Christopher Reeve's widow Dana, who has died of lung cancer at the age of 44, was both a doting wife and a vocal campaigner.
Reeve appeared in a number of films and TV shows
Born in New York in 1961, she worked as a singer before meeting the Superman actor while at a booking in Massachusetts in 1987.
The pair married in 1992 and celebrated the arrival of son Will in the same year.
In 1995 she appeared with her husband in the thriller Above Suspicion, in which Reeve played a paralysed policeman.
Shortly after the film's release, their world was turned upside down when Reeve suffered a riding accident and was left paralysed from the neck down.
Dana immediately gave up her singing career and devoted her life to his care.
She also became a vocal campaigner for human embryonic stem cell research, which offered a glimmer of hope for her husband but required a great deal of lobbying.
Reeve cared for her husband until his death in 2004
Her work included becoming the chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, set up to help people who had suffered serious spinal cord injuries.
It was during this period that the actress resumed her acting career, which included guest appearances in police dramas Law And Order and Feds.
She also played Wendy Schulz in a number of episodes of prison series Oz and appeared in The Brooke Ellison Story, which her husband directed.
Reeve's death in October 2004 left his wife to continue to campaign in favour of stem cell research.
Before her death she was working on a book chronicling her life with her husband, which was due to be published this year.