Â © ac was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design in 1980. The film, commercially unsuccessful, was Reeve's first public disappointment. Almost 10 years after Somewhere in Time was released, it became a cult movie, thanks to screenings on cable networks and video rentals; its popularity began to grow, justifying the creative team's confidence. INSITE, International Network Somewhere in Time Fans, did a fundraiser to sponsor a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997 for Reeve. Jane Seymour became Reeve's personal friend and in 1996 named one of her sons Kristopher's twin in her honor.
That same year, he made a guest appearance on The Muppet Show, where he performed "East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)" on the piano for Miss Piggy, who has a crush on him. Reeve was denied a Superman but featured super powers throughout the episode. He then returned to continue filming on the unfinished production of Superman II .
Gae Exton, Reeve's partner at the time, gave birth to their son, Matthew Exton Reeve, on December 20, 1979, at Welbeck Hospital in London, England. After finishing Superman II , the family left London and rented a house in Hollywood Hills. Soon after that, Reeve grew tired of Hollywood and took her family to Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she played the lead role in a successful game of Home Page , directed by Robert Allan Ackerman. Later that year, Reeve played a defective Vietnamese veteran in the Broadway drama Fifth of July. In his research for the role, he was trained by an amputee on how to walk with artificial legs.
After The Fifth of July , Reeve extended her acting range even further and played a killer beginner playwoman trying to kill her lover and mentor Michael Caine in the dark comedy film Sidney Lumet Deathtrap based on drama by Ira Levin. The film was well received. After Superman II, Reeve described some of the corrupt Catholic priests, John Flaherty at Monsignor. Reeve feels this gives him the opportunity to play "ambiguous moral characters that are not obviously good or obviously bad, someone who lives much more complex than any character I've ever played before". Reeve blames film failure on poor editing. He said, "Movies are a kind of a series of embarrassing incidents that you feel are hard to believe because they have no focus, and because they are not justified and explained, they become laughable."
Reeve was then offered the role of Basil Ransom at The Bostonians with Vanessa Redgrave. Although Reeve usually reigns over a million dollars per film, the producers can only afford a tenth of it. Reeve has no complaints, because he likes to do a role he can be proud of. The film exceeded expectations and did very well at the box office for what is considered a home art film. The New York Times calls it "the best adaptation of literary works made for screens." Katharine Hepburn called Reeve to tell her that she was "really awesome" and "captivating" in the film. When told that he is currently shooting Anna Karenina , he says, "Oh, that's a big mistake."
Reeve is a licensed pilot and flies solo across the Atlantic twice. During the filming of Superman III, he boarded his plane in his spare time. He joins The Tiger Club, a group of pilots who had served on the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain. They let him participate in mock dogfights in an old World War I fighter. The Aviator film producer approached him without knowing that he was a pilot and that he knew how to fly Stearman, the aircraft used in the film. Reeve is ready to accept that role. The film was taken in Kranjska Gora, and Reeve did all the action. At this time, Gae Exton gave birth to their second child, Alexandra Exton Reeve, in December 1983 at Welbeck Hospital in London, England.
In 1984, Reeve appeared on The Aspern Papers with Vanessa Redgrave. He then played Tony at The Royal Family and Count in Marriage of Figaro .
In 1985, Reeve hosted the dinosaur television documentary! Fascinated by dinosaurs since he was a kid (as he said in documentary) he flew himself to New York on his own plane to shoot at a location in the American Natural History Museum. Also, in 1985, DC Comics named Reeve as one of the honors in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for his work on the Superman movie series.
In 1986, he still struggled to find scripts that he liked. A script named Street Smart has been lying in his home for years, and after reading it back, he turns it on Cannon Films. She starred against Morgan Freeman, who was nominated for her first Academy Award for the film. The film got good reviews but performed poorly at the box office, probably because Cannon Films failed to advertise it properly.
1987-1989
After Superman IV in 1987, Reeve's relationship with Exton collapsed, and they parted ways. He moved to New York without his children. She became depressed and decided that doing a comedy might be good for her. He was given instructions on Switching Channels . Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner had a feud during the filming, which made the time even more unbearable for Reeve. Reeve later stated that he was fooling himself in the movie and that most of his time was spent on refereeing between Reynolds and Turner. The film is very bad, and Reeve believes that it marks the end of his movie star career. He spent the following years mostly doing dramas. He tries to role Richard Gere in Pretty Woman but walks out in auditions because they have a half-hearted casting director filling for Julia Roberts.
Five months after parting with Gae Exton and after filming the Switching Channels, he returned to Williamstown with his sons, Matthew and Alexandra, who were seven and three each. Reeve watched a group of singers named Corps Cabaret perform, and noticed one of the singers, Dana Morosini. The two began dating and married in Williamstown in April 1992.
In the late 1980s, Reeve became more active. He takes lessons on horseback and practices five to six days a week for competitions in joint training events. He built a sailboat, The Sea Angel, and sailed from Chesapeake to Nova Scotia. He campaigned for Senator Patrick Leahy and addressed the state. He serves as a board member for the Charles Lindbergh Fund, which promotes environmentally safe technologies. He provides support for causes such as Amnesty International, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and People for the Way of America. He joins the Environmental Air Force and uses the Cheyenne II turboprop aircraft to bring government officials and journalists to the area of ​​environmental damage. At the end of 1987, 77 actors in Santiago, Chile were threatened with executions by dictator Augusto Pinochet. Reeve was asked by Ariel Dorfman to help save their lives. Reeve flew to Chile and helped lead the protest march. A cartoon then appeared in a newspaper that showed him carrying Pinochet on the collar with the inscription, "Where will you take him, Superman?" For his heroism, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Tarardo O'Higgins Order, the highest Chilean distinction to strangers. He also received the Gift Obie and the Walter Brielh Annual Human Rights Foundation award. Reeve's friend Ron Silver started the Creative Coalition, an organization designed to teach celebrities how to talk to the knowledge of political issues. Reeve is an early member of the group, along with Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, and Blythe Danner.
1990-1994
In 1990, Reeve starred in the Civil War film The Rose and the Jackal, where he played Allan Pinkerton, head of the new Secret Service of President Lincoln. Dana gave birth to William Elliot "Will" Reeve on June 7, 1992, at North Adams Regional Hospital in North Adams, Massachusetts. In October, Reeve was offered a part of Lewis on The Remains of the Day. It was one of the best she read, and she did not hesitate to take part. The film is considered an instant classic and nominated for eight Academy Awards.
In the early 1990s, Reeve was in three roles for television where he acted as a villain. The most important of these is Bump in the Night based on Isabelle Holland's novel where Reeve plays a child molester who kidnaps a boy in New York City. The film received fair and positive reviews. Reeve felt it was important for parents of young children to watch movies. This is a home video in the UK, but not in the US.
In another television film, Mortal Sins (1992), Reeve for the second time played a Catholic priest, this time hearing the confession of a serial killer in a role reminiscent of Montgomery Clift at Hitchcock's Confessing .
In 1994, Reeve was elected co-president of the Creative Coalition. The work of the organization was noticed nationally, and Reeve was asked by the Democrats to run for the United States Congress. He replied, "Run for Congress and lose his influence in Washington?" By this time, he has received scripts for
Shortly before his accident, Reeve played a crippled police officer at a special HBO Above Suspicion . He did research at a rehabilitation hospital in Van Nuys and learned how to use a wheelchair to get in and out of the car. Reeve was then offered a lead at Kidnapped , to be shot in Ireland. He was happy to go to Ireland, and he and Dana decided they would conceive their second child there. Reeve also plans to direct his first big screen film, a romantic comedy called Tell Me True. Not long after making this plan, the family went to Culpeper, Virginia, to join the equestrian competition.
Role rejected by Reeve
1978-1984
After the first Superman movie, Reeve realizes that Hollywood producer wants him to be a star of action. He then said, "I found most of the scripts of the genre were poorly constructed, and I feel the starring role can easily be played by anyone with a strong physical." In addition, he did not feel that he was right for the other films offered and rejected the lead role in American Gigolo , The World According to Garp , Splash , Fatal Attractions , Beautiful Women , Romancing the Stone , Lethal Weapons, and Body Heat . Katharine Hepburn recommends Reeve to David Lean for Fletcher Christian's role in The Bounty, the film version of the rebellion in Bounty , starring Anthony Hopkins. After considering it, Reeve decides that he will be picky, and Lean goes with second choice, Mel Gibson.
2001
Before the filming of Hannibal, Reeve was offered the part of Mason Verger's main antagonist, based on his work as a police officer using a wheelchair in Above Suspicion . Having not read the novel, Reeve was initially enthusiastic about the opportunity. However, after realizing that Verger was a crippled child rapist and a disabled face, Reeve withdrew from the project in disgust. The role was accepted by Gary Oldman's second choice.
Injuries
Reeve started his engagement in riding in 1985 after learning to ride for the film Anna Karenina . She was initially allergic to horses, so she took antihistamines. She was trained at Martha's Vineyard, and in 1989, she began holding events. His allergy soon disappeared. He suffered a foot injury as a teenager while skiing, and then broke three ribs in a driving accident he described, along with a foot injury, at The Tonight Show in March 1987.
Reeve bought a twelve-year-old American horseshoe named Eastern Express, dubbed "Buck" while filming the Village of the Damned. He was trained with Buck in 1994 and planned to conduct the Training Level event in 1995 and climbed to the Introduction in 1996. Although Reeve originally signed up to compete at an event in Vermont, his coach invited him to attend Commonwealth and Commonwealth Commonwealth Training. Final association at Commonwealth Park Equestrian Center in Culpeper, Virginia. Reeve finished in fourth place from 27 in dressage, before running her cross-country course. He was concerned about jumps 16 and 17 but paid little attention to the third jump, which was a three-foot three fence routine shaped like a 'W'.
On May 27, 1995, Reeve's horse made a rejection. Witnesses said that the horse began to jump the third fence and suddenly stopped. Reeve fell forward from the horse, holding on to the reins. Her hands somehow become tangled in the bridle, and the bridle and a little pulled from the horse. He landed his first head at the end of the fence, destroying the first and second bones. This cervical spine injury, which paralyzes it from the neck down, also stops her breathing. The paramedics arrived three minutes later and immediately took action to put air into his lungs. He was taken first to a local hospital, before being flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center. After that, he did not remember the accident. Because of this injury, Armand Assante replaces Reeve for the role of Alan Breck Stewart at Kidnapped .
Recovery
During the first few days after the accident, Reeve suffers from delirium, awakened sporadically and will say words to Dana like "Take the gun" and "They chase us." After five days, he gets full awareness, and his doctor explains to him that he has destroyed the first and second cervical vertebrae, which means his skull and spine are unconnected. His lungs are filled with fluid and are sucked by entering through the throat; this is said to be the most painful part of Reeve's recovery.
After considering the situation, believing that not only will he never walk again, but he may never move the body again, Reeve considers committing suicide. He spoke to Dana, "Maybe we should let me go." She cried saying, "I'll just say this once: I'll support whatever you want to do because this is your life, and your decision, but I want you to know that I will be with you for the long term, no matter what. You're still you and I love you. "Reeve never considered euthanasia a choice anymore.
Reeve was suffering in the ICU, especially when she was alone at night. The surgery approaching to reattach his skull to his spine (June 1995) "is frightening to contemplate... I already know that I have only fifty-fifty chances to survive the operation... Then, at a very bleak moment, the door opens and rushed a squat man with a blue scrub cap and a surgical gown and yellow glasses, speaking in a Russian accent. "The man announces that he is a proctologist and will do an anal examination on Reeve. It was Robin Williams, repeating his character from the movie Nine Months . Reeve writes: "For the first time since the accident, I laughed, my old friend has helped me know that I will be okay."
Dr. John A. Jane performs surgery to repair Reeve's neck vertebrae. He placed the cable under both lamina and used the bone from Reeve's hip to fit between the C1 and C2 vertebrae. He inserted a titanium pin and welded the cable with the vertebra, then drilled a hole in Reeve's skull and attached a cable to secure the skull to the spine.
Rehabilitation
On June 28, 1995, Reeve was taken to the Kessler Rehabilitation Center in West Orange, New Jersey. She was given several blood transfusions in the first few weeks because her hemoglobin and protein levels were very low. Many times his breathing tube will be cut off and he will be at the mercy of the nurse to enter and save his life.
At the Institute, one of his aides was a Jamaican named Glenn Miller, dubbed Juice, who helped him learn how to get into the bathroom and how to use a wheelchair powered, which was activated by blowing air through a straw. Miller and Reeve will watch the movie Cool Coolnings and joke about Reeve leading the sequel, Bobsled Two.
While in Israel, Reeve has shown a significant improvement in his condition. Previously, he had shown the ability to move the index finger of his left hand, then progressed further by regaining the ability to move his arms and legs to some extent.
Research in Israel
In July 2003, Christopher Reeve's ongoing frustration with stem cell research in the US led him to Israel, a country that at the time, he said, at the center of a spinal cord injury study. He was invited by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to seek the best treatment for his condition. During his visit, Reeve referred to the experience as a "privilege" and said, "Israel has a very proactive rehabilitation facility, excellent medical school and educational hospital, and first-class research infrastructure."
Throughout his intensive journey, Reeve visited Sheba Medical Center, ALYN Hospital, Weizmann Institute of Science, and Technion - Institute of Technology Israel, among many other places. After meeting dozens of Israeli patients who had undergone a remarkable recovery process and made remarkable progress, Reeve was amazed and described the feeling as "almost extraordinary". He explains, "Research is going faster in Israel than almost anywhere else I can think of.The decisions they make about stem cells, where they argue and decide that secular law must prevail over religious teachings, are something we need to study at United States of America. "
Reeve discussed his journey to Israel on CNN's Larry King Live while he was in Tel Aviv. When asked what Israel is doing in another country, Reeve replied, "They have a very progressive atmosphere here, they have socialized medicine so doctors and patients have no profit problems or try to get an insurance company to pay for the treatment." They also work together very well. They share their knowledge. It's a country of six million people the size of Long Island, and everyone works together incredibly. People in this country benefit from it. "
The Israelis were very receptive to Reeve's visit, calling him an inspiration to everyone and encouraging him to never despair.
Activism
Reeve leaves Kessler feeling inspired by other patients he meets. Because he is constantly covered by the media, he decides to use his name to focus on spinal cord injuries. In 1996, she appeared at the Academy Awards for a long applause and gave a speech about Hollywood's duty to make the film that faces the most important problem in the world directly. He also hosts the Paralympics in Atlanta and speaks at the Democratic National Convention. He traveled all over the country to make speeches, never need a teleprompter or a script. For this endeavor, he was placed on the cover of TIME on 26 August 1996. That same year, he narrated the HBO Movie Without Pity: A Film About Ability . The film won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Informational Special". He then acted in a small role in the movie A Step Towards Tomorrow .
Reeve was elected Chair of the American Paralysis Association and Deputy Chairman of the National Organization for Disability. He founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, now one of the world's leading spine research centers. He created the Christopher Reeve Foundation (now Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation) to speed up research through funding, and use grants to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. The Foundation to date has provided over $ 65 million for research, and over $ 8.5 million in grants of quality of life. The Foundation has funded a new technology called "Locomotor Training" that uses treadmills to mimic walking movements to help develop neural connections, on the effect of retelling the spinal cord how to send signals to the legs for walking. This technology has helped some lame patients walk again. Christopher Reeve, UC Irvine says, "in the years after the injury, Christopher did more to promote research on spinal cord injuries and other neurological disorders than anyone before or after".
Career after accident
In 1997, Reeve made his directorial debut with HBO Movie In Gloaming with Robert Sean Leonard, Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, Bridget Fonda, and David Strathairn. The film won four Cable Ace Awards and was nominated for five Emmy Awards including "Outstanding Director for a Miniseries or Special". Dana Reeve said, "There's a difference in his view, his health, his overall sense of well-being as he works on what he loves, which is creative work." In 1998, Reeve produced and starred in Rear Window, a remake of the movie Alfred Hitchcock in 1954. She was nominated for the Golden Globe and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance. On April 25, 1998, Random House published Reeve's autobiography, Still Me . This book spends eleven weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and Reeve won a Grammy Award for Best Words Album.
Throughout this time, Reeve kept his body physically as strong as possible by using a special exercise machine. She does this well because she believes that the nervous system can be regenerated through intense physical therapy, and because she wants her body to be strong enough to support itself if the drug is found. In 2000, he began regaining some motor functions, and was able to sense the hot and cold temperatures in his body. His doctor, John McDonald of the University of Washington at St. Louis, asked him if there was anything new with his recovery. Reeve then moves his left index finger at the command. "I do not think Dr. McDonald will be more surprised if I just walked on water," Reeve said in an interview. Also, during that year, he made guest appearances on the old PBS series Sesame Street .
In 2001, Reeve was elected to serve on the board of directors for TechHealth company, headquartered in Tampa, Florida, providing products and services for severely injured patients. While on board at TechHealth, Reeve participates in board meetings and advises companies on strategic directions. He refused compensation. He makes phone calls to disaster-stricken patients in the company to entertain them. Reeve served on the TechHealth board until his death in 2004. After his death, Dana Reeve took a board seat with TechHealth until his death in March 2006.
In 2002, Christopher and the Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, a federal government facility created through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of non-competing grants, opened in Short Hills, New Jersey. Its mission is to teach people who are paralyzed to live more independently. Reeve said, "When a person is first injured or when the disease develops into paralysis, people do not know where to turn, Dana and I want a facility that can provide support and information to people." With this new Center, we go to the beginning outstanding. "
Reeve lobbied for extending federal funding on embryonic stem cell research to include all existing embryonic stem cell lines and for open scientific investigations of research by self-government. President George W. Bush restricted federal funds to research only on the embryonic stem cell line created on or before August 9, 2001, the day when he announced his policy, and allocated about $ 100 million for it. Reeve originally called this "step in the right direction", admitting that he did not know about the existing line and would look further. He battled a boundary when scientists revealed that most of the old lines were contaminated by early research techniques that involved mixing human stem cells with mouse cells. In 2002, Reeve lobbied for the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001, which would allow the study of cell somatic cell transfers but would prohibit reproductive cloning. He argues that implantation of stem cells is not safe unless the stem cells contain the patient's own DNA and because the somatic cell nucleus transfer is done without fertilizing the egg, it can be completely regulated. In June 2004, Reeve gave a video message on behalf of the Genetic Policy Institute to the United Nations delegation to defend somatic cell nuclear transfers, which are being considered forbidden by world treaties. In the last days of his life, Reeve urged California voters to vote yes on Proposition 71, which would establish the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and hand out $ 3 billion in state funding for stem cell research. Proposition 71 was approved less than a month after Reeve's death.
On February 25, 2003, Reeve appeared on the television series Smallville as Dr. Swann in the episode "Rosetta". In that episode, Dr. Swann brings Clark Kent (Tom Welling) information about where he came from and how to use his powers for the good of mankind. The Reeve and Welling scenes feature musical cues from the 1978 Superman movie, composed by John Williams and composed by Mark Snow. At the end of this episode, Reeve and Welling appeared in a short space inviting people to support the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. "Rosetta" sets the assessment history for the WB network. The fan community met this episode with a warm welcome and praised it as one of the best series to date.
Reeve also appeared in the Smallville episode of "Legacy", where she met again with another stage actor John Glover, who plays Lionel Luthor on the show.
In April 2004, Random House published the second book Reeve, Nothing Is Impossible . The book is shorter than Still Me and focuses on Reeve's worldview and life experiences that help shape it.
Also, in 2004, Reeve directed the A & amp; E The Brooke Ellison Story . The film is based on the true story of Brooke Ellison, the first quadriplegic to graduate from Harvard University. Reeve is currently directing the animated film Hero Everyone . It was one of his dream projects and he died during the middle of production for the film. His wife, Dana helps and his son, Will, is a cast member in the film.
Health and death issues
Reeve has asthma and allergies since childhood. At the age of 16, he started suffering from alopecia areata, a condition that causes patches of hair to fall from the head of healthy hair. Generally, he can comb it and often the problem disappears for a long time. Later in life, his condition became more apparent after he was paralyzed, and his head was shaved.
More than once he had a severe reaction to the drug. At Kessler, he tried a drug called Sygen who theorized to help reduce damage to the spinal cord. The drug caused her to experience anaphylactic shock, and her 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 went up to the ceiling... I looked down and saw my body lying in bed, not moving, while everyone - there were 15 or 20 people. the doctors, the EMTs, the nurses - work on me, the noise and the noise become calmer as if someone gradually lowered the volume. "After receiving a large dose of epinephrine, he woke up and stabilized that night.
In 2002 and 2004, Reeve survived some serious infections that were believed to have originated from the spinal cord. He recovered from three that could be fatal.
In early October 2004, he was treated for infected blood pressure that caused sepsis, a complication he had experienced many times before. On October 4, he spoke at the Chicago Rehabilitation Institute on behalf of the Institution's work. This is his latest public appearance reported. On October 9, Reeve felt good and attended his son's hockey game, Will. That night, she had a heart attack after receiving antibiotics for the infection. He fell into a coma and was taken to North Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York. Eighteen hours later, on October 10, 2004, Reeve died at the age of 52. His doctor, John McDonald, believed a bad reaction to antibiotics caused Reeve's death.
His body was cremated at the Ferncliff Cemetery. A memorial service for Reeve was held at the Unitarian Church in Westport, Connecticut, attended by his wife.
Aftermath
His widow, Dana Reeve, led the Christopher Reeve Foundation after his death. Although not a smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer on August 9, 2005 and died at the age of 44 years on March 6, 2006.
Christopher and Dana Reeve survived by their son, William, and the children of Reeve from his relationship with Gae Exton: Matthew and Alexandra. Matthew and Alexandra now serve on the board of directors for Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. Christopher survived by his father and Dana by his father.
Movieography
References
Further reading
- CapedWonder Superman Imagery, created by Jim Bowers.
- Christopher Reeve Homepage
- Reeve, Christopher. Still Me , Random House, 1998. ISBNÃ, 0-679-45235-4
- Reeve, Christopher Nothing Impossible , Random House, 2004. ISBNÃ, 0-345-47073-7
External links
Media related to Christopher Reeve in Wikimedia Commons
- Christopher Reeve on IMDb
- Christopher Reeve in the TCM Film Database
- Christopher Reeve on the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- N.Y. Times Obituary for Christopher Reeve
- Christopher Reeve in the Search of the Mausoleum
- Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
- Christopher and Dana Parallels Parental Resources Reeve: Home
- Political Cartoons Respect Reeve
- Christopher Reeve reads from "Discover Yourself" and "The Secret Path"
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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