Ruth C. Sullivan family member with developmental disabilities. She retired from the Autism Services Center on November 1, 2007 at the age of 83. Sullivan assisted in the production of the 1988 movie "Rain Man" by serving as a consultant on autistic behavior, and Dustin Hoffman worked with Sullivan and her son Joseph, who has autism, when practicing for his role. Hoffman thanked her and Joseph in his Oscar speech. Sullivan has the last credit in the movie, and the extended DVD version features an interview with Joe. (Joe Sullivan was not the only inspiration for Hoffman's role; the role was originally written
Dustin Hoffman title role of the musical "Jimmy Shine". Hoffman won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. He was then offered the lead in "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), which he accepted partly to prove many critics were wrong about his acting range and the variety of characters he could portray. As author and critic Peter Biskind explains, "it was the very contrast between his preppy character in "The Graduate", and Ratso Rizzo" that appealed to Hoffman. "I had become troubled," recalls Hoffman, "by the reviews that I read of "The Graduate," that I was not a character actor, which I like to