R.I.P. CHRIS

By now everyone knows that Christopher Reeve passed away yesterday. The thing that surprised me most about reading this news first thing this morning was my actual surprise. Here’s a man whose body had been utterly destroyed from the neck down, yet he really was a superman, surviving primarily through the strength of his will and love of his family and never losing faith that one day he would walk again. Ultimately, it seems he was killed due to an infection caused by something as simple as a bedsore, and that’s just tragic.

Reeve is a perfect example of an actor never able to overcome his identification with an iconic character even before his accident. Especially after the third and fourth sequels, people had a hard time seeing him as anything other than Superman and might even joke when he appeared in other roles. However, Reeve was actually a much better actor than people usually gave him credit. He was classically stage-trained, and I had the privilege of seeing him in a production of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke in Los Angeles in the late ’80s. I thought it was hysterical that I would be seeing Superman attempt Williams, but he blew me away with his portrayal of John Buchanan.

He also held his own in many films during and after his tenure as the Man of Steel. Deathtrap, Street Smart, Noises Off… and The Remains of the Day all feature Reeve performances which might have been paid more notice had audiences not always thought of him as Superman first.

Obviously he’ll now be remembered as much, if not more, for his work in pushing spinal chord injury and, more recently, stem cell research. I hope that his death isn’t turned into political fodder during this very turbulent pre-election period, but at the same time, maybe the fragileness of his life in the end can help some people realize what may be at stake. There may be no guarantees, but there can always be hope, unless it’s cut short simply for lack of trying.