# What scientist would make the most compelling biopic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699 "2009-01-17T03:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/21 "2009-01-17T18:53:19Z")
Hubble would be an interesting character; he was larger than life, a tremendous character, and an absolutely unapologetic, almost pathological liar and egomaniac. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/22 "2009-01-17T20:05:33Z")
How about [Hedy Lamarr](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr)? Beautiful actress who made a daring escape from Nazi Germany and later went on to invent a key component in wireless communication. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/23 "2009-01-17T20:16:24Z")
> [@Ataraxy](#): > > **Richard Feynman** especially his teaching career. I’m in the middle of James Gleick’s biography of Feynman, _Genius_, right now, and it really is a great read. I think a good screenwriter could make an excellent movie, or even miniseries, from it. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/24 "2009-01-17T20:54:18Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > How about [Hedy Lamarr](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr)? Beautiful actress who made a daring escape from Nazi Germany and later went on to invent a key component in wireless communication. Thats Hedley. Someone had to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/25 "2009-01-17T20:56:43Z")
I was thinking Oppenheimer, especially for the inevitable title, “I Am Become Death”, but then my brain spiraled off into an OT idea of a post-nuclear-apocalypse movie taking place in the 60’s with Oppenheimer as the protagonist, with the same title. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/26 "2009-01-17T21:45:38Z")
> [@Ataraxy](#): > > **Stephen Hawking** _My Left Foot_ for scientists There is already a darned good documentary about Hawking. I’d hate to see a biopic glurge it up. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/27 "2009-01-17T22:12:10Z")
There was a miniseries about Oppenheimer: > **[Oppenheimer (TV Mini Series 1980) ⭐ 8.2 | Biography, Drama, History](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078037/)** > > 7h | Not Rated ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/28 "2009-01-17T22:23:12Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Batman is a scientist. [Marge]It’s not Batman![/Marge] ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/29 "2009-01-17T22:39:50Z")
[Antoine Lavoisier](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavoisier). In addition to devising “the first version of the law of conservation of mass, recognized and named oxygen (1778) and hydrogen (1783), abolished the phlogiston theory, helped construct the metric system, wrote the first extensive list of elements,” he had an equally-talented and brilliant wife, [Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Anne_Pierrette_Paulze). So two strong roles for a leading actor and actress… For additional (period) drama, their story is set during the time of the French Revolution. Lavoisier had been involved with the much-hated tax-collection agency, the Ferme-Generale, and because of that association, met his death on the guillotine. So lots of opportunities for plot intrigue, lavish costumes, and set design! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/30 "2009-01-17T22:42:23Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > I was thinking Oppenheimer, especially for the inevitable title, “I Am Become Death”, but then my brain spiraled off into an OT idea of a post-nuclear-apocalypse movie taking place in the 60’s with Oppenheimer as the protagonist, with the same title. 😃 There’s also an opera about Oppenheimer - “Doctor Atomic,” by John Adams and Peter Sellars. Given what Oppenheimer represents about the 20th century and America I’m surprised nobody’s gone a step further and made a movie; maybe someone’s just underestimating the public’s interest. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/31 "2009-01-17T23:38:31Z")
Besides Roy Chapman Andrews, mentioned above, I would propose ethnobotanist [Richard Evans Schultes](http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/schultes.html), who spent many years exploring the Amazon Basin to study the use of hallucinogenic plants by remote tribes. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/32 "2009-01-17T23:44:26Z")
I’m a big fan of [Paul Erdos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erdos). Fascinating guy. Feynman, of course, could make a great story. Joe ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/33 "2009-01-17T23:49:18Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > How about [Hedy Lamarr](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr)? Beautiful actress who made a daring escape from Nazi Germany and later went on to invent a key component in wireless communication. This gets my vote. Won’t be possible though; Hedy Lamarr was the most beautiful woman in the history of the planet. Who could possibly play her onscreen? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/34 "2009-01-17T23:49:42Z")
> [@Freejooky](#): > > [Jack Parsons.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons) Groundbreaking rocket scientist by day (whose work arguably ultimately went toward creating space travel), Occultist by night. Student of Alisteir Crowley, participant in crazy sex magick rituals, may have begun the end of the world or opened a portal to another dimension that let UFO’s through in the forties. L. Ron Hubbard makes a cameo (as someone who rips Parsons off) - Parsons magickally summons a hurricane in retribution. And the story gets weirder from there. > > And it ends with an explosion, 😃 “Cameo”, hell! Hubbard was out in the Mojave with Parsons & their mistress doing the “Babalon Working” ritual designed to either open the gates, turn her into “the Scarlet Woman”, conceive a Moonchild/the Antichrist, or a combination of the above. I do think she babbled out something that was supposed to be their version of “The Book of The Law”, if nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/35 "2009-01-17T23:55:48Z")
Aside from the BBC series and the opera, the Oppenheimer security hearing has been done as [a play](http://www.curtainup.com/jrobertoppenheimer.html) and his wartime relationship with Groves as [a film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097336/). Neither is all that recommendable. Granted, the one time I’ve sat through the latter I spent my time bitching about plausibility of the set designs. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/36 "2009-01-18T00:14:45Z")
As an aside, [Fat Man and Little Boy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097336/) depicts Oppenheimer as played by Dwight Schultz of “The A-Team,” opposite Paul Newman as General Leslie Groves. Also starring John Cusack as a fictitious scientist and Laura Dern as a fictitious nurse who become fictitiously involved in the shadow of the Manhattan Project. But it’s really the Schultz/Newman chemistry that drives the picture. Recommended for those of us who enjoy watching things that aren’t particularly good, but which also feature atomic bombs. I would of course nominate [John Hunter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunter_(surgeon)), noted 18th-century surgeon, anatomist, and grave robber. Among his many other achievements, he was famous for having intentionally inoculated himself with syphillis, the better to study the disease. This claim is generally recognized as the most transparent lie in the history of science, and as such has provided invaluable grist and inspiration for uncountable grant applications and funding requests. In [this etching](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Hunter.jpg) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hunter is depicted deep in thought about how best to conceal the expenditures for his many, many liaisons with London prostitutes. ETA: I see that **bonzer** beat me to the **Fat Man and Little Boy** recommendation. But really, for most viewers, the eccentric performances will easily overshadow the eccentric stage design. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/37 "2009-01-18T00:15:16Z")
Various other random comments. > [@Ataraxy](#): > > **Charles Darwin’s** voyage on the _Beagle_ Famous dramatised by the BBC [back in 1978](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216517/). But worth revisiting. > [@](#): > > **Marie Curie** had a movie about her shortly after she died and I think it’s time for another one. Unlike the first one, I think that this should focus not on her relationship with her husband, but her daughters. Single mom, world class scientist. A chick flick, perhaps? No, no, no. You do the _scandale_ about her affair with Langevin. For that matter, she was the subject of another well-received Seventies [BBC drama series](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075534/). > [@](#): > > **Stephen Hawking** _My Left Foot_ for scientists A reasonable [recentish BBC film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395571/), with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role. [QUOTE=Sefton] Andrei Sakharov was the USSR’s best designer of atomic bombs, and his fifty megaton bomb is the largest bomb ever exploded. His fusion reactor designs are still being followed. Then he switched gears and became a political activist. He was instrumental in the Partial Test Ban Treaty and wrote about human rights and intellectual freedom. He was kicked out of military research, but he got the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 and eventually led the political party that opposed the Soviet Union. [/QUOTE] Again the subject of a good, but seemingly forgotten, BBC one-off play, in this case back in the early Eighties, concentrating on the politics rather than the science. Fairly sure it’s not [this](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088033/), but it doesn’t appear to have an IMDB entry. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/38 "2009-01-18T02:14:42Z")
[**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy\_Lavon\_Julian**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Lavon_Julian). This little-known pioneering grandson of slaves was one of the first black scientists to be inducted into the National ACademy of Sciences. He attended a university that wouldn’t allow him to room in the dorms, and he had to eat and sleep in the attic of a frat house that allowed him to do odd jobs, but graduated valedictorian. DuPont rescinded a job offer when they realized he was black. His house was firebombed before his family moved in, then another dynamite attack after they moved in, but his neighbors formed a community group to support them. He triumphed, receiving over 130 chemical patents during his career. It could be a very dramtic and inspirational movie. With explosions. StG ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/39 "2009-01-18T02:24:34Z")
George Washington Carver ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/40 "2009-01-18T02:25:46Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Dude lost part of his nose in a duel and ended up wearing a prosthetic made of gold and silver. Born ca. 1550 and died around 1600. And kept a ‘clairvoyant’ dwarf named Jepp. And then there’s the incident with the drunken elk. [dave barry]I’m not making this up.[/dave barry] I’ve seen _Infinity_, which focused more on the romance between Feynman and his first wife. Without discounting that very important aspect of his life, there’s a lot more about him that could be told in a movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699.md?page=3)