Cool Dead Guy: Christopher Reeve

Well, last night Christopher Reeve died.  He was most notably known as Superman.  Several years back he was involved in a horse riding accident that made him paralyzed from the neck down.  He had made unbelievable progress over the last few years, gaining back limited usage of his extremities and was a spokesman for stem cell research and other advances in bio-technology.

When I was a kid I was a big superman fan.  I’ll save you the actual picture (mainly because I think I have destroyed them all), but I had a Superman outfit that I would wear around the house (I was six or seven at the time).  Christopher Reeve was definitely Superman to me as he was the face I knew from the movies.  I was too young to really know the original Superman TV series.  I was never big into the comic version, so Reeve was pretty much Superman to me.

I thought his accident was truly tragic.  However, he has shown many how to have true heroic courage and strength in the face of adversity.  He wife and family appear to have been truly amazing through out this tragedy as well.  In many ways he embodied many of the ideals behind Superman in his real life.  I think this qualifies him for Cool Dead Guy.

As a side point.  Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams are very close friends.  There is a rumor that during their initial friendship they both said that which ever one of them made it big in show business would take care of the other one.  Both of them hit big, of course, but rumor has it that when Reeve had his accident Williams has been footing the bill for anything that medical insurance didn’t cover.  I’d say that is a real good friend.