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Incredible Journey: Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004

Originally posted Thursday October 14, 2004 06:00 AM EDT

After his accident Reeve (in 1983’s Superman III) told pal Jane Seymour, “I obviously didn’t wish this, but it’s amazing. If it hadn’t happened, I probably would have been that person that people would say: ‘Oh, he’s that actor who used to do that thing with a cape.’” Photo by: KEN REGAN / CAMERA 5

Indeed, he made the claim in 2001 that his life was a good one: "I’m not living the life I thought I would lead ... but it does have meaning, purpose. There is love, there is joy, there is laughter." There was also some clear-eyed insight into the world. "I get pretty impatient," he once said, "with people who are able-bodied but are somehow paralyzed for other reasons."

Even before the accident, Reeve hadn’t been in that crowd. After Superman made him a star in 1978, he was furiously energetic, impressing other stars with a vigorous intelligence that easily mastered all sorts of political and social causes. "He was thoughtful, forceful, with boundless energy," recalls Blair Brown. Then one night in May 1995, she recalls, "he said, ‘I’m going to Virginia to ride and I’ll be back. ...’"

Five days after the accident – his horse shied from a fence, and Reeve was pitched forward onto his forehead – he awoke at the University of Virginia Medical Center to be told he could never again have any movement below his neck. He later recalled that he thought of simply letting go of life altogether – until Dana uttered the words that he said saved him. "You’re still you, and I love you." So began a new life with his family.