A Beautiful Mind, A Tragic Death

In a bizarre twist of fate, John Forbes Nash Jr, the genius mathematician whose life’s work focused on chance and ‘beating the odds’ was killed, along with his wife, in a car crash over the weekend.

The 86-year-old and his wife Alicia (82) were in a cab that was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike on Saturday night, when the driver allegedly lost control and crashed into a guard rail. The couple were flung from the vehicle, allegedly not having been wearing seatbelts.

Nash and his wife were catching a cab home from the airport, as they had just returned home from a trip to Norway, where he had been granted an outstanding achievement award.

John Forbes Nash Jr suffered from schizophrenia for most of his life, but that didn’t stop him from solving complex equations that lead to insight into the various factors that govern chance in everyday life.

Actor Russell Crowe portrayed Nash in the 2001 Academy Award-winning film A Beautiful Mind. Crowe tweeted on the weekend simply that he was “stunned” by the tragedy.  Antonino Tati