The death has been announced of the Hollywood actor Christopher Reeve, who was 52.
Mr Reeve had been paralysed from the shoulders down following a riding accident in 1995. He fell into a coma on Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home. His publicist said he died yesterday.
Mr Reeve was best known for playing Superman in a series of four films in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Reeve's wife Dana issued a statement thanking 'the millions of fans around the world who have supported and loved my husband over the years.'
Reeve had in recent years campaigned for the rights of the disabled and for increased research into the treatment of spinal cord injuries.
An accomplished rider who owned several horses, Reeve suffered multiple injuries including two shattered neck vertebrae when he was thrown from his horse at an equestrian event in Commonwealth Park in Virginia.
Doctors initially predicted that he would never have any feeling or movement below his head. But his foundation's website, www.ChristopherReeve.org, said he had experienced a degree of recovery that his doctors considered 'remarkable'.
Despite his theatre credentials and work on television, Reeve is best known as the hero of the Superman films. He was a virtual unknown when he was chosen from 200 candidates to become the big screen's incarnation of Superman in 1978.
In 1993 he appeared in the Merchant Ivory hit, The Remains Of The Day. Earlier movies include Gray Lady Down, Somewhere in Time, Switching Channels, The Bostonians and Deathtrap.
Reeve and his wife Dana had one son, Will, now 12, and he had two children from a previous relationship - Matthew, 25, and Alexandra, 21.
