Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, activist, director, and author. He amassed several stage and screen credits in his 34-year career, including playing the title character in the Superman film series. 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.
Born in New York City and raised in Princeton, New Jersey, Reeve discovered a passion for acting and theater at the age of nine. He studied at Cornell University and the Juilliard School, making his Broadway debut in 1976. His breakthrough came with playing the title character in Superman and its three sequels. Afterwards, Reeve turned down multiple roles in big-budget movies, focusing instead on independent films and plays with complex characters. He appeared in critically successful films such as Somewhere in Time, Deathtrap, The Bostonians, Street Smart, and The Remains of the Day, and in the plays Fifth of July on Broadway and The Aspern Papers in London's West End.
Beginning in the 1980s, Reeve was an activist for environmental and human-rights causes and for artistic freedom of expression. In 1995, Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He used a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life. After his accident, he lobbied for spinal injury research, including human embryonic stem cell research, and for better insurance coverage for people with disabilities. His advocacy work included leading the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and co-founding the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
Reeve later directed In the Gloaming, acted in a television remake of Rear Window, and made two appearances in the Superman-themed television series Smallville. He also wrote two autobiographical books: Still Me and Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life. He died in 2004 from cardiac arrest at a hospital near his home in Westchester County, New York.
Early life and education
Reeve was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City, to Barbara Pitney Lamb, an associate editor of Town Topics, and Franklin D'Olier Reeve, a teacher, novelist, poet, and scholar. Many of his ancestors had been in America since the early 17th century, some having been aboard the Mayflower. Through his mother, he was a 12th generation descendant of William Bradford, a pilgrim and five-time Governor of Plymouth Colony. Other ancestors of Reeve came from the French aristocracy. His maternal great-grandfather, Mahlon Pitney, was an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1913 to 1922. For over 25 years his paternal great-grandfather, Franklin D'Olier, was CEO of the Prudential Insurance Company. His grand-uncle, Franklin D'Olier Jr., was married to Margaret Winifred Lee, the maternal aunt of First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.Franklin and Barbara divorced in 1956, 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. Reeve's parents both remarried; he had five half-siblings and several step-siblings. Reeve excelled academically, athletically, and onstage; he was on the honor roll and played soccer, baseball, tennis, and hockey. He also played the piano and sang in the choir as a soprano.
Reeve had a difficult relationship with his father, Franklin. He wrote in 1998 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. Between 1988 and 1995 the two barely spoke to each other, but they reconciled after Reeve's paralyzing accident.
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. His interest was solidified when at age 15, he spent a summer as an apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
After graduating from PDS in June 1970, Reeve acted in plays in Boothbay, Maine. He planned to go to New York City to find a career in theater. Ultimately, however, at the advice of his mother, he applied for college. He was accepted into Princeton University, Columbia University, Brown University, Cornell University, Northwestern University, and Carnegie Mellon University. Reeve said he chose Cornell primarily because it was distant from New York City and this would help him avoid the temptation of working as an actor immediately versus finishing college, as he had promised his mother and stepfather. Reeve joined the theater department in Cornell and played Pozzo in Waiting for Godot, Segismundo in Life Is a Dream, Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Polixenes in The Winter's Tale.
Late in his first year, Reeve received a letter from Stark Hesseltine, a high-powered New York City agent who had discovered Robert Redford and who represented actors such as Richard Chamberlain, Michael Douglas, and Susan Sarandon. Hesseltine had seen Reeve in A Month in the Country and wanted to represent him. Reeve was excited and kept re-reading the letter to make sure of what it said. Reeve was impatient with school and eager to get on with his career. The two met, but Reeve was surprised to find Hesseltine strongly supported his promise to his mother and stepfather to complete college. They decided instead of dropping out of school, Reeve would come to New York once a month to meet casting agents and producers to find work for the summer vacation.
Reeve received favorable responses to his introductions and auditions arranged by Hesseltine but had to forgo several desirable opportunities because they began before school ended. In the summer, he toured in a production of Forty Carats with Eleanor Parker. The next year, Reeve received a full summer contract with the San Diego Shakespeare Festival, with roles as Edward IV in Richard III, Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Dumaine in Love's Labour's Lost at the Old Globe Theatre.
Before his third year of college, Reeve took a three-month leave of absence. He traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, and saw theatrical productions throughout the United Kingdom. He was inspired by the actors there, and often had conversations with them in bars after their performances. He helped actors at The Old Vic with their American accents by reading the newspaper aloud for them. He then flew to Paris to study the French theater. Reeve spoke fluent French, having studied it from the third grade through his first year in Cornell. While there he spoke only French to immerse himself in French culture, and watched many performances.
After returning from Europe, Reeve chose to focus solely on acting, although Cornell had several general education requirements for graduation he had yet to complete. He managed to convince theater director John Clancy and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as a theater major, he would achieve more at Juilliard in New York City than at Cornell. They agreed his first year at Juilliard would be counted as his senior year at Cornell.
In 1973, approximately 2,000 students auditioned for 20 places in the freshman class at Juilliard. Reeve's audition was in front of 10 faculty members, including John Houseman, who had just won an Academy Award for The Paper Chase. Reeve and Robin Williams were the only students selected for Juilliard's Advanced Program. They had several classes together in which they were the only students. In their dialects class with Edith Skinner, Williams had no trouble mastering all dialects naturally, whereas Reeve was more meticulous about it. Williams and Reeve developed a close friendship. Reeve was a godfather to Williams' eldest son Zachary.
In a meeting with Houseman, Reeve was told, "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." Houseman then offered him the chance to leave school and join the Acting Company, among performers such as Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, and David Ogden Stiers. Reeve declined, as he had not yet received his bachelor's degree.
In early 1974, Reeve and other Juilliard students toured the New York City junior high school system and performed The Love Cure. In one performance, Reeve, who played the hero, drew his sword out too high and accidentally destroyed a row of lights above him. The students applauded and cheered. Reeve later said this was the greatest ovation of his career. After completing his first year at Juilliard, Reeve graduated from Cornell in the Class of 1974 as a double major in English and music theory.
Career
Early work
In 1974, Reeve auditioned for the soap opera Love of Life to pay tuition fees at Juilliard. Initially, he was promised a schedule that would not interfere with his studies. However, his character quickly gained popularity, leading to increased screen time. When Reeve reminded the producers of their agreement, they responded that it wasn't set in writing. The following year, Reeve had to leave Juilliard to fulfill his contract with CBS. He received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard in 1997.In between filming for the soap opera, Reeve took acting classes at the HB Studio and appeared in an Off-off-Broadway production of Berchtesgaden at the Theater for the New City. The play was directed by Barbara Loden, who became Reeve's mentor. She coached him not to play "on the nose", and he often followed that advice over the years. After that, he starred in a limited run of Berkeley Square at the Manhattan Theatre Club.
In late 1975, Reeve auditioned for the Broadway play A Matter of Gravity. Katharine Hepburn watched his audition and cast him as her character's grandson. With Hepburn's influence over CBS, Reeve worked out the schedules of the soap opera and the play so he would be able to do both. Because of his busy schedule, he ate candy bars and drank coffee in place of meals and experienced exhaustion and malnutrition. At one of the performances, Reeve entered the stage, said his first line, and then promptly fainted. Hepburn turned to the audience and said, "This boy's a goddamn fool. He doesn't eat enough red meat." The understudy finished the play for Reeve, and a doctor treated him. The doctor advised Reeve to eat a healthier diet. He stayed with the play for nine months and was given favorable reviews.
Reeve and Hepburn became very close. Some gossip columns rumored a romance between the two. Reeve said, "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." She told him, "You're going to be a big star, Christopher, and support me in my old age." He replied, "I can't wait long." Reeve said his father, who was a professor of literature and came to many of the performances, was the man who most captivated Hepburn. When the play moved to Los Angeles in June 1976, Reeve—to Hepburn's disappointment—dropped out. They stayed in touch for years after the play's run. Reeve later regretted not staying closer and just sending messages back and forth.
Reeve's first role in a Hollywood film was a small part as a junior officer in the 1978 naval submarine disaster movie Gray Lady Down, starring Charlton Heston. He then acted in the play My Life at the Circle Repertory Company with friend William Hurt.