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John Nash Dies at 86: Russell Crowe Reacts to Death of A Beautiful Mind Mathematician

John Nash and Russell Crowe
Mathematician John Nash died at age 86 in a car accident. Actor Russell Crowe reacted to the loss of Nash, who inspired A Beautiful Mind.

Mathematician John Nash and his wife Alicia Nash were tragically killed in a car accident on Saturday, May 23, on the New Jersey Turnpike, the New York Times reports. Nash inspired the 2001 Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind, which starred Russell Crowe as the brilliant mathematician. 

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On Sunday, May 24, Crowe, 51, tweeted, "Stunned…my heart goes out to John & Alicia & family. An amazing partnership. Beautiful minds, beautiful hearts." 

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The Nobel Prize winner and his wife were killed when the taxi they were riding in lost control and hit a guard rail and another vehicle. They were pronounced dead at the scene. 

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A Beautiful Mind won four Oscars and earned Crowe a nomination for his role as Nash.

In 1994 Nash received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in game theory as a Princeton graduate student. 

Nash is survived by his son John David Stier from a previous relationship and his son John Charles Martin Nash with Alicia. He married Alicia in 1957. He had his first symptoms of mental illness in 1959 when Alicia was pregnant. He suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. The stress of the relationship led them to divorce in 1963 before they eventually remarried in 2001.  

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