Alicia Nash and her famous husband, John Nash, were killed in a car accident on their way home in a taxi on Saturday.
John Nash and Alicia Nash were the inspiration behind the 2001 movie, A Beautiful Mind, which starred Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly as the couple.
John Nash was 86 and Alicia Nash was 82.
The story of John Nash and Alicia Nash, as was told in the movie, was one of love and perseverance.
John Nash graduated from Princeton in 1950, wherein he received his doctorate with a dissertation on non-cooperative games. The thesis contained the theory that would later make John Nash famous, the Nash equilibrium.
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
His rise in the academic world was parallel with the deepening of his mental illness, which began appearing in 1959 while Alicia Nash was pregnant with their first son.
John and Alicia Nash divorced in 1963 after struggling to battle his mental issues together. Nash’s schizophrenia began to disappear through the 70s and 80s, as, he said, he “gradually began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking.”
Several years later, they moved back in together and they remarried in 2001.
Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber said of John and Alicia Nash, “John’s remarkable achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists, and scientists who were influenced by his brilliant, groundbreaking work in game theory, and the story of his life with Alicia moved millions of readers and moviegoers who marveled at their courage in the face of daunting challenges.”
Such a great story.