Wed Dec 23rd, 2009
Kim Peek - perhaps the worlds most famous Autisic Mega Savant died from a heart attack on Saturday 29th December.
He was the inspiration for 1989 film, Rain Man - the maths savant character Raymond Babbitt, played so well by Dustin Hoffman. The film went onto make over £100million at the box office.
Even though Kim was classed as a Mega Savant because of his ferocious intelligence (extensive knowledge of geography, maths, literature and history) he was also mentally disabled and needed 24/7 care given to him by his father Fran Peek. Kim could also read 2 pages of a book at a time! And of course the scientists had a field day with him, especially Nasa who made him the subject of MRI - based research in context with space travel and his intelligence.
Now we know much more about autism - its symptoms and idiosyncrasies and the subgroup of Aspeger's Syndrome.
We offer our sincere condolences to his family.
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