It's incredibly sad that Christopher Reeve passed away last night. Not only did he portray the greatest of all heroes, he became one himself when he turned what could have been a life ending tragedy into a life changing opportunity. He may have totally owned the Superman role, but his activist work on behalf of the physically challenged turned him into a real super man.

I think that the first movie I ever saw in the theaters was "Superman." I could be off on that, but I think that was probably the case. It was certainly one of the first movies I remember seeing whether or not it was at the theaters or not.

Since Christopher Reeve there have been Michael Keaton as Batman and Tobey Maguire as Spiderman. But none of those actors totally owned their roles in the same way that Christopher Reeve did. He was a legit actor. We all joke about the Superman/Clark Kent glasses thing. "Can't you tell that it's Superman? He's just wearing glasses for crying out loud." But Christopher Reeve totally knocked that concept out the window. His Clark Kent was radically different than his Superman. It was a total switch in the blink of an eye. He perfectly portrayed Clark Kent's bumbling stutter and Superman's confident idealism without much apparent effort.

Oh well. Wherever he is now, I'm sure he's not only walking, but leaping tall buildings with a single bound.

Superman, and all of his activist work, will always live on.