Christopher Reeve, who appeared in movies like Remains of the Day and Somewhere in Time, died yesterday. Obviously, I mention this on this site because Reeve played the big blue boy scout in two excellent movies and two not so excellent movies, but did a really good job in all of them, even when asked to do some pretty foolish things. The past few years, Reeve has been more famous for his battle with paralysis, and he did a lot of good with what probably would have been an insurmountable burden for a lot of people.
I'm not going to get maudlin here. He was a fine actor, and he brought the then-current vision of Superman to life quite effectively, and he did a lot of other things, and now he's died. I just wanted to say thanks for a really great afternoon when I was a kid. My mom took me and my cousin Billy to see him bring the comics I wasn't allowed to bring into the house to life, and he did it: he was Superman for me. He probably did as much to cement my lifelong love for superheroes as did Stan and Jack, or Homer, or Englehart and Rogers, or even Siegel and Schuster.
Thank you, Christopher. I really did believe a man could fly, and it was as much your work as any special effects that got me there.
Posted by Matt Rossi at October 11, 2004 8:18 AM