Oliver Sacks, Famed Neurologist and 'Awakenings' Author Dies at 82
He announced in February he was in late stages of terminal cancer.
— -- Renowned neurologist and author of "Awakenings" Oliver Sacks died today. He was 82.
His assistant, Kate Edgar, told The New York Times the cause was cancer. ABC News was unable to reach Edgar.
A statement on Sacks' website today also confirmed his death.
Sacks, a professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine, announced in February a rare eye tumor had spread to his liver and that he was in the stages of terminal cancer.
Sacks is best known for his writing on neurological case histories including "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and an "An Anthropologist on Mars." His book "Awakenings," based on his work in the 1960s with patients who were unable to initiate movement, was turned into an Oscar-nominated movie of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
"He spent his final days doing what he loved—playing the piano, writing to friends, swimming, enjoying smoked salmon, and completing several articles," a statement on Sacks' website said today. "His final thoughts were of gratitude for a life well lived and the privilege of working with his patients at various hospitals and residences including the Little Sisters of the Poor in the Bronx and in Queens, New York."
Sacks had also been "writing to the last," the statement said. Sacks published an essay a few weeks ago and has two more articles set to be published this week.
"Sacks also left several nearly completed books and a vast archive of correspondence, manuscripts, and journals," the statement added.
Sacks, whose autobiography was released this spring, wrote in February he felt "intensely alive" after his diagnosis.
"Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts," he wrote. "This does not mean I am finished with life."