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
Christopher Reeve Robert Allan Ackerman. Later in the year, Reeve played a disabled Vietnam veteran in the Broadway play "Fifth of July". In his research for the role, he was coached by an amputee on how to walk on artificial legs. After "Fifth of July", Reeve stretched his acting range further and played a homicidal novice playwright trying to kill his lover and mentor Michael Caine in Sidney Lumet's dark comedy film "Deathtrap" based on the play by Ira Levin. The film was well received. After "Superman II", Reeve portrayed partially corrupt Catholic priest John Flaherty in "Monsignor". Reeve felt this gave