Mentions or Portrayals in Fiction
Einstein has been the subject of or inspiration for many novels, films and plays, such as Yahoo Serious's intentionally inaccurate biography of Einstein as a Tasmanian in the film Young Einstein, Jean-Claude Carrière's 2005 French novel, Einstein S'il Vous Plaît (Einstein If You Please), Alan Lightman's collection of short stories Einstein's Dreams, and Steve Martin's comedic play Picasso at the Lapin Agile. He was the subject of Philip Glass's groundbreaking 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach, and his humorous side is the subject of Ed Metzger's one-man play Albert Einstein: The Practical Bohemian.
An Einstein-like character appears in Nicolas Roeg's 1985 film Insignificance. Set in New York in 1953, the film includes a scene in which "The Professor" (played by Michael Emil) the character evidently representing Albert Einstein, discusses Relativity with "The Actress" (Theresa Russell), a Marilyn Monroe-like character.
Einstein was portrayed by Walter Matthau in the 1994 romantic comedy I.Q..
In the film A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, he was portrayed as a holographic personality called Dr. Know (voiced by Robin Williams).
A holographic representation of Einstein, played by Jim Norton appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Star Wars character Yoda's eyes were modeled after Einstein's.
In the 1984 comedy film Ghostbusters Peter Venkman says "Einstein did his best stuff when he was working as a patent clerk" in order to convince his coworker not to worry too much about his reputation and studies.
In the movie Back to the Future, the character of Dr. Emmett Brown, portrayed as a brilliant scientist, time traveler and inventor, has a dog called "Einstein", named after Doc Brown's favorite scientist.
In the Red Dwarf episode "Meltdown", he is one of the last good waxdroids on waxworld, where he argues with Pythagoras over the solution involving triangles.
In The Dreamstone, in the episode Urpgor's Island, Urpgor, when in his mud bath, trying to think of ideas of getting the Dreamstone, makes a face of Albert Einstein for split seconds, whilst discussing of how intelligent he is.
In the 1989 cult classic science fiction TV series Alien Nation, one the Tenctonese people was given the name Albert Einstein. The character is the janitor at the LAPD precinct that the main characters Matthew Sikes and George Francisco work at.
The first episode of the two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Descent opens on the Enterprise with a game of poker being played by holodeck representations of Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, and Stephen Hawking (portrayed by himself in the teleplay), all as programmed by Lt. Cdr. Data playing as the fourth person in the game.
The picture appears in Andy Dufresne's cell in the film The Shawshank Redemption (1994).
In 2011 Einstein was depicted in a special mini-episode of Doctor Who, called Death Is The Only Answer, and was played by Nickolas Grace.
In the "Powers" comic book series, Einstein is referred to many times as someone Officer Walker holds a grudge against. During the "Legends storyarc", Christian Walker visits Einstein to try and find out why (as an immortal and superhero) he exists.
Read more about this topic: Albert Einstein In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words portrayals and/or fiction:
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past—the portrayals of family life on such television programs as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room. Blockbusting fiction is bought as furniture. Unread, it maintains its value. Read, it looks like money wasted. Cunningly, Americans know that books contain a person, and they want the person, not the book.”
—Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)