Reeve Admits Suicidal Thoughts

Christopher Reeve says his mother gave up hope in the first dark hours after his paralyzing fall from a horse and urged doctors to pull the plug. "They told her to calm down, to wait and see what would happen," Reeve writes in his just-published (by Random House) memoir, "Still Me," which recounts how he battled back from the May 1995 riding accident that severed his spinal cord. Reeve, 45, writes of how he, too, almost gave up hope, telling his wife, Dana, "Maybe we should let me go." She persuaded the "Superman" actor to go on by responding: "I want you to know that I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you. And I love you." The book chronicles the rehabilitation of the actor, who remains paralyzed from the shoulders down and is largely dependent on others.