Biography of Christopher Reeve(超人克里斯托弗·里夫传记英文版)

BiographyChristopher ReeveSeptember 25, 1952 - October 10, 2004 Christopher Reeve was born September 25, 1952, in New York City. When he was four, his parents (journalist Barbara Johnson and writer/professor Franklin Reeve) divorced. His mother moved with sons Christopher and Benjamin to Princeton, New Jersey, and married an investment banker a few years later. After the divorce, the boys also spent substantial visitation time with their father, who writing under the name F. D. Reeve, is a noted novelist, poet, and scholar of Russian literature. While with him, Chris and Ben were exposed to a stimulating intellectual environment that included Sunday dinners with F. D. Reeves friends: Robert Frost, Robert Penn Warren, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Meanwhile, Reeves stepfather, Tristam Johnson, generously paid tuition for the boys to attend the exclusive and academically challenging Princeton Day School. Chris was extraordinary, his mother recalled to an Asbury Park Press reporter. He was endowed with a great many extraordinary talents. He had a wonderful mind, wide-ranging interests, a willingness to take risks. He was an athlete and scholar with a passion for acting, which began very, very early. Reeve traced his love of acting back to the early years of his childhood when he and his younger brother would climb inside cardboard grocery cartons and pretend they were pirate ships. To us they became pirate ships simply because we said they were Reeve said. The ability to retain at least some of this childhood innocence is essential to fine acting. By age eight, he had appeared in school plays, become interested in music, and was taking piano lessons. At age nine, he was picked to be in a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta Yeoman of the Guard for Princetons professional theater, the McCarter Theatre. While I was growing up, Reeve recalls, I never once asked myself, Who am I? or What am I doing? Right from the beginning, the theater was like home to me. It seemed to be what I did best. I never doubted that I belonged in it. Those he worked with were convinced as well. Milton Lyon, the Artistic Director of the McCarter Theatre who did Finians Rainbow and South Pacific with Reeve, told him when he was about 14 years old: Chris, you better decide what you want, because youre going to get it. At age 15, Reeve got a summer apprenticeship at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts. By age 16, he had an agent. At Princeton Day School, Reeve participated in various school activities including being President of the Drama Club and Student Director of The Glee Club. Reeve later said about those years, I loved the theater so much. But I began to feel guility. I thought I wasnt giving enough time to school. So I joined as many school clubs and teams as I could. I played on the ice hockey team. I was in the school orchestra. I even sang with a choral group! After graduating from high school, Reeve toured the country as Celeste Holms leading man in The Irregular Verb to Love, then went on to college at Cornell, although he continued to work simultaneously as a professional actor, thanks to an understanding agent whod set up auditions and meetings around my class schedule. Reeve had a special love for ice hockey, a sport that he played from the peewee level through high school where he was Princeton Days number one goalie for all four years. He thought of pursuing the sport as a career until his freshman tryout at Cornell brought a reality check. The varsity team there was the NCAA champion and Ken Dryden was the goalie. Reeve said, On the first day of practice, I noticed that there were only two Americans and the rest were Canadians. I was in the goal, and the whole team lined up on the blue line, each with a puck, and they were supposed to take turns going from left to right taking a slapshot. They started to get out of sequence, and sometimes two or three were coming at me, faster than Id ever seen a puck come at me in my entire lifetime. I got absolutely shelled, and I thought, You know, Im probably going to end up with no teeth, and so I retreated to the safety of the theatre department. That was the end of my hockey career. In retrospect, I made the right choice. And I still have all my teeth. As part of his studies at Cornell University, where he majored in Music Theory and English, Reeve spent time studying theater in Britain and France. Of his work in England, where he obtained employment as a dogsbody at Londons prestigious Old Vic theater, Reeve said: I was a glorified errand boy, but it was a very exciting time there. I helped by teaching the British actors to speak with an American accent. Then I went to Paris to work with the Comedie Francaise. By the time of his graduation from college, Reeve had already performed in such widely respected theaters as the Boothbay (Maine) Playhouse, the Williamstown Theatre, the San Diego Shakespeare Festival, and the Loeb Drama Center. His roles included Victor in Private Lives, Aeneas in Troilus and Cressida, Beliaev in A Month In The Country, and Macheath in Threepenny Opera. In lieu of his final year at Cornell, Reeve was one of two students accepted to advanced standing (Robin Williams was the other) at New Yorks famous Juilliard School of Performing Arts. Here he studied under the renowned John Houseman. When it became financially difficult for his stepfather to continue to pay for Reeves education, he took the role of Ben Harper in the long-running television dramatic serial Love of Life. While Reeve continued his acting lessons and performed in the soap opera, he found time to audition for and win a coveted role in A Matter of Gravity, a new play slated for Broadway starring Katharine Hepburn in 1976. By this time, the demands of his career had become so great that Reeve was forced to give up his final year at Juilliard, but Reeve said of working with Hepburn: In Gravity, I had the privilege of spending nine months working with one of the masters of the craft. The two became very close and stayed in touch until Hepburns death in 2003. In 1976, Reeve went to Los Angeles and got a small part in Gray Lady Down, a submarine adventure film. Back in New York City, he was in the off-broadway production My Life. During that production, Reeve auditioned and successfully screen tested for the 1978 movie Superman. Reeves mother later said: He took the Superman role, quite frankly, as a career move. He felt, even with the risks it entailed, that it would mean he would get a greater recognition and he could bypass the cattle call. Reeve portrayed Superman as somebody that, you know, you can invite home for dinner. someone you could introduce your parents to. He made Superman believable by playing him as a hero with brains and a heart. Reeve said, What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely. Reeve told Gene Siskel: The key word for me on him (Superman) is inspiration. He is a leader by inspiration. He sets an example. Its quite important that people realize that I dont see him as a glad-handing show-off, a one-man vigilante force who rights every wrong. For playing Clark Kent, Reeve reasoned that there must be some difference stylistically between Clark and Superman. Otherwise you just have a pair of glasses standing in for a character, and I dont think thats enough for a modern audience. In 1986, Reeve added that Superman is nothing more than a popular retelling of the Christ story, or Greek mythology. Its an archetype, watered down and made in vivid colors for twelve-year-olds mentality. Its pop mythology, which extends to the actor, then seeps over to a demand that that actor reflect the needs of the worshipers. The worship doesnt only go on in the temples - it goes on in the streets, and restaurants, in magazines. But, you know, Im from New Jersey, Im not from Olympus or Krypton, so back off cause I cant take the responsibility. The 18 months of shooting for that movie took place mostly in England, where Reeve met and began a relationship with modeling executive Gae Exton. This union produced two children, Matthew Exton born on December 20, 1979 and Alexandra Ali Exton born in 1983. After the huge success of 1978s Superman: The Movie, people invariably referred to Reeve as Superman. Reeve downplayed the disdain he felt for that comment: As far as Im concerned there is Superman and then theres Christopher Reeve, and Im not interested in having them merge. What Im interested in is acting. Ive been working since I was fourteen; I studied at Juilliard. I wasnt Superman before and I dont plan to be Superman after. He was a very hot young star at that point and was offered the lead in several major films including American Gigolo and Body Heat. Instead Reeve chose for his next project the very different Somewhere in Time. While promoting the movie at the time of its release, Reeve said, Somewhere In Time, while it errs on the side of pretentiousness, is an absolutely honest attempt to create an old-fashioned romance. Its based on love rather than on sex or X-rated bedroom scenes. I dont know how to talk about a love story without getting all gooey about it, but the script excited me because of the situation of the leading character. His problem struck me as that of many people. Theyve got everything going for them, or so they say, except for a real commitment, a real love. In 1980, Reeve spent the summer doing theater in Williamstown. He worked on Superman II and the broadway production of Fifth of July. In 1987 Christopher Reeve and Gae Exton parted unmarried, but keeping joint custody of the two children - not an easy arrangement with the Atlantic Ocean between the two parents. During that summer in Williamstown, Reeve met his soul mate, Dana Morosini, where she was performing in a cabaret. It was love at first sight for Reeve but Dana was not impressed. Her friend, Bonnie Monte, recalled: Hes going to be an arrogant, stuck-up movie star idiot, and I dont want anything to do with him, Dana said. Reeve had to fight for her, and he did. In four months they were living together, and in 1992 they were married and had a son, William Will Elliot born on June 7, 1992. Reeve went on to appear in a total of 17 feature films, a dozen television movies, and about 150 plays. In addition, he hosted or narrated numerous documentaries and television specials, many of which involve interests of his such as aviation or stunt work. His striking good looks and imposing physique were reminisent of Hollywoods classic leading men like John Wayne who, after meeting Reeve at the 1979 Academy Awards, turned to Cary Grant and said: This is our new man. Hes taking over. But rather than limit himself to the heroic roles for which he seemed so well suited, Reeve frequently sought the challenge of parts that cast him against type - playing characters that were gay, sociopathic or villanous. He turned down big paychecks to appear in small films with directors like Sydney Lumet or James Ivory, whom he greatly respected and worked with in The Bostonians and The Remains of the Day. But he has always preferred the stage, considering it an actors greatest test. In addition to his early stage work, Reeve appeared in The Marriage of Figaro in New York, Summer and Smoke with Christine Lahti in Los Angeles, and he toured with Love Letters in several major cities. He also starred in a well-received production of The Aspern Papers in Londons West End with Vanessa Redgrave and Dame Wendy Hiller. But no matter what he was doing at the time, Reeve invariably made every effort to spend summers at the Williamstown Theater Festival. In addition to his acting career, Reeve was extremely active in political causes. A liberal Democrat, Reeve said I became politically active in high school, protesting the Vietnam War. And when I went to Cornell, I became involved in environmental issues. And then, as an adult, I became involved in First Amendment issues and funding for the arts. Some of the causes Reeve supported were Amnesty International, Save the Children, The National Resources Defense Council, The Lindbergh Foundation, The Environmental Air Force, and People for the American Way. He was a founding member and past president of the Creative Coalition, an advocacy group of artists, and was one of the National Endowment For The Arts most passionate supporters. In 1987, he faced tear gas and real personal danger when Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman asked him to travel to Chile and lead a demonstration in support of 77 artists targeted with death warrants by the Pinochet government. For his successful efforts to free the artists, Reeve received a special Obie Award in 1988 and an annual award from the Walter Briehl Human Rights Foundation. The sobering experience also reinforced his commitment to advocacy work, which by the late 1980s was competing with his career for his time. Environmental issues were of particular interest to Reeve. He addressed the United Nations to encourage the banning of drift net tuna fishing and he played a crucial role in securing a landmark agreement to protect the Hudson River and New York Citys reservoir system. Christopher Reeve approached recreation with the same dedication and intensity that he brought to his professional and advocacy work. Reeve set obstacles for himself and then worked to overcome them. He believed that progress in ones life comes from creating your own challenges and then doing the best you possibly can to succeed. An accomplished pianist, he composed and practiced classical music several hours each day and said in an interview that had he not been an actor, he would have liked to have been a professional musician. But Reeve was also a superb athlete who did his own stunts in films and an avid outdoorsman. He earned his pilots license in his early twenties and twice flew solo across the Atlantic in a small plane. He also flew gliders and was an expert sailor, scuba diver, and skier. By the 1990s, horses had become his passion. He loved the sport called eventing which combined the precision of dressage with the excitement of cross-country and show jumping. In May of 1995, it was during the cross-country portion of such an event in Culpeper, Virginia, that Reeves Throughbred, Eastern Express, balked at a rail jump, pitching his rider forward. Reeves hands were tangled in the horses bridle and he landed head first, fracturing the uppermost vertebrae in his spine. Reeve was instantly paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe. Prompt medical attention saved his life and delicate surgery stabilized the shattered C1-C2 vertebrae and literally reattached Reeves head to his spine. Upon regaining consciousness and realizing the gravity of his situation, Reeve wondered to his wife Dana if maybe we should just let me go. Whereupon Dana uttered the words that gave him the will to live: But youre still you and I love you. After 6 months at Kessler Rehabilitation Institute in New Jersey, Reeve returned to his home in Bedford, New York, where Dana had completed major renovations to accomodate his needs and those of his electric wheelchair which he operated by sipping or puffing on a straw. Ironically, this most self-reliant and active of men was now facing life almost completely immobilized and dependent on others for his most basic needs. In addition, his condition put him at constant risk for related illnesses - pneumonia, infections, blood clots, wounds that do not heal, and a dangerous condition involving blood pressure known as autonomic disreflexia - all of which Reeve would experience in the coming years. Even while at Kessler, Christopher Reeve began to use the international interest in his situation to increase public awareness about spinal cord injury and to raise money for research into a cure. A 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters drew huge ratings and many other television appearances would follow. Never a man to turn from a challenge, Reeve accepted invitations to appear at the Academy Awards in 1996, to host the Paralympics in Atlanta, and to speak at the Democratic National Convention in August of that year. At such high-profile appearances Reeve faced risk of embarrassment if he could not speak because his tracheostomy tube was slightly out of position or if his body suddenly spasmed and jerked about uncontrollably (as it did just before the curtain went up at the Oscars). Despite enormous expenses related to his paralysis, Reeve was determined to be financially self-sufficient. A widespread rumor that his close friend, Robin Williams, had promised to pay all his medical bills was publicly denied by both Williams and Reeve. Less than a year after his injury, Reeve began to accept invitations for speaking engagements. Traveling with a team of aides and nurses he crisscrossed the country, speaking at the Peter Lowe Success Seminars, at universities, benefits, and at many functions relating to disability issues. Reeves publicist Maggie Friedman, at the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, said: He speaks off the cuff, using no notes or teleprompter and most of the time he does not even dictate his thoughts to an assistant. Reeve narrated an Emmy Award winning documentary for HBO called Without Pity: A Film About Abilities which sensitively told the stories of a half-dozen disabled people and also hosted a Canadian documentary about spinal cord injury called The Toughest Break. He returned to acting with a small but pivotol role in the CBS television movie A Step Toward Tomorrow in 1996 starring Judith Light. The next year Reeve made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed HBO short film In the Gloaming starring his good friend Glenn Close. Gloaming went on to receive fi