To be a Superman was his fate

&to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2002/08/28/35513.html ' target=_blank>Superman actor Christopher Reeve fought tirelessly for more embryonic stem cell research after being crippled in a riding accident.

His case even became part of the US presidential &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/politics/2003/02/21/43583.html ' target=_blank>election campaign and researchers believe that a cure for many illnesses will come out of Reeves' advocacy.

Reeve spent nine years in a wheelchair, paralysed from the neck down, after an accident which smashed his spinal cord and nearly killed him. The energy that he put into four "Superman" films was turned into a personal campaign to walk again and for more research to help others who faced similar disabilities, wrote the Turkish Press.

According to the E! Online, Christopher Reeve probably would have preferred to be only an actor, but it was his fate to be a Superman, both onscreen and off.

The actor, who convinced movie audiences that a son of Krypton could fly and later inspired a world to believe that a paralyzed man could walk again, died Sunday at a New York hospital, his publicist announced. He was 52.

In a statement, Reeve's wife, Dana Reeve, thanked the hospital and the family's staff of nurses and aides--"as well as the millions of fans from around the world who have supported and loved my husband over the years."