Growing up the son of Superman couldn’t have been easy for Will Reeve.
Will, the youngest child of Christopher and Dana Reeve, was orphaned after his mother died in 2006, only two years after the death of his famous father. Will was only 13.
Now at 31, the handsome news correspondent boasts the same chiseled face as his dad, and says he loves being compared with the actor, who for millions of people through the 70s and 80s, was the perfect image of a superhero.
Decades ago, before technology-driven special effects, fans gushed over the superhero in a blue onesie whose red cape flitted above him while he soared through the skies.
Christopher Reeve, the charismatic and handsome actor behind the Superman movies, wowed fans as much as he broke hearts when he died in 2004.
In 1995, at only 42, Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after the beloved actor fell off his horse Buck and injured his spinal cord in an equestrian competition.
Will Reeve
Three years before the accident, him and wife Dana had son Will, who recalled his childhood as a “totally normal” one. “They were the people who told me to turn off the TV, to eat my broccoli, to go to bed,” Will told People, explaining that his dad’s condition didn’t keep him from being a great parent. “I understand that not every child experiences going to the grocery store and seeing their dad on the magazine at the checkout aisle, but … it was a totally normal childhood.”
Will also remembered when his father taught him how to ride a bike from his wheelchair. “I didn’t believe it was gonna work. I’m terrified, but I have my dad’s voice behind me going, ‘Steady, steady, left, right, left, right,’” he said, adding, “By the third lap, I’m smiling, looking at my dad, waving, and he’s smiling. That meant so much to him. Later on, I would race in him the wheelchair. He’d let me win.”
On October 10, 2004, Reeve fell into a coma and died.
Then, on March 6, 2006, Dana Reeve – who married the Somewhere in Time actor in 1992 – died after a months-long battle with a malignant lung tumor.
Will was only 13 when he was left orphaned.
Over the past almost 20 years, Will inherited his father’s good looks and is continuing the good work his parents started with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which aims to cure spinal cord injuries.
Now 31, Will shared how he’s living with intention to follow the path his father wanted, and said at 29, he “finally started to understand what honoring my dad actually means.”
“I thought it meant following the roads he would want me to go down, or to live my life as his proxy, making up for lost time according to his thwarted dreams,” Will wrote in a Father’s Day tribute that he shared on Good Morning America. “Turns out, our parents want us to find out who we are and go be that. That is the ultimate form of honor.”
Recently Will, an ABC News correspondent, revealed he’s honored each time he’s compared with his father, saying he’s “very fortunate to have the life that I do.”
“And I think that if the public might find a little interest in, ‘Oh, he looks like his famous dad,’ that’s great,” Reeve tells People. “That means they’re talking about my family in a positive light and remembering our dad and our mom and our family in a way that honors them…I always take that as a compliment.”
Reeve continues, “I think that I had two beautiful parents, inside and out, and if I bear any resemblance to them physically, or temperamentally, or in my values, then I take that as a compliment every day.”
It’s hard to believe that Christopher Reeve died almost 20 years ago! Still, fans are fortunate to have his legacy living on through his handsome son, Will.
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