US: There have been many tributes paid to the actor Christopher Reeve - who became famous initially because of his starring role in the Superman films - after he died from heart failure at the age of 52.
Reeve became a committed campaigner for spinal cord research after being paralysed in a riding accident nine years ago.
He went into a coma on Saturday when he suffered a heart attack during treatment for an infected pressure wound and died in Northern Westchester Hospital, New York, on Sunday afternoon without regaining consciousness.
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 in 1995.
He became a firm advocate of stem cell research, which his foundation - christopherreeve.org - described as having "enormous therapeutic utility". This put him at odds with America's evangelical Christians and the Bush administration, which banned federal government funding of such research.
Senator John Kerry, in his recent TV debate with President Bush, described Reeve as a friend and said he supported his campaign on stem cell research. Yesterday, Sen Kerry described Reeve as "truly America's hero".
"He was an inspiration to all of us and gave hope to millions of Americans who are counting on the life-saving cures that science and research can provide," he said in a statement.
Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the British Medical Research Council, yesterday described Reeve as a "remarkable man" who had campaigned on behalf of innovative medical research into spinal injuries.
"It is absolutely wrong to raise false expectations about the speed with which medical research progresses, but it takes people like Reeve, with their commitment and their certainty that they will be cured, to carry it forward," Professor Blakemore told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"It takes extraordinary individuals like Reeve to recognise that investment and effort is worthwhile in the long run to work for others. He always said that he was working for himself and was convinced that there would be a cure, but I think probably deep in his mind he knew his efforts would be far more likely to pay off for others than for him."
Film director Michael Winner said Reeve was the "archetypal movie star" and said his death was a tragedy. "I think he grew to personify a heroic struggle against disability. We all kind of believed that we would one day see him walk again and instead we see him die really very young. It's terribly, terribly sad.
"My main memory of him is of his enormous charm. He had great skill as a screen actor and was the archetypal movie star. He had great charisma," said Mr Winner.
Reeve lobbied the US Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury and made a moving appeal at the 1996 Motion Picture Academy Awards ceremony.
"Hollywood needs to do more," he told the Oscar audience. "Let's continue to take risks. Let's tackle the issues. In many ways our film community can do it better than anyone else. There is no challenge, artistic or otherwise, that we can't meet."
In 2002 Reeve's doctors said he was able to move some of his fingers and toes. The star could also feel a pin prick over most of his body and could distinguish between hot and cold, and sharp and dull sensations.
At the time doctors said the progress indicated that he might one day be able to walk again. In an interview at the time, Reeve said the greatest thing was being able to feel the hugs of his wife and his three children.
Yesterday 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".
The actor was confined to a wheelchair since his riding accident but used his celebrity status to mobilise funds and support for research into the treatment of spinal cord injuries. His family asked that donations be made in his honour to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, formed in 1999 to boost collaboration between experts working on the problem and to encourage new approaches.
Christopher Reeve was born on September 25th, 1952, and attended the city's Julliard school. He graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
He appeared on the television soap opera, Love of Life, while still in college. Reeve debuted on Broadway in A Matter of Gravity in 1976, playing Katharine Hepburn's grandson, and later starred in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July, in which he portrayed embittered Kenneth Talley, a gay, crippled Vietnam War veteran.
Despite his theatre credentials and work on television, Reeve was best known as the hero of the four Superman films.
He was a virtual unknown when he was chosen from 200 candidates to become the big screen's incarnation of 1978's Superman, in which he played fumbling Clark Kent, a cub journalist at the Daily Planet newspaper who at will turns into the flying superhero.
The movie's producers were looking for an unknown actor to star in the title role alongside Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman. Reeve screen-tested for the role and, through his meticulous preparation and close physical resemblance to the comic-strip hero, was given the part. The film and its three sequels turned him into a star.
In 1993 he appeared in the Merchant and Ivory hit, The Remains of the Day, which was filmed in the English countryside.
Earlier films include Gray Lady Down, Somewhere in Time, Switching Channels, The Bostonians and Deathtrap. Following his accident Reeve did not abandon his show business career totally. He returned to directing, and even returned to acting in a 1998 production of Rear Window, a modern update of the Hitchcock thriller about a man in a wheelchair who becomes convinced a neighbour has been murdered.
Reeve and his wife had one son, Will, now 12, and he had two children from a previous relationship - Matthew, 25, and Alexandra, 21. - (Agencies)
On October 20th at 10.25p.m., BBC television will broadcast Keeping Hope Alive, a documentary about Reeve and his campaigning.