Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, whose life story was turned into the Oscar-winning film 'A Beautiful Mind,' was killed in a car crash on Saturday, local media reported.
The Princeton University scholar, 86, and his wife Alicia, 82, were both killed when their taxi crashed in New Jersey, the reports said. The mathematician is renowned for his work in game theory, winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994, BBC reported.
Authorities believe that Nash and his wife were not wearing seat belts since they were both ejected from the taxi. The crash remains under investigation.
The film depicted his groundbreaking work in game theory, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994. He also received the Abel Prize, one of mathematics' most prestigious honors, in March. A Beautiful Mind which starred Russell Crowe, also depicted Nash's struggles with mental illness. Nash suffered from schizophrenia and, after his recovery, became an advocate for improving mental health care.
His mental illness came on when he was about 30, during what might have been one of the richest periods of his career. Nash was working at the time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was studying quantum theory.
