Kim Peek: The Man Who Inspired ‘Rain Man’ Dies

Kim Peek, who is the autistic savant that inspired the Oscar-winning movie “Rain Man,” has died at the age of 58. According to reports from timesonline.co.uk, Mr Peek’s father Fran said that his son suffered a major heart attack on Saturday.

He was then pronounced dead at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is the town where he had spent his entire life. Kim was probably the world’s most famous savant, described by many as a mixture of disability and genius.

And it was Mr Peek’s astonishing ability to retain all his knowledge that inspired writer Barry Morrow, to write the 1988 hit movie “Rain Man,” which starred Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise and earned four Academy Awards as well.

Peek was diagnosed as severely mentally retarded at an early age, and his parents were advised to place him in a mental institution and just forget about him. 30 years later, he was classified as a genius in about 15 different subjects.

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