Christopher Reeve, Superman (1952 - 2004)

Christopher Reeve, the star of the "Superman" movies whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died Sunday of heart failure. He was 52.

Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home on Sunday night. His family was at his side at the time of death. Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a pressure wound, a common complication for people living with paralysis.  In the past week, the wound had become severely infected, resulting in a serious systemic infection.

Reeve broke his neck at the age of 42 in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Va, USA. Enduring months of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer and longer periods without a respirator, Reeve emerged to lobby Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury and to move an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about social issues.

Although he reprised the role four times, Reeve often worried about being typecast as an action hero. According to Reeve, "Look, I´ve flown, I´ve become evil, loved, stopped and turned the world backward, I´ve faced my peers,

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I´ve befriended children and small animals. What else is there left for Superman to do that hasn´t been done?"

Though he owed his fame to the Superman Movies (Superman, II, III, IV), Reeve made a concerted effort to, as he often put it, "escape the (Superman's) cape".  He played an embittered, crippled Vietnam veteran in the 1980 Broadway play "Fifth of July", a lovestruck time-traveler in the 1980 movie "Somewhere in Time", and an aspiring playwright in the 1982 suspense thriller "Deathtrap".

More recent films included John Carpenter´s "Village of the Damned," and the HBO movies "Above Suspicion" and "In the Gloaming," which he directed. Among his other film credits are "The Remains of the Day," "The Aviator," and "Morning Glory."

The man who was Superman has written a never-to-be-forgotten story of his life, at once moving, funny and enthralling. Listen to Christopher Reeve read his remarkable memoir in the audiobook version of Still Me.  More books on Christopher Reeve.