Actor Christopher Reeve (52), enthralling audience world-wide with his performance in superman series of the 1970s and 80s, has died.

The 52-year-old had been suffering from an infection as a result of a pressure wound and died on Sunday, his publicist Wesley Combs said.

He suffered a cardiac arrest at his New York home and slipped into a coma, Mr Combs added.

Reeve was paralysed nine years ago after falling from a horse.

He had also returned to acting, appearing in a 1998 production of Rear Window, a modern version of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller about a man in a wheelchair who becomes convinced that a neighbor has been murdered.