Kim Peek, the real Rain Man whose almost unimaginable powers of memory were coupled with severe disabilities and who inspired the Oscar-winning film role played by Dustin Hoffman, has died of a heart attack in his home town of Salt Lake City, aged 58.
Peek has been called a “mega-savant” for his ability to memorise to the word up to 12,000 books, including the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He could read two pages in about 10 seconds – the right page with his right eye and the left simultaneously with his left eye.
He knew phone books by heart, and could tell you what day of the week a particular date fell upon going back decades. One of his party tricks was to tell strangers the names of the people who used to live next door to them years ago.
At the same time, though, he had deep disabilities and relied on his father Fran for help dressing, brushing his hair and other simple motor skills.
News of his death led to an outpouring of expressions of gratitude from thousands of parents of disabled children who said that the film, and Peek’s many public appearances that followed it, had given them comfort and hope. “Kim taught us something about human potential beyond what most of us can even imagine let alone explain,” said one commentator on his local paper, Deseret News.
Peek was born on 11 November 1951 with damage to the cerebellum; the corpus callosum, the large bundle of nerves that connects the left and right hemispheres, was also missing.
At the age of two his severe disabilities almost landed him for life in an asylum.
sauce: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/22/kim-peek-rain-man-dies
