Family and Childhood
Christopher Reeve was born in New York City on September 25, 1952. When he was four, his parents got divorced. His mother moved away with her sons, Christopher and Benjamin, to Princeton, New Jersey. Years later she married a banker. After the divorce, the sons spent time with their father who is a novelist, poet, and scholar of Russian literature. While with him, Christopher and Benjamin were exposed to a intellectual environment. One of Christopher's influences was his father. |
Teenage Years
At age 15, Reeve got an apprenticeship at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. When Christopher turned 16 he had already got an agent. At Princeton Day School, Reeve participated in a lot of school activities including Drama Club and The Glee Club. Reeve later said about those years, "I loved the theater so much. But I began to feel guilty, I thought I wasn't giving enough time to school. So I joined as many school clubs and teams as I could. I played on the ice hockey team. I was in the school orchestra. I even sang with a choral group!" |
College
After graduating high school, Reeve toured the country as the leading man in The Irregular Verb to Love, then went on to college at Cornell University. As part of his studies at Cornell, Reeve spent time studying theater in Britain and France, although he continued to work as an actor. In his final year at Cornell, Reeve was one of two students picked to advanced to New York's Juilliard School of Performing Arts. There he studied under John Houseman. When it became financially difficult for his stepfather to continue to pay for Reeve's education, he took the role of Ben Harper in the television dramatic serial Love of Life. |