The True Story That Inspired A Beautiful Mind

The brilliance of John Nash's early career and the tragedy of his growing mental health problems as represented in "A Beautiful Mind" are indeed true to life. Born in Bluefield, Virginia, on June 13, 1928, Nash really was only 21 years old when, as a student at Princeton University, he penned the groundbreaking work on game theory for which he would receive the Nobel Prize some 45 years later, according to his biography on the Nobel Prize website.

Nash wrote: "The mental disturbances originated in the early months of 1959 at a time when Alicia happened to be pregnant." As noted by Bright Side, Nash had begun experiencing the symptoms of schizophrenia, a disorder that he dealt with for the rest of his life. "A Beautiful Mind" portrayed Nash as experiencing vivid visual hallucinations; In fact, Nash's symptoms were auditory.

By the mid-'60s, Nash separated from his first wife, Alicia, while he was undergoing treatment, becoming estranged from his son in the process. Tragically, Nash's son also went on to develop schizophrenia.

Bright Side also notes that in the climate of the Cold War, Nash's paranoia led him to identify red ties as a sign of Communist sympathies. Later, he proposed an encryption machine to aid the National Security Agency, as explained in letters held in the NSA's files.

On May 23, 2015, Nash died in a car crash alongside Alicia, according to The New York Times. The couple had remarried in 2001.

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