Irony strikes the Man of Steel
Somehow, Reeve has always echoed reel and real life. A licensed flier, he played a mail pilot in The Aviator, but irony followed later in crueler vein. In the 1995 film, Above Suspicion, he played a paralysed character.
Following that, while in the process of doing a film on equestrian safety, he met with the fateful accident. An excellent rider, he was thrown from a horse and paralysed from the shoulders down.
Reeve, however, did not let the horrific accident turn him into an invalid. His spirit and will are well embodied in the fact that in August 2000, he broke his leg by falling out of his wheelchair during a workout!
Christopher Reeve with wife Dana