(W) Jim Ottaviani (A/CA) Leland Myrick. From his early days at Oxford* Stephen Hawking's brilliance and good humor were obvious to everyone he met. At twenty-one he was diagnosed with ALS* a disease that limited his ability to move and speak* though it did nothing to limit his mind. He went on to do groundbreaking work in cosmology and theoretical physics for decades after being told he had only a few years to live. Through his 1988 bestseller* A Brief History of Time* and his appearances on shows like Star Trek and The Big Bang Theory* Hawking became a household name and a pop-culture icon.