AS Superman, Christopher Reeve was the indestructible Man of Steel who was faster than a speeding bullet and could leap tall buildings in a single bound.
But an accident while horse riding left the actor’s life hanging by a thread as surgeons prepared for radical surgery on his broken neck.
With the world’s media waiting outside the University of Virginia hospital in the US in May 1995, Chris-topher’s eldest children were ushered in to see their stricken.
The then 11-year-old Alexandra and 15-year-old Matthew, who both grew up in Britain with their model mum Gae Exton, were warned that he only had a 50/50 chance of survival.
But his new wife, singer Dana Morosini, had prepared his children as best she could for what they were about to face.
Ahead of the release of a documentary titled Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, Alexandra, 40, tells The Sun: “One of my strongest memories is Dana walking us into the intensive care unit for the first time.
“And she warned us ahead of time ‘your dad is going to be unconscious, he’s going to have wires all over his body, he needs a tube to breathe.
“‘But that’s still your dad under there. Look for his hand, find his hand, that’s the hand you know how to hold, and you can still hold it. Go in, hold his hand, and talk to him.’
“And that’s such an insightful thing as a parent, right? To say this is going to be scary and I’m not going to hide it from you, but I’m going to help you understand how to deal with it.
“It is true both for Dana and for our mum, that they wanted us to know the severity, so that it wasn’t a surprise.”
Few stories extol the endurance of the human spirit as profoundly as the Christopher Reeve one does.
The documentary, which is in cinemas on November 1, is certain to leave audiences wiping tears from their eyes as the actor and his family find hope in the most desperate times.
Reeve, who died 20 years ago this month after spending nine years paralysed from the neck down, was perfect for the role of Superman.
Tall, handsome and athletic, he was an ultra competitive adrenaline junkie who loved to push himself to the limits.
Born in New York, he was brought up by his journalist mother Barbara in Princeton, New Jersey after his parents divorced when he was aged four.
Both his parents remarried and Matthew describes his dad’s family as “f***ed up.”
Christopher’s father Franklin, a poet and professor of literature, never praised his son no matter what he achieved — even when he won a place at the elite Julliard drama school in New York in 1973.
Everyone thought I had just flushed my career down the toilet.
Other actors’ reaction to Christopher Reeve taking Superman role
On learning Christopher had been cast in Superman, his dad ordered champagne, wrongly thinking it was the George Bernard Shaw play Man and Superman.
When Franklin discovered his son was going to star in an adaptation of a DC comic book hero, he refused to speak to him.
Christopher’s actor friend William Hurt also warned him not to take the role, with most people expecting Superman to be a flop.
The actor said: “Everyone thought I had just flushed my career down the toilet.”
It was the first superhero movie and didn’t have the benefit of computer wizardry to make the audience believe the character Clark Kent could fly.
Filmmaker Matthew, 44, says: “He spent a year effectively, just him on wires doing most of the flying sequences.”
Household name
When Superman hit cinemas in 1978 it was a box-office smash, spending 13 weeks at No1 and the previously unknown Reeve became a household name.
While making the movie at Pinewood Studios, near London he fell for Brit Gae and she became pregnant with Matthew.
In the documentary, she says: “We just fell desperately in love. At the weekend, we spent our time doing what we weren’t supposed to be doing, like gliding.”
He was a fantastic father. And he was always there for us. I hope I am as half a good father as he was.
Star’s son Matthew
Before Matthew was born the actor had a relationship with fellow movie star Jane Seymour, but he went back to Gae, who was with him for almost ten years.
The day after his son was born, Christopher went skiing with pals in France and his filming schedule meant he wasn’t around a lot.
Father-of-two Matthew comments: “I don’t know if you’re supposed to ski because of accidents and you’re the main star, but I don’t fault him for it.
“He was a fantastic father. And he was always there for us. I hope I am as half a good father as he was.”
The siblings handed over their family home movies and didn’t get to see the end result until a week before the premiere.
Matthew, who had no editorial control during filming, says: “There was a shot from like an Easter or Halloween or us painting Christmas cookies, we’d instantly be transported back to the actual event in time.”
Alexandra and Matthew both spent a lot of their early years on film sets and remember the “fuss” around him.
Matthew recalls: “If we went to a playground, he’d be recognised and he’d be asked for autographs.”
Before his son Matthew was born the actor had a relationship with fellow movie star Jane Seymour[/caption]
Christopher and Dana at a charity gala dinner in 2003[/caption]
The accident while horse riding left the actor’s life hanging by a thread as surgeons prepared for radical surgery on his broken neck[/caption]
Gae, now 73, is tearful in the documentary when she is asked about her split from Christopher in 1987.
It resulted in Matthew and Alexandra staying with their mum in England, while their dad returned to the United States.
He went on to marry Dana in April 1992 and they had a son, Will, two months later.
Lawyer Alexandra, also a mum-of-two, believes it resulted in a beautiful “blended family” with Dana becoming a friend and Will a brother.
She explains: “You can understand that someone can have a great love and then they can separate.
“Then people change and there can be a second relationship. And rather than a broken family, have an artfully blended family, which is what we were lucky to have.”
It was Dana who saved their dad’s life after he was left on life support following the accident.
Christopher’s mum was in favour of letting him die, but Dana wanted to keep him breathing through the machine.
The actor also had doubts about going on, telling his wife ‘I’m going to be such a burden, maybe you should let me go.’
Alexandra reveals: “She said, ‘I’m going to say this one time. It’s your choice, because it’s your life. But you are still you, and I love you.’
“He’d been reminded that he was the same person, and he still had this family around him that loved him and wanted him and needed him, that he would still have value.
‘Dana saved me’
“Dana really was the one who helped him realise that. He said, ‘Dana saved me.’”
Suddenly, the strong father, who’d raced them down ski slopes and hit tennis balls at them as hard as possible, was confined to a wheelchair.
From that tragedy, though, they found comfort that he was still alive.
If the break in his neck had been one inch further to the left he would have died. Alexandra says: “He never blamed the horse. I went back to riding. He was very clear-eyed that it was a really s****y fluke.
“But it could have been a fluke in the other direction and he could have died on the spot.”
They got to spend more time sitting with their father and Matthew says: “For him and for us it all became about really being grateful for being together and for having each other and we spent a lot of time sitting in his office just talking.
“He always had sage advice and supportive words.”
Christopher also became the most high profile advocate for the paralysed community, raising millions for research and campaigning for better rights for disabled people.
He continued acting, starring in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window in 1998 and directed films.
Some of his nerves found new pathways so that he regained the movement of his feet and left hand.
Never giving up hope, Christopher kept believing that one day he would walk again. But in October 2004 an infection led to sepsis and after falling into a coma his fight for life came to an end, at the age of just 52.
In a cruel twist of fate, the Reeve family’s agony was not over.
Eighteen months later Dana, 44, died from lung cancer, leaving Will “all alone”, aged just 13.
Seeing their brother, who is now a 32-year-old sports journalist, say that was one of the hardest parts of watching the documentary for Matthew and Alexandra.
His sister comments: “He’s always said that he has this beautiful support network around him.”
But Will lost the “safety net of both parents far too young.”
All three children, who are very close, are directors of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.
The charitable organisation works to improve the quality of life of paralysed people and to fund groundbreaking ways to overcome spinal cord injuries.
Artificial intelligence should improve a treatment known as “epidural stimulation” where electrical current on the lower spinal cord stimulates the nerves.
Wheelchair-bound Christopher poses for fashion photographer Herb Ritts in 1996[/caption]
Gae, now 73, is tearful in the documentary when she is asked about her split from Christopher in 1987[/caption]
Matthew concludes: “It’s not always about walking or regaining mobility, it’s about improving other autonomous functions like body temperature regulation, bladder and bowel control, sexual function, all these things that make gargantuan differences in people’s lives.
“But with mobility, I think thanks to technology, the rate of acceleration of improvement will be a lot faster.”
Those incredible achievements mean that Christopher’s children watched the film with “extraordinary pride”.
Alexandra concludes: “You can experience loss and then you can celebrate the joy of watching them having summed up the beauty and power of a life well lived, both for Dad and for Dana.”
- Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is in cinemas from November 1.
SUCH A NICE, CARING ACTOR
CHRISTOPHER REEVE suffered his spinal injury on May 27, 1995, just four months before we met at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey.
I didn’t quite know what to expect. But it was certainly not a man so upbeat and cheerful.
He sat in his wheelchair, unable to move any part of his body but his head and talked for nearly two hours, with wife Dana alongside him.
“The words that made life possible after my injury were when Dana said, ‘But you are still you . . . and I love you,’ ” he recalled.
He was not tearful or sentimental. He wanted to get on with life and was interested in what was happening.
Actress Emma Thompson had just split from husband Kenneth Branagh and he wanted to know why, “because they seemed so well suited”.
He said he needed to talk about London. He had enjoyed such happy times while making the first two Superman films when living with model Gae Exton – with whom he had two children – in Chelsea.
Unusual star
I had been to their house in 1980 where Christopher had played his piano superbly.
In fact, he did everything well. He skied, he sailed, he piloted planes and had taken two solo trips across the Atlantic.
He was a most unusual film star in that he was interested in people other than himself, was highly educated and a genuinely nice and modest guy.
It was no surprise when he said: “I think I’ve heard from just about everyone I have ever met in my life. Even those who I never thought particularly cared about me.”
He showed me just a few of those letters from friends and fans, which totalled more than a quarter of a million.
Many recalled an incident in their lives with which Christopher had helped them.
“I can’t remember most of those incidents,” he said. “But I am grateful for every remark.”
His mental recovery had been exceptional.
“Will-power is everything,” he said. “Breathing is willpower, getting out of depression is willpower and staying alive is willpower.”
That determination kept him alive for nine more years as a brave advocate for those with spinal injuries.
He lost his battle on October 10, 2004, aged 52.
Widow Dana, an actress and singer, died just two years later of cancer, aged 44.
Never have I been sadder at the death of any actor and his wife.
- By Garth Pearce, First British journalist to interview Christopher Reeve after his accident
