Hubble would be an interesting character; he was larger than life, a tremendous character, and an absolutely unapologetic, almost pathological liar and egomaniac.
How about Hedy Lamarr? Beautiful actress who made a daring escape from Nazi Germany and later went on to invent a key component in wireless communication.
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.
Thats Hedley.
Someone had to do it.
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 is already a darned good documentary about Hawking. I’d hate to see a biopic glurge it up.
There was a miniseries about Oppenheimer:
[Marge]It’s not Batman![/Marge]
Antoine 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. 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!
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.
Besides Roy Chapman Andrews, mentioned above, I would propose ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, who spent many years exploring the Amazon Basin to study the use of hallucinogenic plants by remote tribes.
I’m a big fan of Paul Erdos. Fascinating guy. Feynman, of course, could make a great story.
Joe
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?
“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.
Aside from the BBC series and the opera, the Oppenheimer security hearing has been done as a play and his wartime relationship with Groves as a film. 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.
As an aside, Fat Man and Little Boy 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, 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 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.
Various other random comments.
Famous dramatised by the BBC back in 1978. But worth revisiting.
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.
A reasonable recentish BBC film, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role.
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, but it doesn’t appear to have an IMDB entry.
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
George Washington Carver
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.