Beautiful Mind Mathematician John Nash Dies in Car Crash

Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Forbes Nash and his wife, Alicia Nash, were killed in a car crash on the New Jersey turnpike on Saturday, reports NJ.com, a website for several local newspapers.

Nash was 86 years old, his wife was 82. The couple were in a taxi cab returning from the airport when the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the guardrail, NJ.com reports.

Nash, the game theory mathematician portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 2002 film A Beautiful Mind, was reportedly bisexual, though later that year, the Nashes told the Washington Post that the mathematician had never had a same-sex relationship. However, the biography on which the film was based, written by Sylvia Nasar, suggested that Nash had involvements with men during his early career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and that he lost his security clearance after an arrest for indecent exposure.

Responding to news of the fatal accident, Crowe tweeted his condolences to the Nash family and friends, as did Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard, who won two Oscars (for best Picture and Best Director) for the 2002 film.