WASHINGTON — John Forbes Nash Jr., the Princeton University mathematician whose life story inspired the 2001 Academy Award-winning film “A Beautiful Mind,” was killed, along with his wife of nearly 60 years, in a taxi crash on the New Jersey Turnpike Saturday, according to reports.
Quoting New Jersey State Police Sgt. Gregory Williams, NJ.com reported Sunday that Nash, 86, and wife Alicia Nash, 82, were traveling southbound in a cab on the busy highway when the cab driver lost control trying to pass a car in the center lane, crashing into a guard rail.
The Nashes, who did not appear to be wearing seatbelts, were ejected from the car, Williams said.
The taxi driver was extricated from the vehicle and flown to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the report.
The Nash couple lived in Princeton Junction. A West Virginia Native, John Nash won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994, the year before he joined the Princeton mathematics department as a senior research mathematician. His work in game theory and his struggle with paranoid schizophrenia were the basis of the film, which starred Russell Crowe as Nash. Actress Jennifer Connolly played Alicia, who became Nash’s caretaker as he succumbed to the illness. They became public advocates of mental illness when their son was also diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Crowe, who was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Nash, said he was “stunned” to learn of the couple’s death.
Stunned…my heart goes out to John & Alicia & family. An amazing partnership. Beautiful minds, beautiful hearts. https://t.co/XF4V9MBwU4
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) May 24, 2015
