Christopher Reeve

Christopher Reeve was born in New York and began his theatrical career at the age of fifteen. After gaining a Bachelor Degree he came to England and eventually joined the Old Vic as a dialect coach. In Paris he spent time with Comedie Francaise and then returned to New York for Graduate studies at the Juiliard School. Since then he has appeared on Broadway with Katherine Hepburn in A Matter of Gravity and Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July. He has played in regional theatres throughout the USA in such roles as Hildy Johnson in The Front Page, Achilles in The Greeks, and Ned in Holiday. Other work includes Love’s Labours Lost, Private Lives, A Month in the Country, Threepenny Opera, Summer Smoke and The Cherry Orchard. As well as his role as Clark Kent/Superman in the three Superman Films (for which he won a British Academy Award) he has appeared in Sidney Lumet’s film Deathtrap opposite Michael Caine and in the Romance Somewhere in time. Most recently he has completed filming The Aviator for MGM, and madethe Film version of the Henry James Novel The Bostonians, with Vanessa Redgrave. Reeve is actively involved in the New York Theatre as a member of the Circle Repertory Company, as a councillor of Actors’ Equity and on the committee to save the theatres. He is an avid skier and yachtsman and is a professionally qualified pilot with over 2,000 hours in the air, having soloed the atlantic in his own plane and flown a glider to 31,000 feet. He and designer/agency executive Gae Exton live in New York and are the parents of four year old Matthew Exton Reeve and Newborn Daughter Alexandra.

Taken from the 1984 programme of The Aspern Papers

Christopher Reeve was born September 25, 1952, in New York City. At age four, his parents (journalist Barbara Johnson and writer/professor Franklin F.D. Reeve) divorced. His mother moved sons Christopher and Benjamin to Princeton, New Jersey, and married an investment banker a few years later. After graduating from high school, Reeve studied at Cornell University, while at the same time working as a professional actor. In his final year of Cornell, he was one of two students selected (Robin Williams was the other) to study at New York’s famous Juilliard School of Performing Arts, under the renowned John Houseman. Although Christopher is best known for his role as Superman (1978), a role which he played with both charisma and grace, his acting career spans a much larger ground. Paralyzed after a horse riding accident, he died suddenly at age 52, after several years of living and working with his severe disability.

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