Nearly 20 years after his breakout role in “Heroes,” Zachary Quinto returns to NBC as a world-class, eccentric doctor in “Brilliant Minds.” The “Star Trek” and “American Horror Story” star plays Dr. Oliver Wolf, a neurologist who lives with a brain disorder — prosopagnosia, colloquially known as “face blindness” — and believes “you can’t treat a patient without understanding who they really are and sometimes the only course of treatment is breaking the rules.”
But Dr. Oliver Wolf isn’t a figment of fiction and those philosophies weren’t invented for the screen — he’s got his roots in the incredible true story of a legendary physician. Here’s what you need to know what’s true in “Brilliant Minds.”
Yes, but it’s not strictly following the details of the real-life Dr. Oliver.
“Brilliant Minds” is inspired by the life and writing of renowned British doctor, author and professor, Dr. Oliver Sacks. However, it will adapt case stories from his books as case-of-the-week patients for Dr. Wolf and his team, but also re-imagine them within a contemporary setting and dramatize them for television.
Oliver Sacks was a renowned neurologist. Born in 1933, he died in 2015 after a pioneering career spent investigating countless neurological disorders, including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, autism, dementia and schizophrenia. He also became an essayist and bestselling author, translating his learnings into a series of books.
During the Summer 2024 Television Critics Association press tour, Quinto described Dr. Sacks as his “North Star” in his approach to playing Dr. Wolf.
“He was an incredible, complex, inspirational and influential doctor and person,” the actor explained. “So, it’s this very unique alchemy for me, where I get to play a character who is inspired by a real-life person, but I’m not tethered to the period or the behavior of that person in real life. I get to take all of the rich tapestry of who Oliver Sacks was and inform the creation of Oliver Wolf, but Oliver Wolf exists in his own world.”
Where did the name Dr. Wolf come from? Well, that also came from Oliver Sacks, whose middle name was Wolf. Among the other details included in the show, the real-world Sacks was keen on both his motorcycle and swimming in the rivers of New York.
Sacks was also gay, as depicted in the series, though he came out much later in life — just a few months before his death, in his memoir “On the Move: A Life.”
“To play an openly gay character on a primetime network show is an incredibly significant honor for me. I feel deeply grateful for this experience to tell these stories and to use Oliver Sacks’ life as the origin point for those stories,” Quinto said during the TCA panel.
“Oliver Sacks was somebody who was deeply influenced by the time in which he came of age and the social restrictions on people being able to live fully who they were,” Quinto continued. “So he didn’t come out until very much later in life. He ended up meeting a partner and having a really happy relationship till the end of his life. But to play a character who is embracing that aspect of himself in the modern world and in a way that is vital and contemporary and forward-looking is really special.”
His sexuality and relationship with partner Bill Hayes was chronicled in Ric Burns’ documentary “His Own Life,” which was shot over a period of days toward the end of Sacks’ life.
In the series, Dr. Oliver Wolf doesn’t just study brain conditions, he’s lived with one his whole life: prosopagnosia, or “face blindness,” as it’s more commonly called. It’s a real condition, a relatively common one at that — and yes, Dr. Oliver Sacks had it, too.
Executive producer Michael Grassi told the TCA he was sent two books when he was presented with the project: “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” (1985) and “An Anthropologist on Mars” (1995).
“There are so many incredible cases that we take from these books, and then we set in present day and have conversations that feel sort of urgent and pressing with Oliver Sacks’ incredible material,” Grassi said, emphasizing the source material was “incredibly informative for what we’re doing on this show.”
The doctor’s books have previously been adapted to film. First, Penny Marshall’s 1990 film “Awakenings,” which starred Robin Williams in a role inspired by Dr. Sacks and Robert De Niro as his patient. Williams and Sacks famously became friends after the beloved actor played him, and Sacks described them as “complimentary creatures.”
The 1999 romantic drama “At First Sight,” starring Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino, was also adapted from his writings.
“Brilliant Minds” airs on Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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