Christopher Reeve  Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, writer and director. He was best known for playing DC comic book superhero Superman, beginning with the acclaimed "Superman" (1978), for which he won a BAFTA Award. Reeve appeared in other critically acclaimed films such as "The Bostonians" (1984), "Street Smart" (1987) and "The Remains of the Day" (1993). He received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance in the television remake of "Rear Window" (1998). On May 27, 1995, Reeve was left quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He used a wheelchair and needed a portable ventilator to breathe for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries and for human embryonic stem cell research, founding the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founding the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. Reeve was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City, the son of Barbara Pitney Lamb (1929–2000), a journalist; and Franklin D'Olier Reeve (1928–2013), a teacher, novelist, poet, and scholar. Reeve was mainly of English ancestry, with many family lines that had been in America since the early 17th century. His paternal grandfather, Colonel Richard Henry Reeve, had been the CEO of Prudential Financial (when it was called Prudential Life Insurance Company) for over 25 years. Reeve's father was a Princeton University graduate studying for a master's degree in Russian at Columbia University before Christopher's birth. Despite being born wealthy, Franklin Reeve spent summers working at the docks with longshoremen. Reeve's mother had been a student at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, but transferred to Barnard College to be closer to Franklin, whom she had met through a family connection. They had another son, Benjamin, born on October 6, 1953. Franklin and Barbara divorced in 1956, and she moved with her two sons to Princeton, New Jersey, where they attended Nassau Street School. Later that year, Franklin Reeve married Helen Schmidinger, a Columbia University graduate student. Barbara Pitney Lamb married Tristam B. Johnson, a stockbroker, in 1959. Johnson enrolled Christopher and his brother, Benjamin, in Princeton Country Day School, which later merged with Miss Fine's School for Girls to become the co-educational Princeton Day School.