Franklin D'Olier Reeve

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: American academic, writer, poet, Russian translator, and editor.
• Cause of Death: Complications from diabetes

Notes:

Franklin D'Olier Reeve (September 18, 1928 – June 28, 2013) was an American academic, writer, poet, Russian translator, and editor. He was also the father of "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve. He was the grandson of the first American Legion national commander, Franklin D'Olier.

Reeve was born in Philadelphia, the son of Anne Conrad D'Olier and Richard Henry Reeve. He was brought up outside New York City. Reeve worked in the wheat fields for a while during college and, after graduation, was a Hudson River longshoreman for a while. He graduated from Princeton University (1950) and Columbia University (1958), and in 1961 was one of the first exchanges between the American Council of Learned Societies and the USSR Academy of Sciences. In the late summer of 1962 he accompanied Robert Frost to Russia for his meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, where Reeve served as Frost's translator.

Reeve started his academic career teaching Russian language and literature at Columbia University. After teaching at Columbia, Reeve moved to Wesleyan University in 1962 as chairman of the Russian Department. In 1967, he joined Wesleyan's inter-disciplinary College of Letters where he taught literature, humanities and creative writing until his retirement in 2002. During the course of his career he had visiting appointments at Oxford University, Yale, and Columbia.

Since 1994 he lived in Wilmington, Vermont with his wife, novelist Laura Stevenson. Reeve was an officer of the Poetry Society of America, the founding editor of Poetry Review, the secretary of Poets House in its formative years, and was associated with the New England Poetry Club and the New York Quarterly. He published over two dozen books of poetry, fiction, criticism, and translation.

Reeve died on June 28, 2013 at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital in Lebanon, New Hampshire from complications from diabetes.

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Franklin married Barbara Pitney Lamb on 23 Nov 1951 in New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut, and was divorced on 21 Jan 1956 in Gooding, Gooding, Idaho. Barbara (daughter of Horace Rand Lamb and Beatrice Louise Pitney) was born on 10 Jan 1932 in New York City, New York, New York; died on 27 Jan 2000 in Burlington, Hartford, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Franklin married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Franklin married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Franklin married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Actor, director, and activist
• Cause of Death: Cardiac Arrest

Notes:

Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, director, and activist, best known for playing the main character and title role in the film Superman (1978) and its three sequels.

Born in New York City and raised in Princeton, New Jersey, Reeve discovered a passion for acting and the theater at the age of nine. He studied at Cornell University and the Juilliard School and made his Broadway debut in 1976. After his acclaimed performances in Superman and Superman II, Reeve declined many roles in action movies, choosing instead to work in small films and plays with more complex characters. He later appeared in critically successful films such as The Bostonians (1984), Street Smart (1987), and The Remains of the Day (1993), and in the plays Fifth of July on Broadway and The Aspern Papers in London's West End.

On May 27, 1995, Reeve broke his neck when he was thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. The injury paralyzed him from the shoulders down, and he used a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life. From his wheelchair, Reeve returned to creative work, directing In the Gloaming (1997) and acting in the television remake of Rear Window (1998). He also made several appearances in the Superman-themed television series Smallville, and wrote two autobiographical books, Still Me and Nothing is Impossible. Over the course of his career, Reeve received a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award.

On October 9, 2004, Reeve attended his son Will's hockey game. That night, he went into cardiac arrest after receiving an antibiotic for the infection. He fell into a coma, and was taken to Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York. Eighteen hours later, on October 10, 2004, Reeve died at the age of 52. No official autopsy was performed on the actor.[127] However, both Reeve's wife Dana and his doctor John McDonald believed that an adverse reaction to a drug caused Reeve's death.

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Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Christopher married Dana Charles Morosini on 11 Apr 1992 in Williamstown, Berkshire, Massachusetts. Dana was born on 17 Mar 1961 in Teaneck, Bergen, New Jersey; died on 6 Mar 2006 in New York City, New York, New York; was cremated on 9 Mar 2006. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]