Still Me
by Christopher Reeve
Random House, US $25 Hardcover


Cost/page:

8.36 cents.

In a word:

Moving.

Big break:

Lands the title role in Superman (1978).

Overcoming adversity:

• Shatters his C1 and C2 vertabrae in a 1995 fall from his horse, Buck. Can now move his head, breath, speak, shrug his shoulders on his own. Is a candidate for the first human trials in regeneration.
• The severity of Reeve's initial injuries requires surgery from which he has little chance of survival. Hearing this, his mother becomes distraught and urges the doctors to pull the ventilator plug. Reeve himself contemplates it. "I mouthed my first lucid words to [wife Dana]: 'Maybe we should let me go.'"

Tainted love (bad marriages, etc.):

• Amicable 1987 split with previous significant other, Gae Exton, with whom Reeve fathered two children. The couple never married.
• Parents Franklin and Barbara divorce when he is just three. Reeve's often tenuous relationship with his father "broke down completely" in 1988. Since the accident his father has "gone out of his way to visit me and has been constantly in touch."

Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll (incidents pertaining to):

• Admits to awkward behavior around women. "Playing Clark Kent was no stretch for me."
• While dating eventual wife Dana, she and Reeve would "take my truck up a hill... [and] make out like teenagers... For some reason we always parked right in front of [a] Dumpster."

Divine inspiration:

"Whether or not there is a God is not so important. Spirituality itself, the belief that there is something greather than ourselves, is enough."

Oddities:

• During his childhood, Reeve is allergic to horses.
• Falls 90 feet, while parasailing, into four feet of water while summering on Martha's Vineyard. Sustains minor injuries.
• Jokes during the Superman years about needing to be careful because he doesn't want to read a headline in the New York Post like, "Superman Hit by Bus."
• Has never fully recovered from the malaria he contracted in Kenya in 1993.
• The 1979 romance fantasy, Somewhere in Time, co-starring Reeve and Jane Seymour, has become such a cult favorite it inspired a fan club called INSITE: the International Network of Somewhere in Time Enthusiasts.
• Presumably due to his Ph.D. in Russian, Reeve's father Franklin is rejected for an appointment at Princeton when the university president accuses him of being a Communist.
• During arehab stint, Reeve goes into anaphylactic shock; has an out-of-body experience — watching from above and then "returning" to his body after having been given a massive dose of epinephrine.

Cameo appearances (by other famous persons):

• Prior to Reeve's darkest hour (an unprecedented surgery to reattach his head to his spinal column), a man with a Russian accent appears wearing a surgical gown. Announcing he is Reeve's proctologist, he declares he must examine Reeve immediately: the mystery man is revealed to be family friend and former Juillard schoolmate Robin Williams.
• The late John Houseman, teaching at Juillard: "Mr. Reeve, it is terribly important that you become a serious classical actor. Unless, of course, they offer you a shitload of money to do something else."
• Meets Katherine Hepburn, reminding her that she and Reeve's grandmother, Beatrice, had been Bryn Mawr classmates. Kate replies, "Oh, Bea. I could never stand her."

Manifesto for living/advice to fans:

"When a catastrophe happens, it's easy to feel so sorry for yourself that you can't see anybody around you. But the way out is through your relationships."

Intro | Suzanne Somers | Peter Fonda | Delta Burke
Christopher Reeve | Walter Koenig | Marilyn Manson