Late ‘Superman’ actor paralyzed in horse jumping accident to be celebrated during fundraiser
The late Christopher Reeve was, to those who knew him, a great deal more than Superman.
He truly was a super man.
Reeve would be most famous for his portrayal of Superman in a series of movies featuring DC Comics’ legendary Man of Steel, but there was a great deal more to him than that franchise, both in life and since his death at the age of 52 on Oct. 10, 2004.
On Tuesday at The Newbury Boston, as part of the 4 Nations Face-Off, Reeve will again be celebrated with an event titled “Go Forward! Celebrating the Power of Hockey to Break Barriers,” a reception to benefit the NHL Foundation U.S. and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
The event will honor Hon. James T. Brett, president and CEO, The New England Council, and former professional hockey player Denna Laing. Respectively, they will receive the Advocacy Impact Award and the Athlete Leadership Award of the NHL Foundation U.S.
Emceed by TNT broadcaster Kenny Albert, the reception will include the participation of host committee members: NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly; Executive Director of the NHL Players’ Association Marty Walsh; NHL senior executive vice president, social impact, growth initiatives & legislative affairs Kim Davis; Hon. John F. Kerry, the 68th U.S. Secretary of State; Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Messier and League alumnus Adam Graves; Will Reeve, Matthew Reeve and Alexandra Reeve Givens, board members of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation; “NHL on ESPN” play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough; and John Rosasco, a senior adviser with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The following night at Boston’s Kasabuski Rink, the first Reeve Hockey Classic sled hockey game will feature the world’s best men’s para hockey athletes representing the United States and Canada, in support of the Reeve Foundation.
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, a partner of the NHL Foundation U.S., is committed to curing spinal cord injury and improving the quality of life for individuals and families impacted by paralysis.
Reeve was critically injured May 27, 1995, his first and second vertebrae shattered when he fell from a horse during a jumping competition. The cervical spinal cord injury left him paralyzed from the neck down, confining him to a wheelchair for the last nine years of his life. During recovery and rehabilitation, and in subsequent years inspired by many he met, Reeve channeled his energies and fame to improve the lives of those affected by spinal cord injury.
His life and career were brought to life in the 2024 award-winning feature-length film “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.” At the 78th British Academy Awards in London on Sunday, the film won the prestigious BAFTA prize as the year’s best documentary.
Reeve’s work, and that of his late wife, Dana, a non-smoker who died of lung cancer March 6, 2006, continues with his Foundation, energetically driven by Will Reeve, their son, and Matthew and Alexandra Reeve, the actor’s children from Christopher’s long-term partner, Gae Exton.
“Through the NPRC, we serve as a free national source of informational support for people living with paralysis and their caregiver,” the Foundation says. “The primary goals of the NPRC are to foster involvement in the community, promote health and improve quality of life.”
Reeve and his wife were hugely loyal New York Rangers fans, as is their son, Will, a New York-based correspondent for ABC News who appears on many of the network’s broadcast and digital platforms.
Dana Reeve would bring Madison Square Garden to tears Jan. 12, 2006, singing Carole King’s “Now and Forever” during Messier’s No. 11 jersey retirement.
“Dana was simply an extraordinary human being who faced unthinkable tragedies, from her husband’s injury to her own illness, with strength, dignity, optimism and grace that inspired all of us,” then-Rangers president Glen Sather said upon Dana’s passing. “She, along with her late husband Christopher and their son, Will, will always be cherished members of the Rangers family and will live in our hearts forever.”
Christopher Reeve was a promising goalie with Princeton Day Prep School in the mid-1960s when his team faced off in an exhibition with freshmen from Cornell University.
“At the time, the varsity team was the NCAA champion and (future Hall of Famer) Ken Dryden was the goalie,” Reeve recalled in a New York Daily News story published Dec. 5, 1999, to promote the SuperSkate 2000 fundraiser.
“On the first day of practice for the freshman team, I noticed there were only two Americans, and the rest were Canadians. I was in the goal and the whole team lined up on the blue line, each with a puck. They were supposed to take turns going from left to right taking a slap shot.
“They started to get out of sequence and sometimes two or three shots were coming at me, faster than I’d ever seen a puck come at me in my entire lifetime. I got absolutely shelled and I thought, ‘You know, I’m probably going to end up with no teeth,’ so I retreated to the safety of the theatre department. That was the end of my hockey career. In retrospect, I made the right choice. And I still have all my teeth.”
The future Superman discovered that his Kryptonite was in fact a six-ounce disc of black vulcanized rubber. Reeve’s change in career path would be to the benefit of millions of fans who for decades have enjoyed his portrayal of the superhero who arrived on Earth from the planet Krypton to the chagrin of Lex Luthor, General Zod and other villains.
Will Reeve still rides the highs and lows of the Rangers, his own connection to hockey tremendously strong. He says the Go Forward! event in Boston is hugely important to himself and the Foundation that bears his parents’ names.
“We’ll be doing some great stuff in Boston in conjunction with the 4 Nations and their Go Forward! reception,” Reeve said in conversation from New York last week. “It’s going to accomplish a few things. One, it’s going to highlight some members of our communities that we serve and fight for every day, including folks like Denna Laing, who’s a very important person within the hockey community.
“We’ve got some new friends and old. I’m thrilled to have this panel happening, to be seeing my hero and friend Mark Messier and my great friend and our great partner (NHL Commissioner) Gary Bettman. We’ll be talking hockey, Reeve Foundation, inclusivity, fighting for people who need our help. We’re going to have a great time and raise some money for the Reeve Foundation and that’s just the kickoff to a great couple days with the big sled hockey game coming up the next night.”
Reeve’s roots in hockey were planted as a boy just outside of New York, where he learned to skate on a pond at home and watch Rangers games with his parents.
“I vividly remember my mom, because my dad was in his wheelchair, driving me to hockey practices and early morning games around the tri-state area, being the ultimate definition of a hockey mom,” he said.
“My dad was the ultimate hockey dad in his own way. Nothing brought me greater joy or motivation than when I’d be skating around during a game, and I’d look in the corner of the rink and my dad had made it there. It was an effort for him to get out of the house. He had to rely on people to bundle him up and put him in his retrofitted van and drive him to my game, wherever it was, and situate him in a place where he could see.
“Just to have him watch me play hockey means more to me than I could probably ever describe. It’s a core part of my being that stems from hockey. That extends to watching games with him, with my mom, going to Rangers games, talking hockey. I always say that I learned how to read by reading the stats section of the New York Times, going into my dad’s room to report the stats to him before I headed off to school in the morning.”
Reeve finds great similarities between the communities of hockey and spinal cord injury.
“The qualities that it takes to succeed in terms of dedication, determination, courage, commitment, perseverance, passion,” he said.
His work with the Foundation is perhaps a bit of his life’s calling, a need within himself to continue the important work that his parents began.
“I know that I’m representing my family name, my parents, and also everything that they meant to millions of people around the world,” Reeve said. “I don’t take it lightly that my parents were inspirational figures to people I’ve never met and likely never will meet. But that’s important to me.
“I do whatever I can, as a human being first and foremost, to live by the values that my parents instilled in me. I also work as hard as I can to be an ambassador for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and all the essential work that the Reeve Foundation does to find cures for paralysis and provide quality of life care to people. I also try to honor my parents, who they were and what they stood for, being the way that I live, the attitude and values that I bring to my life and my relationships and to my work.
“It’s hard to find two bigger heroes or role models than Christopher and Dana Reeve, and how lucky am I that they were my parents,” he said. “They were the type of people who would be my heroes and role models even if I’d never met them, just knowing their story and the adversity that they triumphed over time and again. Having that as a model for me as a son and as a human being is not something that I take for granted.”
The NHL is proud of its partnership with the Foundation, the long-standing relationship moving to the next level now.
“Christopher Reeve’s definition of a hero transcends all walks of life and aligns perfectly with the core values of the hockey community,” said Rob Wooley, executive director of the NHL Foundation.
Now, the League and the Reeve name take another step with the Go Forward! benefit and the inaugural sled hockey game.
