Still Him…

Seven years ago today we lost the actor who made us believe a Man Could Fly. In a celebration of the man and his achievements I present four of the best volumes chronicling his rise to stardom through to his tragic accident and finally to leaving a legacy –

The first of these is a vintage paperback Christopher Reeve charting the actor’s meteoric rise to fame by Margery Steinberg. While this is composed mainly of gossip-magazine style trash it still has some nice pictures in the centre and is fairly rare today.

Sadly the larger biographies would come as a result of renewed interest in Reeve due to his paralysis, the first, ‘Man Of Steel’ competently written by Adrian Havill nonetheless portrays Reeve as an ambitious but charismatic individual, concentrating on his acting career. The third volume, ‘Superhero’ by music journalist Chris Nickson is a more straightforward but well-researched bio spliced with decent b&w photos.

Reeve himself set the record straight in 1998 with his powerful autobiography Still Me, a touching reflection of his new life in a wheelchair with long flashbacks of a glittering career. Reeve pulls no punches with his views of both politics and his work to portray a humble family man refusing to accept his fate lightly while providing hope for others well beyond his years.

Rest In Peace, Toph…