Penny Marshall's 1990 film Awakenings, which was nominated for several Oscars, is based on neurologist <answer>Oliver Sacks</answer>' 1973 account of his psychiatric patients at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx who were paralyzed by a form of encephalitis but briefly responded to the drug L-dopa. Robin Williams played the physician; Robert De Niro was one of the patients who emerged from a catatonic (frozen) state. The home of Williams' character was shot not far from Sacks' actual City Island residence. A 1973 Yorkshire Television documentary and "A Kind of Alaska", a 1985 play by Harold Pinter, were also based on Sacks' book.
Whose real story is 'Awakenings' based on?
Oliver Sacks