Diagnose a famous character/celebrity with AS

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I've found that since finding out that I may have AS I've been seeing the symptoms in all sorts of people. Friends, family members, people I meet everyday. It's like I'm looking for AS everywhere. And you can't help but occassionally turn on the TV to watch your favourite shows and see someone do something that makes you say, "wow, that's such an Aspie thing to do!"

The idea of this thread is simple, what famous characters or celebrities do you think are Aspies? Give the name, where they are famous from and what makes you think they have AS.

For example:

Ricky Gervais.
British Comedian, “The Office” and “Extras”...

Ricky cannot concentrate on anything when there are small distracting sounds in his environment. If he's in a restaurant and someone is slurping soup two tables away, Ricky will have to move, or complain, usually getting angry and frustrated either way.

Ricky is self focused and has less ability to empathise. He torments his long suffering friend, Robin Ince and when Robin asked himself what he was getting out of this torturous relationship, Ricky responded with “I like it” - Ricky thought Robin's motivation was that it makes Ricky happy, Robin's enjoyment or lack-there-of was irrelevant.

Also, as part of this torment, Ricky makes many strange squeals, squeaking noises and shrieks. He's said these noises are like “releasing a pressure valve” that enable him to function without acting out for a while.

When things interrupt Ricky's plans he becomes very frustrated and reacts with a violent tantrum. People often say that Ricky has only two moods, ecstatic child like joy and furious rage.

He often loses focus on what he's meant to be doing, costing productions a great deal of money when he gets bored with simply making the programme and resorts to playful disruptions on set.

Ricky knows that most of his behaviour, whilst detrimental to his functioning in society, is difficult, if not impossible to change. He has become successful working around his problems and working them into his creative process. His thinking is often radical and far from ordinary and this has helped him become the international superstar he is today.

Interestingly, Ricky Gervais' character on “The Office”, David Brent, is an even better example of a possible Aspie. Much of the character seems to be an exaggeration of traits Ricky has identified in himself and wishes to make fun of.

I'd definitely say that Brent Spiner's an Aspie.

Sherlock Holmes.

Fictional Detective.

From Wikipedia:

he is presented as an independent student of chemistry with a variety of very curious side interests, almost all of which turn out to be single-mindedly bent towards making him superior at solving crimes.

Regarding non-sensational literature, his speech is replete with references to the Bible, Shakespeare, and even Goethe. This is somewhat inconsistent with Holmes's scolding Watson for telling him that the Earth revolves around the Sun instead of the other way around, claiming that he avoids cluttering his memory with information that is of no use to him in detective work.

Holmes can often be quite dispassionate and cold; however, when hot on the trail of a mystery, he can display a remarkable passion despite his usual languor.

Although Holmes looks upon himself as a disembodied brain, there are times when he can become very emotional in a righteous cause, such as when he disapproves of how the banker Holder treated his son in "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet", and rounds on the Duke in "The Priory School" for putting his own son in danger. At the end of "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons", he is touched by Inspector Lestrade's deep gratitude for his assisting Scotland Yard. Watson says, "he was more nearly moved by the softer human emotions than I had ever seen him." And, in "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs", Watson is wounded by a forger he and Holmes are pursuing. While the bullet wound proved to be "quite superficial," Watson is moved by Holmes' reaction.

It was worth a wound—it was worth many wounds—to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.

Holmes does have an ego that sometimes seems to border on arrogance; however, he has usually earned the right to such arrogance. He seems to enjoy baffling police inspectors with his superior deductions.

Holmes is generally quite fearless. He dispassionately surveys horrific, brutal crime scenes; he does not allow superstition (as in The Hound of the Baskervilles) or grotesque situations to make him afraid; and he intrepidly confronts violent murderers. He is generally unfazed by threats from his criminal enemies, and indeed Holmes himself remarks that it is the danger of his profession that has attracted him to it.

And so on...

Grissom from CSI...

He has no friends outside of work, he's obsessed with insects, fanatical about his privacy and personal space, and constantly getting into trouble because he doesn't pay attention to office politics... always searching for the truth, even when others would rather he didn't...

I would say Marlon Brando: He loved to act but he was described as difficult to work with by fellow actors. Jack Nicholson comented on how "strange" Brando was well filming The Missouri Breaks with him. Brando would leave the set for hours at end to go hunt for grasshoppers for his collection and refused to talk to anyone unless he was in character.

Anyone know of any other "classic" actors that seem like Aspies ?

Roger Gilbert Bannister
Born March 23, 1929 in Harrow, England

R.G. Bannister is a very intelligent, quiet English boy. He has a strong preference for activities such as reading and running, activities he can do alone. He read on an adult level at the age of 12, and was considered "shy" and "overly serious." He was prone to nervous headaches and exercise induced asthma as a young boy. He was in a state of exhaustion after every race he ran at school, even though he usually finished first.

He was a good writer, artist and actor. He wanted to do everything he attempted perfectly and was upset when he couldn't. He didn't like team sports, such as rugby, because he didn't feel he had the speed or the physical strength. He was very tall and thin as a teenager.

Roger Bannister never felt a sense of belonging until he went to Oxford, where he met up with friends such as Norris McWhirter, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway. Running helped Bannister find friendships that have lasted over 50 years.

R.G. Bannister is a success story. He became a physician, specializing in neurology, has been married over 50 years and has 4 children and 14 grandchildren.

Harry Haller (Fictional character) from "Der Steppenwolf"

Steppenwolf

Harry Haller is lonesome and misanthropic, he has evident social disabilities and longs for a better world within himself, free of social convention. He has some sort of rituals he follows usually. At some points, he seems unable to empahtize with other people and he is described as a child when it regards to his social aspect which clearly states a social underdevelopment.

Probably the author of this book, Herrmann Hesse is the one who has Asperger's, since most of the books seems autoiographical.