Christopher Reeve‘s legacy on the big screen is of convincing the world a man could fly. As the first ever big screen Superman, he defined DC’s most iconic hero for generations. But his legacy away from the razzle-dazzle of film sets is arguably even more impressive, showing the world how to make the most out of a life changed forever by one, unpredictable moment of tragedy.
In May 1995, Reeve — a very experienced equestrian — fell from his horse when the animal refused a jump. He collided with a fence, shattering two vertebrae in his neck and damaging his spinal cord. For the rest of his life, he was paralysed from the neck down. Reeve died in 2004 at the age of just 52.
A decade after his death, Reeve’s remarkable life is at the centre of the new documentary film Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. It’s a celebration of Reeve’s incredible impact on the big screen, but also the way he continued to inspire in the later part of his life. Some of his most impressive achievements came years after he made us all believe a man could fly.
Learning to Breathe
In the immediate aftermath of his accident, Reeve was reliant on a ventilator for all of his breathing. He was determined, however, to breathe on his own. Within a very short period of time, he was able to undergo physical therapy and, through regular exercises, learned to breathe for around 90 minutes at a time without the help of his machine.
By 2003, he was able to breathe unaided for hours at a time thanks to some experimental surgery. He told ABC News: “The more and more that you can get some systems back … like the ability to breathe as normal … just makes you feel that you’re moving forward.”
Read more: Christopher Reeve Said 7 Words From His Wife Saved His Life After He Was Paralyzed (HuffPost, 2 min read)
In his later years, Reeve was also able to establish limited movement in some of his extremities, as well as sensations of temperature across most of his body. This was a result of his commitment to using specialised exercise apparatus. “He did what everybody thought was not possible,” said doctor John W. McDonald in a 2002 interview with the New York Times. “He had the highest level of injury and no recovery for five years. Now he’s improving every day.”
Big Oscars Cameo
Just 10 months after his accident left him close to death, Reeve made his big return to Hollywood at the 68th Academy Awards in March 1996. He received an enormous standing ovation from the assembled A-listers and introduced a personally chosen montage of clips from movies championing social issues.
“What you probably don’t know is that I left New York last September and I just arrived here this morning,” said Reeve, to laughter and further applause. “And I’m glad I did because I wouldn’t have missed this kind of welcome for the world, thank you.”
Time Magazine
In the wake of his appearance at the Oscars, Reeve became a more visible presence in the world once again and did crucial work to raise awareness of spinal cord injuries. He spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 1996 and then served as a very prominent host at the Paralympics in Atlanta that year. All of this led to Time Magazine giving him a cover profile under the headline “Super Man”.
Read more: How Christopher Reeve’s children look after each other since father’s death (The Independent)
In the piece, he spoke of his determination to push the scientific community closer to a cure for injuries like his own. He said: “When John Kennedy promised that by the end of the 1960s we would put a man on the moon, everybody, including the scientists, shook their heads in dismay. But we did it. We can cure spinal cord injuries too, if there’s the will. What was possible in outer space is possible in inner space.”
Back to Hollywood
Alongside his disability activism, Reeve also sought to resume his career in the world of film and TV. He won an Emmy nomination for TV movie In the Gloaming — his directorial debut. The movie, featuring stars including Glenn Close and Whoopi Goldberg, tells the story of a gay man who tries to reconnect with his family as he experiences the horrifying effects of AIDS.
In 1998, Reeve returned in front of the camera as the lead of Alfred Hitchcock remake Rear Window. He plays a quadriplegic man who witnesses a horrific crime while spying on his neighbours from his window. Reeve won a SAG Award for his performance.
Read more: An angry Christopher Reeve slammed Marlon Brando over Superman role (Yahoo Entertainment)
In subsequent years, Reeve made a limited number of screen appearances, including a memorable series of cameos in the Superman TV series Smallville — a nod to his own past as the character. His 2003 episode Rosetta was praised as one of the show’s best ever and broke ratings records.
Christopher Reeve Foundation
In 1999, Reeve consolidated his work with the American Paralysis Association and another foundation into a wider organisation, which is now known as The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. The foundation funds extensive research into potential cures and treatments for spinal cord injuries, as well as issuing grants to help disabled people lead better and fuller lives.
The University of California, Irvine said in 2006: “In the years following his injury, Christopher did more to promote research on spinal cord injury and other neurological disorders than any other person before or since.”
The work of the foundation continues to this day and, according to its official website, it has donated more than $140m (£108m) to spinal cord research, while more than $44m (£34m) has gone to improving the lives of disabled people through the foundation’s Quality of Life Grants Program.
Proposition 71
In the final years of his life, Reeve lobbied the US government extensively to improve funding for stem cell research. Around the time of his death in 2004, Reeve was specifically calling for voters in California to endorse Proposition 71 — a policy that would create a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to advance stem cell research in the state.
Read more: Christopher Reeve’s Kids Reveal Emotional First Words They Told Dad the First Time They Saw Him Paralyzed (People, 3 min read)
The policy was opposed by the majority of Republican figures, though it earned a key endorsement from another Hollywood luminary in Arnold Schwarzenegger — at the time Governor of California on a Republican platform. Less than a month after Reeve’s death, Proposition 71 got the green light.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is in UK cinemas from 1 November.
