The Story Of Kim Peek: The Fall Behind Rain Man
The story of Kim Peek reminds us that all people are amazing. The whole world got to know him through the famous movie Rain Man, which was based on his talent and tragedy.
Real “Rain Man” Kim Peek inspired the plot of this movie. His real life, however, differed from the image captured in the film.
The production marked not only a milestone in the history of the film world, but also in the life of the character who was an inspiration for it.
The story of Kim Peek: mentally retarded?
Peek was born in 1951 and was immediately diagnosed with mental retardation. He came into the world with a disability and the doctors therefore recommended that he be admitted to a special center.
However, his family did not agree and wanted Kim to live with them, which he did.
Kim Peek had macrocephaly, which prevented him from developing normally. His brain was too large and did not have the connection between the two hemispheres called the cerebral cortex. He therefore received a poor life prognosis.
Kim’s parents realized that their son was not like everyone else, that he was special. When he was one year old, he could memorize every book that people read to him.
They were so amazed at this ability that they did not know how to handle it.
Kim’s amazing brain
Kim Peek’s parents noticed that the boy could learn and remember large amounts of information. They only needed to read something to him once.
When he had read a book, he used to put it upside down and never look at it again. He no longer had to look at it because he had memorized everything.
He learned to use the dictionary when he was only three years old. Kim read the meanings of the words and learned them right away. Some say he memorized 9,000 books.
He had the ability to read one page with his right eye and another with his left. He also did it very quickly: he could read two whole pages in just ten seconds.
Kim was also able to perform mathematical calculations in no time. He could pick up a phone book and add the numbers to a column just because he thought it was fun.
As an adult, he could therefore do an accountant’s job for an entire company without a calculator, paper or pen.
A beautiful life
Unlike the movie “Rain Man”, Kim was a very caring person. He liked social contact and showed understanding for everyone who communicated with him.
Even though he had a fantastic memory, he could not draw conclusions from the things he read or apply his mathematical knowledge to anything other than these calculations.
He also had various motor problems. For example, he could not walk until he was four years old. Furthermore, he reached adulthood without being able to button his shirt or tie his shoes.
Barry Morrow, the screenwriter for Rain Man, happened to meet him at an event that focused on people with special limitations and potential.
Morrow had already made a film on the subject. However, the meeting with Kim changed everything.
This meeting led him to write the screenplay for Rain Man. The actor Dustin Hoffman who played him in the film also met Kim and expressed on several occasions how much he admired him.
He publicly thanked Peek for his contribution when he won an Oscar for his role in the film.
The story of Kim Peek also became famous because of this. His father says that he film had a positive impact on his life because it made him succeed in making many new friends.
This amazing man came into the world to teach us something more about human paradoxes. He unfortunately died of a heart attack in 2009 at the age of 58.
