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Slideshow: `Superman' Star Christopher Reeve Dies
`Superman' Star Christopher Reeve Dies
(AP Video)
Reeve, 52, went into a coma on Saturday when he suffered a heart attack during treatment for an infected pressure wound and died in Northern Westchester Hospital on Sunday afternoon without regaining consciousness, publicist Wesley Combs said.
Reeve's wife, Dana, issued a statement thanking "the millions of fans around the world who have supported and loved my husband over the years."
Reeve, confined to a wheelchair since his horseback riding accident in 1995, had in recent years used his celebrity status to mobilize funds and support for research into the treatment of spinal cord injuries, including the controversial stem cell research that has become an issue in the U.S. presidential election.
Reeve's family asked that donations be made in his honor to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, formed in 1999 to boost collaboration between experts working on the problem and to encourage new approaches.
An accomplished rider who owned several horses, Reeve suffered multiple injuries including two shattered neck vertebrae when he was thrown from his horse at an equestrian event in Commonwealth Park in Virginia.
Doctors initially predicted he would never have any feeling or movement below his head. But his foundation's Web site, www.ChristopherReeve.org, said he had experienced a degree of recovery that his doctors considered "remarkable."
Reeve was a strong supporter of the research using human stem cells, which his foundation described as having "enormous therapeutic utility." Whether federal funds should be spent on such research is a issue dividing President Bush (news - web sites), who has limited such research, and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) of Massachusetts, who supports expanded efforts.
'CURE AND HOPE'
Dr. Wise Young of Rutgers University, who researches spinal cord injuries and treated Reeve, said he was "heartbroken."
"I think more than anything else he taught me the use of two four letter words -- cure and hope," Young said on NBC's "Today" show.
Young said he had been set to see Reeve on Sunday, adding that his former patient would have been sad to miss out on the upcoming election and had been very interested that his bill, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act, was moving forward in the U.S. Congress, seeking $300 million for spinal cord research.
"We will have a cure, I think that will be Christopher's legacy. We have to work very hard to make this happen," Young said.
Born on Sept. 25, 1952, in New York City, Reeve attended the city's Juilliard School and graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
He began his acting career in summer stock and appeared on the television soap opera "Love of Life" while still in college.
Reeve debuted on Broadway in "A Matter of Gravity" in 1976, playing Katharine Hepburn (news)'s grandson, and later starred in Lanford Wilson's "Fifth of July," in which he portrayed embittered Kenneth Talley, a gay, crippled Vietnam War vet.
Despite his theater credentials and work on television, Reeve is best known as the hero of the "Superman" films.
He was a virtual unknown when he was chosen from 200 candidates to become the big screen's incarnation of 1978's "Superman," in which he played fumbling Clark Kent who at will turns into the flying superhero.
In 1993 he appeared in the Merchant and Ivory hit "The Remains of the Day," which was filmed in the English countryside.
But even there, it was hard to shrug off his super hero image.
"It is very strange to walk into the House and Hound, some pub from the 15th century in the middle of Wilshire someplace, then -- 'Aye, it's Superman, here he comes!"' he said in an 1993 interview on CNN.
Earlier movies included "Gray Lady Down," "Somewhere in Time," "Switching Channels," "The Bostonians" and "Deathtrap."
Reeve and his wife had one son, Will, 12, and he had two children from a previous relationship -- Matthew, 25, and Alexandra, 21.
You will be missed rest in peace
