Chris Higgins
The Late Movies: Kim Peek, the Original “Rain Man”
by Chris Higgins - December 23, 2009 - 10:00 PM

The Late Movies

Kim Peek was an autistic savant who inspired the movie Rain Man. Peek died on December 19, and below I’ve posted a five-part documentary about him, featuring neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran, among others. If you haven’t seen Rain Man, you probably should, but in short let’s just quote Wikipedia on Peek’s abilities: “His reading technique consisted of reading the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye and in this way he could read two pages at time with a rate of about 8-10 seconds per page. It is believed he could recall the content of at least 12,000 books from memory.”

Kim Peek – The Real Rain Man (Part 1 of 5)

Part 2 of 5


Part 3 of 5

Part 4 of 5

Part 5 of 5

Read More About Kim Peek

First check out Wikipedia, NASA Studying ‘Rain Man’s’ Brain, and Jim Peek – The Real Rain Man.

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Comments (3)

  1. You’re the first news/blog site that I’ve seen posted this since it was on Daniel Tammet’s site. Certainly sad news. I wonder what his dad will do.

    posted by Tanner on 12-23-2009 at 10:23 pm

  2. Kim was an inspiration, so was also his incredible father Fran who stood by him his entire life. I’m not particular religous, however I recognise what I call an Angel as I’m presented to one. I wish him peace and joy as he travels among us a little bit further in life.

    So sorry for your loss Fran. You and your son both inspired me deeply!

    posted by Rob on 12-24-2009 at 6:47 am

  3. what a great story. Fran Peek is amazing, and so is Kim. May God bless them.

    posted by jenny on 12-24-2009 at 4:13 pm

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