According to WHO statistics, one in 160 children is born with an autism spectrum disorder. However, with the right upbringing, children adapt to society and lead normal lives. And sometimes the whole world learns about them.
Stanley Kubrick
The genius filmmaker who gave the world «A Space Odyssey», «The Shining», «Fullmetal Cladding», suffered from Asperger’s syndrome. This disorder belongs to the part of the autism spectrum and is expressed, among other things, in difficulties of interaction with others, poor coordination of movements, abnormal perfectionism and poorly developed empathy.
Stanley Kubrick had incredible attention to detail
Most actors had a hard time working under Stanley Kubrick. He was rude to his charges, ignored their problems and put truly atrocious demands. For example, shooting «Shine», made Shelley Duvall (Wendy) to repeat one scene 147 times. From the stress the actress began to lose her hair.
Robin Williams
During actor Robin Williams’ lifetime, no one ever diagnosed him with Asperger’s syndrome, but many facts from his life pointed to it. Those close to him noted his utter awkwardness in social interactions. His battle with depression, which he eventually lost, can also serve as a pointer to Asperger’s, because patients with this syndrome often have to fight «side» diseases like bipolar disorder.
Robin Williams killed himself on August 11, 2014
Susan Boyle
Scotswoman Susan Boyle rose to international fame after winning a national British talent show in 2009 with the song «I Dreamed A Dream.» The singer’s pre-triumph biography may bring tears to impressionable readers. Born into a poor, large Irish family in Scotland, Susan (or rather, her parents) was diagnosed at birth with irreversible brain damage from hypoxia. This family later explained all her oddities by labeling the girl «mentally retarded.
Susan Boyle lived most of her life labeled «mentally retarded».
She was bullied at school, her schoolwork was not successful, and after school, after working as a cook’s helper for six months, Susan was disabled and lived on a modest pension. She had to suppress constant depression and anxiety on a daily basis. But in her heart she cherished the dream of becoming a singer. Already after the fame fell on Boyle, she underwent a medical examination and received a correct diagnosis — Asperger’s syndrome.
Courtney Love
The flamboyant star of the American rock scene had a tragic youth. Her father gave her LSD, for which he was deprived of parental rights. After her parents divorced, Courtney Love was left to live with her mother, who soon found new love and settled with her new husband in a hippie commune. Courtney had a strained relationship with her peers and academic problems (although teachers saw her as gifted), and at age 9 she was diagnosed with an initial form of autism.
Courtney Love always felt she didn’t fit in.
At 14, the girl was sent to a juvenile correctional facility for stealing a T-shirt from a store. Upon her release, she decided to rely solely on herself, especially since her mother had long lived in New Zealand, where she found new love. After a long and controversial search for herself (for example, she worked part-time as a stripper and studied theology), Love tried her hand at movies, founded the punk band The Hole and married Kurt Cobain. In many of her lyrics you can see the huge divide between her and society, like in «Retard Girl.
Bill Gates
If Bill Gates is not the most famous person with autism, he is definitely the richest. Experts speculate that he has Asperger’s syndrome, but thanks to the efforts of his wealthy parents, his eccentricities were not a hindrance to his education. Bill was inculcated from childhood with a desire for constant competition and continuous absorption of knowledge. While other children chased a ball, he studied the manuscripts and drawings of Leonardo da Vinci.
Bill Gates consistently ranks in the top 3 richest people in the world
Already at the age of 12 he came to the conclusion that it was not machines but programs that would change the future. In 1975, he and his friend Paul Allen created Microsoft, which turned the world upside down by making computers available to ordinary people far from programming. Gates donates the lion’s share of profits to his charitable foundation.
Anthony Hopkins
The «Silence of the Lambs» star only found out by the time he was eighty that he suffered from Asperger’s syndrome. As a young man he did not study well because of dyslexia, which prevented him from reading and writing, so he decided quite early to tie his life to the arts. He learned to play the piano, but did not make much progress. Fortunately, at age 15, he met the actor Richard Burton, after which he began taking acting lessons himself.
«A lot of people with Asperger’s function normally, they’re just very…inconsistent. They have nervous tics, obsessive thoughts and conditions. Yes, I am different from other people. I love analyzing the behavior of characters in books and movies and other people. I take them apart,» Anthony Hopkins shared in an interview he gave shortly after discovering his diagnosis.
