Oliver Sacks
1933 – 2015
Oliver Sacks was a famous neurologist and author from the United States. Even though he was a British national, he spent most of the days of his career as a neurologist in America. He was born on July 09, 1933 in London, The United Kingdom. The writing career of Oliver was also a fruitful one as he went on to write a few successful books about the patients he treated. The most famous book written by him was the ‘Awakenings’, which went on to be made into a film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and had the same title too. The other books written by Oliver were based on the science and nonfiction genres. He died on August 30, 2015 due to an ocular tumor in his brain at the age of 82. As a child, he was the youngest among 4 siblings. His parents belonged to a very prosperous family in North London and were Jewish by faith. His father, Sam, was a physician by profession while his mother, Elsie, was a surgeon. At the age of 6, Oliver and his brother were sent to boarding school in the Midlands as a safety measure taken by his parents in order to save them from The Blitz. He remained in the boarding school till the age of 10 and went on to become a skillful chemist in his youth.