Reeves' portrayal of Superman created obstacles in his career

The actor made the most of his roles in other films. By TERRY LAWSON KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS DETROIT -- Christopher Reeve was a theater and soap opera actor when director Richard Donner chose him to play the Man of Steel in 1978's "Superman," the first comic-book movie of the post-"Star Wars" era of special effects. Reeve, who died Sunday at age 52, proved so perfect in the part of the Boy Scout-superhero -- whom he would go on to play in three sequels -- that anybody who aspired to don the tights afterward was found lacking: Recent attempts to launch a new Superman franchise have been stalled for lack of a star worthy of wearing Reeve's red cape. The blessing, of course, was also a curse, as filmgoers had a hard time seeing Reeve as anyone other than Mr. Krypton. When he did get a good part, as in James Ivory's adaptation of Henry James' "The Bostonians" in 1984, reviewers would either express surprise that Reeve was capable of holding his own in a serious film, or view him as a distraction or a novelty. Good roles Nevertheless, Reeve made the most of the rare good roles he landed. He was very good in 1987's "Street Smart," a prescient drama based on a true story about a journalist whose fabricated story about prostitution gets him in serious trouble, but Reeve had the bad luck to be overshadowed by a then-unknown actor named Morgan Freeman, who became a star for his portrayal of a scary pimp. Reeve was equally good in Sidney Lumet's movie adaptation of the long-running play "Deathtrap," sparring and holding his own with Michael Caine in a clever game of wits, and in a supporting role in Ivory's "The Remains of the Day," one of his last films before the riding accident that paralyzed him. After "Superman," however, he will probably be best remembered for the 1980 romance "Somewhere in Time," in which he portrayed a playwright who falls in love with the portrait of a woman (Jane Seymour) hanging in Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel and who literally wills himself back in time to meet her. Though the movie, partly filmed on Mackinac and based on a Richard Matheson story, was only mildly successful on its original release, it soon attracted a cult of admirers, many of whom became members of a "Somewhere in Time" club that still meets annually on Mackinac to dress in period clothing, revisit scenes from the film and hold discussions about its meaning.