Dana Reeve

Dana Reeve (née Morosini) (March 17, 1961 – March 6, 2006) was an American actress, singer, and activist for disability causes. She was the widow of actor Christopher Reeve.

Reeve was born Dana Charles Morosini in Teaneck, New Jersey to Charles Morosini, a cardiologist, and Helen Simpson Morosini, who died in February 2005.

She grew up in the town of Greenburgh, New York, where she graduated from Edgemont High School in 1979.

She graduated cum laude in English Literature from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1984.

She spent the junior year of her studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She later pursued additional graduate studies in acting at the California Institute of the Arts.

She and her husband received honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters from Middlebury in 2004. She married actor Christopher Reeve in Williamstown, Massachusetts in April 1992, and they had a son, William Elliot "Will" Reeve, born on June 7, 1992, whom they raised in Pound Ridge, New York.[citation needed]

Reeve loved to ride horses. In 2005, she told Larry King: "I rode my whole life, and after Chris had his accident, I stopped riding, primarily because he loved it so much, and I think it really would have been painful for him if I was going off riding and he wasn't able to. And it didn't mean that much to me to drop."

On August 9, 2005 Reeve announced that, although she had never smoked cigarettes, she had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Reeve chose to disclose her illness after The National Enquirer announced that it planned to make the information public.

In 2005, Reeve received the "Mother of the Year Award" from the American Cancer Society for her dedication and determination in raising her son after the loss of her husband. In her final public appearances, Reeve stated that the tumor had responded to therapy and was shrinking. She appeared at Madison Square Garden on January 12, 2006, to sing in honor of New York Rangers hockey player Mark Messier, whose number was retired that evening. On the night that she died, instead of having a live performer sing the national anthem at Madison Square Garden prior to the Rangers' game, a recording of Reeve singing was played.

Reeve died on March 6, 2006, at the age of 44,[9] at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She is survived by her son, her father, her two sisters and her husband's two grown children.

Episode 16 of the fifth season of Smallville titled "Hypnotic" is dedicated to her and the film Superman Returns is dedicated to both her and Christopher.