Kim Peek, The Case That Inspired The Rain Man Story

Kim Peek’s fascinating story reminds us that human beings are wonderfully different and that good and bad, best and worst are relative concepts in the world we move in. The entire planet learned about him through the famous film Rain Man , which partly portrayed his talent and his tragedy.

Kim Peek, the real Rain Man, inspired the film’s script and the central threads of the story. However, his real life differed greatly from what was shown on the tape. This production marked a milestone in the history of cinema, but also in the existence of the character that inspired it.

Perhaps the story of Kim Peek is more fascinating than that of Rain Man himself. So much so that it is estimated that more than two million people sought him out to interact with him. Several documentaries were also made about his case and even NASA wanted to know in detail who this sweet man was who had inspired one of the best films of the 20th century.

Kim Peek, a “retard”?

The diagnosis Kim Peek received when he was born in 1951 was that: mental retardation. He came into the world with a disability and that is why the doctors advised him to be admitted to a specialized center. His family disagreed with the advice. They wanted Kim with them and so it happened.

Kim Peek had macrocephaly and this meant that he was not going to complete his physical and mental development. His brain was excessively large and lacked a corpus callosum, an area that connects the hemispheres. So the prognosis for his life was unfavorable.

However, Kim’s parents realized that their son was special in more ways than one. At just one and a half years old, he was already able to memorize each of the books that were read to him. It was an amazing ability that they did not know how to manage.

Kim’s wonderful brain

Kim Peek’s parents noted that the boy was retaining the entire books ; they only needed to be read to them once for this phenomenon to occur. When he read a book himself, he turned it upside down and never looked at it again. He no longer needed it: he had memorized it.

With only three years he learned to consult the dictionary. I read the meanings and learned them. It is said that in total he memorized an impressive 9,000 books. He had the ability to read one page with his right eye and the other with his left eye. He also did it at a very fast pace: he completed two pages in just 10 seconds.

Likewise, Kim was capable of performing complex mathematical operations in record time. He would pick up the phone book and add up the numbers in a column in seconds, just for fun. That is why when he grew up he was able to keep the total accounts of a company without the help of a calculator or paper.

A beautiful life

Unlike the Rain Man in the movie, Kim was a caring person. He enjoyed social contact and responded with understanding and affection to anyone who spoke to him. Although his memory was gifted, he could not draw conclusions from his readings or apply his mathematical knowledge to activities other than calculus.

He also had several motor problems. He only walked until he was 4 years old and reached adulthood without being able to button his shirt or tie his shoes.

Barry Morrow, the screenwriter of Rain Man, met him by chance at an event about people with special limitations and potentialities. Morrow had already made a movie on this subject, but was stunned to meet Kim.

This led him to write the script for Rain Man . Dustin Hoffman, who played the character, also met Kim and expressed his admiration for her on multiple occasions. He publicly thanked her for their input when she won the Oscar for her performance in this film.

As for Kim Peek, he was also reached for fame. His father says that this had a positive influence on his life, since it allowed him to enjoy contact with others like never before. This wonderful man, who came into the world to teach us something more about human paradoxes, died of cardiorespiratory arrest in 2009, at the age of 58.