ABC Special, “Will Reeve: Finding My Fader,” premiered on February 26th and is now available for streaming on Hulu.
A few months before the 1995 horseback riding accident left “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve Quadriplegic, the award-winning actor was filming a natural documentary about the annual migration of grey whales from the Arctic to Mexico.
Almost 30 years later, the actor’s youngest son leaves and embarks on his own emotional journey to follow in his father’s final footsteps before he is paralyzed from the neck down.
The ABC News correspondent’s expedition was documented in the network’s special “Will Reeve: Finding My Fader.”
“But ‘Superman’ is the biggest thing he was in, and the main reason why my dad is still a hero to millions of people, but my favorite film he’s ever had was a little-known nature documentary called ‘In the Wild: Gray Whales’. ”
In the one-hour documentary, the late actor flew planes, scuba dives, traveled through the North Pacific to give birth in the warm waters, and chased the mammoth scooter when he gave birth.
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Describing his father as “a man of action and adventure, an explorer involved with the world,” Will Reeve said his life changed forever shortly after the actor finished filming the documentary.
On May 27, 1995, Christopher Reeve fractured his neck after being thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. The accident that occurred two weeks before Will Reeve’s third birthday relied on a breathing ventilator, trapping the actor in a wheelchair.
Christopher Reeve, who also had two children, Matreugh Reeve and Alexandra Reeve Givens, 41, who were 45, died on October 10, 2004 due to complications from spinal cord injuries. He was 52 years old. His youngest son was only 12 years old.
“The world knows my father as a superman and the face of spinal cord injury. He’s a heroic man fighting for others and himself,” writes partly.
“But there is much more to the story.
“Find my father”
In the new ABC special, Reeve visits the same exotic location his father explored in 1995, including the “wild” island in the Bering Sea off Alaska and the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
The news correspondent said he hoped the experience would help answer questions after his father’s death, including how he would continue his legacy and what kind of person his father wanted to be.
“I was hoping that by going to the last place he went before the accident, I could get closer to those answers.
(LR) Matthew Reeve, Alexandra Reeve Givens and William Reeve will be attending the premiere of “Super/Man: Christopher Reeve Story” at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, held at the Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah, on January 21, 2024. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
The New York City-based reporter initially said he wanted to travel alone.
“But as I grew older, I realized that my experience of love, loss, honor and heritage and the existential questions that arise from it are universal,” he said.
“I wanted the world to remember Christopher Reeve as a hero, certainly as a superman, advocate, activist and author, all he was. But I also wanted to take the world into a literal figurative quest for his father to find my father in his very nature.”
Christopher Reeve won the breakout role as Clark Kent in the 1978 film Superman, reprising the character in three sequels.
The actor is also known for his performances in “Somewhere in Time” (1980), “Death Strap” (1982), “Street Smart” (1987), “The Suspicion of the Above” (1995), and “Rear Window” (1998).
After his accident, Christopher Reeve was deeply involved in his advocacy work for people with disabilities and spinal cord injuries, the subject of HBO’s 2024 documentary, Super/Man: The Story of Christopher Reeve.
The foundation was renamed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation after the death of the actor’s wife, Dana Reeve.
The actress, who took over her late husband as chairman of the foundation’s board of directors, passed away in March 2006 at the age of 44 of lung cancer despite being a non-smoker.
