Roberto Jordan
English 4
Autobiography
Christopher Reeve
II. Life
A. Early Years
Christopher Reeve was born in New York City on September 25th of 1952, as the son of Barbara Johnson a journalist and Franklin D’Oiler Reeve who was a teacher, novelist, poet and scholar. His grandfather Richard Henry Reeve had been the CEO of Prudential Financial for over twenty five years. Prior to Reeves birth his father was a Princeton University graduate studying for a master’s degree in Russian at Columbia University. Although Reeve was born wealthy he worked at the docks with longshoremen in the summer. Christopher’s mother Barbara had been a student at Vassar College, but transferred to Barnard College so she could be closer to Franklin who she had…show more content… Instead of his mother’s advice he applied for college. He was accepted into Carnegie Mellon, Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, Princeton, and Cornell. Therefor Christopher claimed that he chose Cornell primarily because it’s a 3 and half hour drive from New York City, where he planned to start his career as an actor. Although despite the fact that Columbia is in New York City, just uptown from Broadway.
Christopher joined the theatre department in Cornell and played as Pozzo in “Waiting for Godot”, Segismundo in “Life Is a Dream”, Polixenes in “The Winter 's Tale”, and as Hamlet in “Rosencrantz” and “Guildenstern Are Dead”. After freshmen year Christopher received a full season contract with the San Diego Shakespeare Festival, with the roles an Edward IV in “Richard III”, Fenton in “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, and Dumaine in “Love’s Labour’s lost” at the Old Globe Theatre.
Before his third year of college, Christopher took a three month leave of absence. He then flew to Glasgow and saw theatrical productions throughout England and Scotland. Christopher was inspired by the actors and often had conversations with them in bars after performances. Reeve then flew to Paris where he spoke fluent French for his entire stay there; which he had studied from the third grade until his second year in Cornell.
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