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Kim PeekKim Peek (b. 1951) is a U.S. autistic savant and inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbit in the movie Rain Man. He has an eidetic memory. Kim Peek was born November 11 1951 with an enlarged head and missing corpus callosum, the connecting tissue between the brain hemispheres, damage to the cerebellum and no anterior commissure. of all this, according to Peek's father Fran, Peek was able to memorize things since he was 16-20 months old. He read books, memorized them and then put them upside down, a practice he still uses. Still, he did not walk until the age of four. Peek has worked at a day workshop for adults with disabilities since 1969. Peek has memorized an astonishing amount of information from 15 grand subjects ranging from history and literature, geography and numbers, to sports, music and dates. He can recall about 8000 books from memory. Peek can also do calculations in his head; in his day job he has prepared information from worksheets for paychecks. In 1984, director Barry Morrow met Peek in Arlington, Texas; the result of the meeting was the 1988 movie Rain Man. Dustin Hoffman met Peek, as well as other autistic savants, to get better authenticity for the character. The movie also caused a number of requests for appearances that have increased Peek's self-confidence. Peek has also appeared on television. He travels with his father. In 2004, NASA scientists submitted him to a series of tests including computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. They were attempting to create a three-dimensional look at his brain structure. They wanted to compare the images to MRI scans done in 1988. External links References Further Reading - Fran Peek - The Real Rain Man (1997) ISBN 0965116301
Peek, Kim Peek, Kim Peek, Kim
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