Superman (1978 film) father on Earth. "Superman" was originally scheduled to be released in June 1978, the 40th anniversary of "Action Comics 1", which first introduced Superman, but the problems during filming pushed the film back by six months. Editor Stuart Baird reflected, "Filming was finished in October 1978 and it is a miracle we had the film released two months later. Big-budgeted films today tend to take six to eight months." Donner, for his part, wished that he had "had another six months; I would have perfected a lot of things. But at some point, you've gotta turn the picture over." Warner
Christopher Reeve thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He used a wheelchair and required a portable ventilator to breathe for the rest of his life. He would go on to lobby on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries and for human embryonic stem cell research, founding the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founding the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. Christopher D'Olier Reeve was born in New York City on September 25, 1952, the son of Barbara Pitney Lamb (1929–2000), a journalist, and Franklin D'Olier Reeve (1928–2013), a teacher, novelist, poet, and scholar. Reeve was of almost entirely English descent,