# Dana Reeve dead at 47 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369 "2006-03-07T13:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/1 "2006-03-07T13:46:56Z")
Christopher Reeve’s widow [Dana](http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/03/07/obit.reeve.ap/index.html) has lost her battle with lung cancer. I feel so bad for their son Will. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/2 "2006-03-07T14:39:33Z")
It’s horrible. That family has been through so much. She was so young. Poor Will. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/3 "2006-03-07T14:42:10Z")
**Annie** , your link states 44, not 47, as her age. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/4 "2006-03-07T16:24:14Z")
The last interview I saw with her was a few months ago and she said she was doing well and was singing again. Of course they never admit to being terminal. I feel so bad for their son. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/5 "2006-03-07T16:39:20Z")
I admired her so much for the way she cared for Christopher after his accident. If I believed in such things I’d say that these were 2 people who were just _supposed_ to be together. If not in life, then in death. So sad. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/6 "2006-03-07T16:51:27Z")
> [@Sean Factotum](#): > > **Annie** , your link states 44, not 47, as her age. :smack: This is me, trying to give up coffee yet again. Sorry about that. To lift a post from the Talking Broadway All That Chat forum: I was struck by an image, from the end of Chris Reeves’ fabled fantasy film, SOMEWHERE IN TIME, where Reeve, as a playwrite, is reunited, after life, with his beloved– In an enchanted miasma, somewhere between here and when. And I couldn’t help but think that today, the Reeves, although only apart for a short while, were able to embrace, for the first time in years. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/7 "2006-03-07T16:54:20Z")
Anytime the notion starts to enter my head that there’s such a thing as Karma or that life is in any way fair, something like this completely dispells it. That family sure seems to have had a disproportionately rough time of it. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/8 "2006-03-07T17:30:50Z")
Her decline was rather quick. Wasn’t she just diagnosed at the end of last year? Terrible stuff! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/9 "2006-03-07T18:18:00Z")
Of all the rotten luck… and she wasn’t even a smoker. Things like this make me wish there’s an afterlife. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/10 "2006-03-07T18:19:57Z")
How sad and horrible for her son. ☹ Losing a parent even as an adult can be quite difficult to cope with…I can’t imagine losing both when still just a child. It must be very shocking to be diagnosed with lung cancer when you’re not a smoker. I wonder if she was around a lot of secondhand smoke. This is a sad reminder that smoking can hurt more people than just the smoker. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/11 "2006-03-07T19:41:19Z")
So very sad. My husband lost both of his parents within 2 years of each other. My husband is convinced that the stress of his father’s death contributed to his mother getting cancer. Stress will do crappy things to a body. I hope that their child has a wonderful support network to take care of Will. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/12 "2006-03-07T20:26:09Z")
> [@lavenderviolet](#): > > It must be very shocking to be diagnosed with lung cancer when you’re not a smoker. I wonder if she was around a lot of secondhand smoke. This is a sad reminder that smoking can hurt more people than just the smoker. So you ponder a possibility, then take it as a fact, and end up with cautionary platitude. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/13 "2006-03-07T21:39:07Z")
NPR reports that 2% of lung cancer cases are non-smokers. She was on Oprah last year, or maybe the year before. She was incredible. Strong, sweet, smart, and genuine. I know the world is full of strong, sweet, smart, and genuine women, but it’s not often that we see them on TV talk shows. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/14 "2006-03-07T22:14:47Z")
A co-worker made the nastiest comment today (but I don’t feel like pitting it). I read this headline and said “Oh, their poor kid… he’s an orphan already”. Her response (and this is a professional) “Hmmph… rich orphan you mean.” :mad: RIP, Dana & Chris. I too hope that I’m wrong and somewhere they’re running through a field together. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/15 "2006-03-07T22:43:48Z")
There are studies that show that people who have served as caretakers to family members for a long term _themselves_ die much earlier than would otherwise be expected. From various things…it’s just like the physical work and emotional stress weaken their own systems somehow. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/16 "2006-03-07T22:44:35Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > NPR reports that 2% of lung cancer cases are non-smokers. AP, in their story on Dana Reeve, says 1 in 5 women who get lung cancer never smoked. 20% seems a lot more likely than 2%. I don’t doubt that secondhand smoke contributes to lung cancer, I just thought **lavenderviolet** was jumping to conclusions. Still think that. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/17 "2006-03-07T22:45:06Z")
Dana Reeve was born on March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day), 1961, and so was 45 when she died. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/18 "2006-03-08T00:18:40Z")
Um, no, she was still 44. I just know the irreverent wiseacres at **The Onion** will do a number on this story. Maybe a short squib along the lines of “God compassionately reunites Dana and Christopher Reeve,” or perhaps an interview with God, who tries to explain how He decides these things. (A _reductio ab adsurdum_ piece if there ever was one.) ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/19 "2006-03-08T01:20:56Z")
I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was saying that she **must have** been exposed to secondhand smoke. I have no idea what the situation was for her specifically. I just felt that since we were on the subject of non-smokers getting lung cancer, it was a good time to point out that many cases of non-smokers getting lung cancer can be attributed to secondhand smoke exposure. I could see some smokers looking at this death and rationalizing “What’s the point of stopping smoking if you might get it even if you never smoke?” or something along those lines and I guess I was trying to preemptively address that. _shrug_ Sorry if that seemed like jumping to conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369/20 "2006-03-08T02:50:10Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > AP, in their story on Dana Reeve, says 1 in 5 women who get lung cancer never smoked. 20% seems a lot more likely than 2%. Not sure how to reconcile the different figures. Maybe it’s 20% non-smoking **women** and the 2% is the **total** non-smoking lung cancer victims (both men and women)? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dana-reeve-dead-at-47/347369.md?page=2)