Secret life of Superman CHRISTOPHER REEVE revealed in new documentary, including never-before-seen family footage

On May 27, 1995, actor Christopher Reeve was riding a horse during a competition in Virginia when, during a routine three-foot-high jump, the horse suddenly stopped, throwing the 42-year-old Hollywood star years out of the saddle. Reeve’s head hit the ground, fracturing the first and second vertebrae in his neck, paralyzing him from the shoulders down. A sixteenth of an inch to the left and he would have been killed instantly. Same thing on the right and he would have just had a concussion.

You might think you know the story: the sad irony of the actor who played Superman, the Man of Steel, lying in a Virginia hospital, unable to breathe without a ventilator.

Reeve photographed by Herb Ritts in 1996, a year after the accident

But after? This is where the new documentary Reeve Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story begin. The film’s directors, Peter Ettedgui and Ian Bonhôte, chronicle Reeve’s remarkable life through the two events that defined him: becoming the star of Supermanthe original superhero film, and loses feeling in 90% of his body.

Their film includes never-before-seen home movie footage and the first extended interviews with Reeve’s three children. The relationship between the Hollywood star and his wife Dana Morosini is at the heart of this story. They met in 1987 at a theater festival and video clips reveal their chemistry: they made each other laugh and clearly loved each other madly. They married in 1992 and soon had their son Will (Reeve already had two children, Matthew and Alexandra, from a previous relationship).

It was only three years after their marriage that Reeve had his riding accident. He was on life support and his mother suggested turning it off. Dana resisted. When he finally opened his eyes, his first words to her were: “Maybe we should let me go.” She replied, “You’re still you and I love you.” He credited that one sentence with keeping him alive.

“Dana’s love story and role show how disability affects not just one person, but everyone around them,” Bonhôte points out as we sit in a small office in London. “Christopher needed 24-hour care. She raised their child, his other two children and took care of him. It’s just pure love.

“You’ll believe a man can fly”: his iconic role in the 1978 blockbuster Superman

The film chronicles Reeve’s troubled childhood, fluctuating career and powerful activism, interviewing colleagues and friends Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels and Susan Sarandon and showing VHS tapes of the Reeve family. It’s both more uplifting and more heartbreaking than you can imagine.

Born into a family of blue-blooded Americans, Reeve’s mother Barbara was descended from pilgrims on the Mayflower while his father Franklin’s line included French aristocrats and wealthy entrepreneurs. His grandfather, Colonel Richard Henry Reeve, was CEO of insurance giant Prudential for more than 25 years.

His parents separated acrimoniously when he was four. Young Reeve found that success impressed them, so he excelled as a student and in sports. Aged 24, he was working in Broadway theaters and daytime soap operas when his agent sent his photo to Superman director Richard Donner and producer Ilya Salkind, who had been trying to play the role for three years. They agreed to see him and he based his audition on Cary Grant – sweet and vulnerable. “I felt that the new Superman should reflect this contemporary masculine image,” he said.

Perhaps because of his father’s disdain for acting — the two weren’t even speaking at the time of his accident — Reeve had a deep connection with his best friend, actor Robin Williams. They had met as drama students at the Juilliard School and became roommates, sleeping on bunk beds; Reeve bought food for Williams when her student loan was late.

After the accident, Williams supported Reeve emotionally and financially. As the paralyzed actor lay in hospital, the comedian disguised himself as a Russian doctor and insisted he was there to perform an anal exam. It was the first time Reeve laughed after the fall.

One night, after Reeve returned home, a power outage cut off his fan and he almost died. The Reeve family was short of money and medical insurance did not cover a generator, but Williams provided one, along with a specially converted van that would transport Reeve with all the necessary equipment and care team.

At one point in the film, Glenn Close says the two were so close that Williams might not have committed suicide in 2014 if Reeve had been alive. Reeve’s fame sometimes defeated him and ruined many relationships, but his friendship with Williams never failed.

In the film, Reeve admits that, like his father, he wasn’t there enough for his own children before the fall. After the accident, he engaged on a more personal level: “I needed to break my neck to learn certain things. »

The family needed money, with insurance covering only two-thirds of the $400,000 annual care bills. So Reeve worked hard, making three films, including the award-winning film. Into the Gloamingand starring in a handful of films, including a 1998 remake of Rear windowwhich he also produced.

“He had to be on set (to Rear window) at 6:30 a.m.,” explains Bonhôte. “He had to wake up three hours early to wash, dress and undergo physiotherapy. Every day of filming, he was the first to arrive and the last to leave. He only slept two or three hours, but never complained.

He appeared at the 1996 Oscars in a wheelchair to a standing ovation as part of his campaign to change attitudes and increase funding for disability, then established the Christopher Reeve Foundation which supported remarkable advances. He traveled the world, pushing for research or legislation that would offer a chance to walk again. Today, the Foundation offers a helpline in the United States for people suffering from paralysis.

In November 2003, Reeve gave a hopeful interview to The New Yorker. That spring, an experimental electrical stimulation device was implanted in his diaphragm so he could breathe without a ventilator. He was starting to get some movement back in his arms and legs. But Reeve was impatient. “I don’t want to get out of this wheelchair at 75,” he said. “I’m 51 and I’d like to come out very soon.”

Less than a year later, he was being treated for an infected bedsore, and on October 10, he was given an antibiotic to treat it. That night, he suffered a cardiac arrest and then fell into a coma. He died 18 hours later. “His body shut down – he pushed it too hard,” Ettedgui says. “He could have lasted longer if he had done less. But that’s not who he was.

The film’s final emotional wallop comes as Dana and Will mourn him. About a year after his death, Dana sang on stage at a fundraiser for the foundation. Soon after, she developed an unusual cough, sought medical attention and, although she was a non-smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died on March 6, 2006, aged 44, leaving 13-year-old Will an orphan. The family came together – Reeve’s adult children, Alexandra and Matthew, helped raise their half-brother Will, who became the anchor of the ABC show. Hello America. Matthew is now a producer and Alexandra the CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. They are all on the board of directors of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

It’s a sad but heroic story. As Reeve himself says in the film: “What is a hero? I said it was someone who commits a courageous act without considering the consequences. Now it’s completely different. A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure despite insurmountable odds.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story will be in theaters from November 1