Kim Peek, 58, the real Rain Man, whose almost superhuman memory coupled with severe disabilities and who inspired the Oscar-winning film role played by Dustin Hoffman, has died of a heart attack.
He was knwon for his ability to memorise to the word up to 12,000 books. He could read two pages in about 10 seconds – the right page with his right eye and the left simultaneously with his left eye.
During the performance of a Shakespeare play, Kim Peek suddenly stood up and shouted out "Stop!" When an actor asked him what was wrong, he said: "You've missed out a word from that line." The actor apologised and said he did not think anyone would mind. "Shakespeare would," Peek replied. His areas of expertise included American history, geography, baseball, basketball and football, films, calendars and dates, and Shakespeare. Name a city, and he could list roads, businesses, zip codes and historical data from the area.
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 for help dressing, brushing his hair and other simple motor skills.
Peek was born with damage to the cerebellum in which the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerves that connects the two sides of the brain, is largely missing.
At the age of two his severe disabilities almost landed him for life in an asylum. In those days his condition was known as "idiot savant".
Rain Man went on to take four Oscars, including best actor for Hoffman.
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