He chose his movie roles carefully, and was a time-travelling writer in Somewhere in Time (1980) and in Monsignor (1982) was a priest in Rome in 1945, using the black market in the service of the Church. He also returned to New York's prestigious Circle Rep, the off-Broadway company with which he had been when he tested for Superman, playing a gay Vietnam veteran confined to a wheelchair in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July, which transferred to Broadway. Reeve used his new position to extend his range as a theatrical actor - in leading roles in The Front Page, The Greeks, Holiday, Camino Real and others not in the 'big time' but at the Williamstown Theater Festival, where he had appeared as a youngster. If, in his opinion, the production was 'the lowest you can go without actually cheating', he liked the result as much as the first. He objected when Donner was replaced on the sequel by Richard Lester, 'creative consultant' on the original: but in the event they got along very well and Reeve particularly admired the way in which Donner's rejected footage was incorporated into the new material which Lester was shooting. Reeve claimed that Richard Donner, who directed, was 'the only one who kept things from being done in a shabby way and kept our morale high'. Reeve went on record as considering the producers' behaviour 'appalling' and described them as 'unworthy, devious and unfortunate as people'. Brando was written out of the sequel since his salary demands were too extravagant. Amidst a flurry of legal actions, and threats thereof, Reeve managed to secure a huge salary increase (from his original $250,000) plus a percentage.

They were supported, sometimes only for minutes, by Trevor Howard, Glenn Ford, Susannah York, Valerie Perrine and others.Įnough material had been left on the cutting-room floor to make viable a Superman II (1980). Reeve was signed to play the title role (and put on a crash course of body-building), Gene Hackman to be his arch-enemy, Lex Luthor, and Margot Kidder was Lois Lane.

But the budget, already dangerously high, was stretched by a further $3.7m, 'the highest salary ever paid to a performer', when Marlon Brando agreed to play Superman's father. Those most frequently mentioned were Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The producers Pierre Spengler and Ilya Salkind saw Reeve in A Matter of Gravity while planning Superman and noted that he was the right height - 6ft 4in - but they were then looking for a star name to play the role.

Christopher reeve as clark kent