MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Dr. John Forbes Nash, Jr., 86, the inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film “A Beautiful Mind,” and mathematician who shared a Nobel Prize died on Saturday in New Jersey.

A spokesperson for the public affairs department of the New Jersey state police confirmed Sunday afternoon that the Bluefield, West Virginia native and his wife, Alicia (Larde) Nash, died as a result of injuries received in a two-vehicle wreck at 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Nash was the subject of the 2001 Academy Award Best Picture winning movie “Beautiful Mind” staring Russell Crowe. Nash’s doctoral theory on game theory earned Nash a one-third share of the Nobel Prize in economics in 1994 and he was recently awarded the Abel Prize in mathematics from Norway.

Sgt. First Class Gregory Williams of the New Jersey State Police said that the vehicles were southbound at the 72.4 mile marker when the collision occurred.

Williams said that Dr. and Mrs. Nash were ejected from the cab they were traveling in.

“They were both pronounced dead at the scene,” Williams said.

The driver of the taxi was transported with minor injuries, a passenger in the other vehicle that collided in the wreck suffered non-life threatening injuries.

“The wreck is still under investigation,” Williams said.

Nash was born in Bluefield on June 13, 1928, the son of Virginia (Martin) Nash, an educator in the Bluefield public schools, and John Forbes Nash Sr., an engineer with the Appalachian Power Company.

Dr. Nash graduated from Bluefield High School in 1945, and completed 18 credit hours at Bluefield College in Bluefield, Virginia, prior to his graduation. He earned his undergraduate degree and master’s degree at Carnegie Tech in 1948, and received his doctorate in 1950 from Princeton University. 

Archer writes for the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.