Christopher Reeve He then acted in a small role in the film "A Step Towards Tomorrow". Reeve was elected Chairman of the American Paralysis Association and Vice Chairman of the National Organization on Disability. He co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, which is now one of the leading spinal cord research centers in the world. He created the Christopher Reeve Foundation, now the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, to speed up research through funding and to use grants to improve the quality of the lives of people with disabilities. The Foundation to date has given more than $65 million to research and more
Superman curse days before he was to be married, Reeves was found dead of a gunshot wound at his home with his Luger near him. The death was ruled a suicide, but controversy surrounds the death, as Reeves's fingerprints were never found on the gun, and he had been having an affair with the wife of MGM exec Eddie Mannix. It was Reeves's death that inspired the conspiracy theories and the urban legend of a curse associated with the character. Christopher Reeve played Superman/Clark Kent in the Superman film series, "Superman: The Movie" (1978), "Superman II" (1980), "Superman III" (1983), and ""