Extraordinary People With Disabilities - Famous

 

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770-1827

 

Disability: Deaf

Beethoven is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in history. He gave his first public performance as a pianist when he was only 8 years old. He studied in Vienna under the guidance of Mozart. By his mid-twenties he had earned a name for himself as a great pianist known for unpredictable and brilliant improvisations. In the year 1796 Beethoven began losing his hearing. In spite of his illness he immersed himself in his work and created some of the greatest works of music. Beethoven’s finest works are also the finest works of their kind in music history: the 9th Symphony, the 5th Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Late Quartets, and his Missa Solemnis. And he achieved all this despite being completely deaf for the last 25 years or so of his life.

 

Frida Kahlo

July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954

 

Disability: Polio

Frida Kahlo was a renowned Mexican painter who created striking paintings, most of them being self-portraits reflecting her pain and sorrow. She painted using vibrant colors that were influenced by the cultures of Mexico. She was the first Mexican artist of 20th century whose work was purchased by an international museum. Kahlo contracted polio at age six, which left her right leg thinner than the left, which Kahlo disguised by wearing long, colorful skirts. It has been conjectured that she also suffered from spina bifida, a congenital disease that could have affected both spinal and leg development. Although she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she was plagued by relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time.

 

Christy Brown

June 5, 1932 – September 7, 1981

 

Disability: Cerebral Palsy

Christy Brown was an Irish author, painter and poet who had severe cerebral palsy. Born in Crumlin, Dublin to parents Bridget and Paddy, he was one of 13 surviving children (out of 22 born) in a Catholic family. He was disabled by cerebral palsy and was incapable for years of deliberate movement or speech. Doctors considered him to be intellectually disabled as well. However, his mother continued to speak to him, work with him, and try to teach him. One day, he famously snatched a piece of chalk from his sister with his left foot to make a mark on a slate.
At about five years old, only his left foot responded to his will. Using his foot he was able to communicate for the first time. He is most famous for his autobiography My Left Foot, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film of the same name. The Irish Times reviewer Bernard Share said the book was “…the most important Irish novel since Ulysses”. Like Joyce, Brown employed the stream-of-consciousness technique and captured the Dublin culture in his use of humor, language and unique character description.

 

John Nash

June 13, 1928

 

Disability: Schizophrenia

John Forbes Nash is an Noble laureate American mathematician whose work in game theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations are considered ground breaking. At a young age he was interested in scientific experiments which he carried out in his room. He studied Chemical engineering, chemistry and mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University. Later he was awarded a Fellowship at Princeton. In 1959 John Nash started showing severe signs of paranoia and started behaving erratically. He believed that there was an organization chasing him. In the same year he was admitted involuntarily to the hospital where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After treatment he was again admitted to the hospital this time voluntarily for 9 years were he given shock therapy. After returning from the hospital in 1970 he gradually started recovering. His work was becoming more successful and resulted in various awards and recognition. Prominent among them are John von Neumann Theory Prize in the year 1978 and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in the year 1994. An Academy Award winning film named ‘A beautiful Mind’ starring Russell Crowe was made which was loosely based on his biography.