Although Christopher Reeve is most known for playing the role of Superman in the Superman franchise movies, his acting career covers more ground than that. He was born on September 1952 to journalist Barbara Johnson and professor Franklin Reeve. After Christopher Reeve graduated from high school, he went on to study in Cornell University. During his last year at Cornell, he was one of two students (the other was Robin Williams) to study at the Julliard School of Performing Arts with John Houseman as his mentor. Several decades later he got paralyzed in a horse riding accident, after which he and his wife Dana opened the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, dedicated to helping paralyzed people live independently. He died suddenly on October 2004, at the age of 52.