Openly Gay Author Oliver Sacks Dead at 82

Sad news this weekend when word came that openly gay author and renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks had passed away at the age of 82. Sacks came out as gay in 2015 in his autobiography On the Move: A life.

The British writer is perhaps best known for his work Awakenings which was later turned into an acclaimed film with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams. Last winter, Sacks revealed that an earlier case of melanoma in his eye had spread to his liver and was in the late stages of terminal cancer. Of the cancer Sacks wrote, “A month ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out – a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver.”

Sacks gained notoriety for a series of books which profiled rare medical conditions including Awakenings which was based on his work with patients treated with a drug that woke them up after years of being catatonic.