Why did Christopher Reeve lose his appeal so soon after his big start in movies?

When he first began, his intentions were good.

I think he was an excellent actor and he absolutely nailed it as Superman/Clark Kent. But away from that I don't think he had enough charisma for a career based around leading man roles. I've seen him in a lot of things and always enjoyed watching him, but there was never anything about him that compelled me to watch him. I think he was basically a character actor in a leading man's body; he looked the part but was missing that 'special something'.

He tended to choose films that he thought had good scripts over films that would be successful. He likely turned down dozens of parts that he knew could've been big hits in favor or doing something that challenged him as an actor, but would likely not be a success. The best actors usually do this, as opposed to following the money.

If you've seen his film The Aviator (1985) then you'd know several films in the 90s completely ripped it off and made a bundle from doing so (The Edge, Six Days and Seven Nights), so he was unlucky.

I've seen pretty much all of Christopher's films and all of them are good films, some great. He was an actor's actor, not a George Clooney/Brad Pitt box office actor.

From a Reddit discussion concerning actors who derailed their own careers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1do60t4/comment/laaygg8/

So this one I heard through the family grapevine so take it with a big grain of salt but Christopher Reeve. Somewhere in the family I have family that knew him via being horse owners/riders and said he was overly cocky when it came to riding horses in regards to his ability. I have a vague recollection of the conversation when I was a teenager forever ago so who knows if they were talking BS or not but if it was true it couldn't ruin a career more than it did with him.