When an actor is born to play a certain role, as was certainly the case with Christopher Reeve and the role of Superman, it’s difficult for such an actor to transcend this role within the public’s consciousness. For Reeve, this was heightened by the fact that he was a virtual unknown prior to his casting in the first Superman film. Because of the unknown status that he brought to Superman, which was the most expensive film ever made at the time of its 1978 release, the producers of the film, along with Warner Bros., felt the need to hedge their financial risk by surrounding Reeve with Hollywood superstars Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando.
With his commanding physical presence and exquisite comedic timing, Reeve’s performance in Superman proved that he was more than capable of carrying the series on his broad shoulders without protection. By the time Superman II, one of the greatest sequels in history, was released in North America in the spring of 1981, Reeve was a worldwide movie star. However, none of his subsequent non-Superman starring film vehicles came close to matching the success of the first two Superman films. By the end of 1988, Reeve’s starring film career was over, following a string of failures, most notably his fourth and final screen outing as Superman, the embarrassing 1987 installment Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, which was panned by the actor and is regarded as being one of the worst superhero films ever made.
Christopher Reeve Was His Own Worst Career Enemy
Christopher Reeve’s first non-Superman starring film vehicle came in the 1980 romantic fantasy drama film Somewhere in Time, in which he plays a contemporary playwright who becomes enamored with a photograph of a beautiful actress and travels back in time through self-hypnosis to 1912 to find love with her. The commercial and critical failure of Somewhere in Time, which grossed less than $10 million at the domestic box office, proved an ominous sign for Reeve’s starring film career throughout the 1980s.
In the early to mid-1980s, Reeve turned down the lead roles in the films American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman, which brought stardom to Richard Gere. He also turned down the role of transgender former football player Roberta Muldoon in the 1982 comedy-drama film The World According to Garp, in which Roberta is played by John Lithgow, who received an Oscar nomination for this performance.
Reeve was offered the role of sailor Fletcher Christian in the 1984 historical drama film The Bounty. The film stars Mel Gibson as Christian and Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh, Christian’s former friend and mentor. The legendary Katharine Hepburn, whom he previously co-starred with in 1976 in the Broadway play A Matter of Gravity, recommended him for the role to the film’s original director, David Lean.
However, despite Hepburn’s recommendation, as well as the encouragement of Hopkins, Reeve turned down the role, ostensibly because he felt that he would have been miscast in The Bounty, which, despite being a box-office failure, has gained a reputation for being one of the greatest adventure films of the 1980s. Moreover, The Bounty became an impressive dramatic showcase for Gibson prior to his breakthrough Hollywood role in Lethal Weapon as Martin Riggs, which Reeve also turned down.
This Twisty 1982 Thriller Is Reeve’s Most Overlooked Gem
Christopher Reeve’s most successful non-Superman-starring film vehicle is unquestionably the 1982 suspense film Deathtrap . In it, the actor plays Clifford Anderson, a promising young playwright who, as the film opens, visits the secluded Long Island home of famed but slumping playwright Sidney Bruhl, played by Michael Caine.
Prior to Clifford’s arrival, Sidney informs his perpetually agitated wife that he intends to murder Clifford for the purpose of stealing ownership of Clifford’s titular play, which Sidney believes is destined to become a Broadway smash hit. This is all that should be said about the plot of Deathtrap, which becomes a splendid exercise in diabolical deception under the expert direction of Sidney Lumet and the lively performances of Caine and Reeve.
As Clifford, Reeve displays the sly wit that defines his fascinating performance in Superman II with the additional layers of duplicity and menace. In contrast to his other non-Superman projects, in which he sometimes appears self-conscious and stolid, the delicious role of Clifford enables Reeve to be dangerous, exciting, and unpredictable. He received excellent reviews for his performance in Deathtrap, which also easily ranks as his most commercially successful non-Superman starring film vehicle, with a box-office gross of approximately $19 million. Only one of Reeve’s other 1980s non-Superman starring vehicles, the 1982 drama film Monsignor, made more than $10 million.
Reeve Will Always Be Superman
Between 1989 and 1994, Christopher Reeve’s screen acting career consisted of starring roles in a string of made-for-television films and supporting roles in feature films, most notably the 1993 drama film The Remains of the Day, in which he registers effectively in the role of Jack Lewis, a United States politician who cautions forcefully against the rise of Nazism. Reeve’s last starring film role came in 1995 with John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned, in which he plays a small-town doctor who battles alien children.
Of course, beyond Superman, the role in which Reeve, who died in 2004 at the age of 52, is now most closely identified with is that of activist. This transition took place on May 27, 1995, when the actor became paralyzed from the neck down from a horse-riding accident. He spent the remainder of his life advocating for spinal cord injury research while maximizing his creative abilities, mostly in terms of his directorial career, which began with the 1997 television film In the Gloaming.
Reeve’s post-accident life is recounted in the moving 2024 documentary film Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, which makes clear that his activism provided him with a sense of purpose and strength that gives an additional level of meaning to his enduring Superman persona. Superman is streaming on Max.
