Christopher Reeve is not only one of the iconic faces in cinema for his incarnation of the mythical “Superman”, but also a symbol of his fight against the disease. And now, 20 years after his death, his son Will remembers his figure and the play What did he mean by leaving him fatherless and motherless in two years. «I have been alone since then», he says still with pain.
Although most of the world knew Christopher Reeve for his dominant cinematic presence and his role in “Superman,” to his three children (Matthew, Alexandra and Will Reeve) he was only their “beloved father», a man who died before his time. And the three brothers saw first-hand how their father went from movie star to pioneering spinal cord injury research activist A riding accident in 1995 left him paralyzed from the neck down. at the age of 42 and at the height of his career. He died in 2004 of heart failure.
By his side, from his accident to his death, he was his loving wife, Dana Reevemother of Will Reeve and stepmother of Matthew Reeve and Alexandra Reeve. Less than a year after giving eulogy at her husband’s funeral, Dana Reeve, who had never smoked in her entire life, was diagnosed. advanced stage lung cancer. He died seven months later, on March 6, 2006, at the age of 44.
The brothers and the environment
“Despite the love and security given to me by my brothers, my family and my adoptive family, that was the moment, March 6, 2006 … I have been alone ever since,” says Will Reeve, who was 13 years old he lost his mother, in the documentary «Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story», the new testimony about the actor’s life.
Before his death, Dana Reeve made sure Will Reeve was well taken care ofand decided that he would live with his best friend’s family. His older brothers also left everything to help him. Alexandra Reeve was a law student at the time and Matthew Reeve was a producer.
In an emotional interview for the ABC network, Will Reeve, now a journalist, meets his brothers for an interview in which he asks a question he has never asked them before:people cared enough for them after the death of his father and Dana Reeve? «I don’t think anyone has ever thought about that, as if that wasn’t the issue at hand. “This was keeping things going, keeping us good, keeping everybody right, honoring them the right way.”
Will Reeve was only two years old when his father suffered the horse riding accident. He was able to see, along with the rest of his brothers, how Christopher Reeve inspired not only his family, but millions of people around the world as activist and supporter of spinal cord injury research. And how Dana Reeve cared for him with love and selflessness every day of his life to also leave before his time.
«The heroes are the people»
At one point in the interview, Alexandra Reeve becomes emotional and says: “I hope people realize this, that it could be shiny Hollywood, but really the values and the heroes are the people “That they survive in these normal circumstances, that they find strength and find each other, and that’s really what they taught our family from the beginning.”
The Christopher & Dana Reeve FoundationA non-profit organization dedicated to finding treatments and cures for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other neurological disorders. more than $140 million has been invested to date in research, support and treatment.
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and has received rave reviews for its approach to such an intense and human story. It is memory a unique personality in the world of Hollywoodso frivolous in general.