History Main / GeniusCripple

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]" features a brilliant but crippled scientist named Dortmund.

* Monty from ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'' is confined to a wheelchair in ''VideoGame/Kindergarten2'' after being beaten half to death by the AxCrazy janitor in the first game. His intelligence is also more emphasised in the second game since he can no longer [[HighSchoolHustler sell things]] past the start of the day. He's a kindergarten-aged GadgeteerGenius who can modify or disarm a bomb, has a laser cannon in his wheelchair that he likely built himself, knows how to synthesise the drugs that Ms. Applegate is addicted to, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking can read]].

* Bentley of the ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' games becomes this in [[VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves the third game]] after he's crippled at the end of [[VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves the second]]. This does not hinder him from making a wheelchair fitted with gadgets as well, as making him a better fighter than he was before.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBreadwinner'': Downplayed with Nuralla, Parvana's father. He lost a leg in the war, but before that, he was a teacher and as such is well-versed in history and literate in two languages. He, and later Parvana, uses this literacy to earn money as a scribe.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'': Dr. Finkelstein, who doubles as an EvilCripple (or at least a Jerkish Cripple). He's a wheelchair user MadScientist who is the creator and father figure of the film's deuteragonist Sally.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!

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[[quoteright:350:[[Creator/StephenHawking https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_stephen-hawkins_6917.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free."]]

** Barbara Gordon started out as ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, being presented as reasonably sharp. Then she was shot and paralyzed by the Joker, and suddenly remembered that she had an eidetic memory and world-class hacking, strategic, and organizational skills, and she became the broker information Oracle. The [[ComicBook/Batgirl2011 reboot version of Barbara]], on the other hand, eventually regained the ability to walk after three years of being paralyzed, but flashbacks show that Barbara's smarts were there well before she was shot.

* The brilliant, wheelchair user Dr. Leonard Gillespie from the ''Film/DrKildare'' films. Also an example of DisabledCharacterDisabledActor, as the actor who played Gillespie (Creator/LionelBarrymore) was wheelchair bound due to severe arthritis.

** While not a ''scientific'' genius, Lady Emily Alexander, [[spoiler:senior]] wife and political advisor of Lord Hamish Alexander, 13th Earl of White Haven and First Lord of the Admiralty, certainly qualifies. Crippled by an aircar accident and bound to an advanced life support chair (and flying to boot) for the rest of her life, she's easily ''the'' [[TheChessmaster most shrewd and cunning]] single politician in the whole Kingdom of Manticore. [[JustifiedTrope It might be argued]], though, that it was the injury that forced her to switch from acting to writing, and that it's her extremely long and successful career as a playwright and producer that gave her the scheming skills and understanding of the human character prerequisite for a good politician.

** Doran Martell is wheelchair bound due to extreme gout. And yet, he's more dangerous than many of the other great lords who are on their feet. Even Tywin speaks of him with respect.

** The Cybus Industries Cybermen were created by John Lumic, also an EvilCripple. He's wheelchair bound and has a wealth of life-support instruments hooked up.

* Double amputee Roger Bochs from ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'', who invented a robot called Box and controls it with a mental interface helmet; a later version allows him to physically merge into it, making him a GeniusBruiser.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* Niles Caulder from ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' is a paraplegic (for reasons that have never been explained) who moves around in a hovering wheelchair. His genius shows in that he was able to devise means for which the Doom Patrol can control their powers while being as presentable as possible to the public (like putting Robotman's brain into a robot body or wrapping Negative Man in lead-lined bandages). Depending on the iteration, [[spoiler:he may also be an EvilCripple as he triggered the accidents that gave the Doom Patrol their powers in the first place]].

* The [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] version of ComicBook/GreenLantern villain Hector Hammond. Unusual for this trope, his handicap and intellect are not natural, but the result of exposure to a strange meteorite, which caused Hammond's brain to mutate, but also crippled his body and took away his ability to speak. He instead relies on telepathy to communicate.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Subverted with Nunnally vi Britannia. While not a genius on the level of her brother [[MagnificentBastard Lelouch]], blind and wheelchair-bound Nunnally joins [[spoiler:Schneizel, successfully convinces him to hand over the key to the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads, and comes up with a plan that's ''eerily'' similar to Lelouch's, focusing all the world's hatred on a single target (in this case, ''Damocles'')]]. However, this is actually all part of [[spoiler:Schneizel's latest XanatosGambit, which he starts off by [[ILied lying to Nunnally about Pendragon and his own motives]], and later on intends to abandon Damocles with her on it after setting it to self-destruct in order to thwart Lelouch, and later on build another fortress and stockpile even more [[WeaponOfMassDestruction FLEIJAs]], this time, with no one else to stop him or claim sovereignty over Britannia]]. So Nunnally basically becomes an UnwittingPawn. [[spoiler:Though she ''does'' wise up and then becomes a decent Empress after the GrandFinale.]]
* ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ'': Morihiko Dan is a wheelchair-bound old man who is also a detective so competent that he's one of the few (if not the only) detectives with an authorized firearms license, which is notoriously difficult to obtain in Japan. One of the biggest demonstrations of his deductive skills is when he's able to solve and break down a complicated murder plan in a short time just from reading his students' case report.

* ''ComicBook/TheMovement'': Discussed when one of the captured cops asks the wheelchair-bound Vengeance Moth if she's the one who set up the headquarters to be off the power grid with an internet connection, which she denies. This may also be a MythologyGag to Creator/GailSimone's earlier work on ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', which features the wheelchair-bound super hacker Oracle, and a reference to the fact that people made comparisons when Vengeance Moth was first introduced.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'': Dr. Finkelstein, who doubles as an EvilCripple (or at least a Jerkish Cripple). He's a wheelchair-bound MadScientist who is the creator and father figure of the film's deuteragonist Sally.

* The brilliant, wheelchair-bound Dr. Leonard Gillespie from the ''Film/DrKildare'' films. Also an example of DisabledCharacterDisabledActor, as the actor who played Gillespie (Creator/LionelBarrymore) was wheelchair bound due to severe arthritis.

* ''Film/TheTheoryOfEverything'', which is about the above-pictured wheelchair-bound astrophysicist Creator/StephenHawking and his first wife.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' prequel novel ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'', John (the Master Chief) notes that the SPARTAN-II candidates who don't make it through the dangerous physical augmentation processes fully intact (some die, others are blinded, and a few are wheelchair-bound) will fulfill such a role in the UNSC as strategists and the like, as the candidates for the program were selected for their intelligence and instructed in history, science, math, and tactics in order to be both physically perfect soldiers and brilliant field strategists.

** Dr. Armstrong from "The Cybernauts" is another wheelchair-bound genius, though this is a villainous one, planning to put humanity under the rule of an artificial intelligence since he thinks they make better decisions than humans.

** ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' has wheelchair-bound forensics expert Dr. Leonard Giles in Season 1.

** Doctor Judson, the wheelchair-bound computer scientist in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric The Curse of Fenric]]". Who gets very grumpy about his medical assistant treating him as helpless:

* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'': In the final season, we meet the wheelchair-bound physicist Dr. Ernst Longbore.

* ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'': Wheelchair-bound tech expert Patton Plame, who only avoids being a TwoferTokenMinority because the cast is split nearly 50-50 along racial lines.

* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': Despite her appearance through the paipai drone's hologram, Ayane is shown to be wheelchair-bound, but she's also one of the most skilled hackers and a technological genius in general. The "Mysterious Console" DLC later shows Ayane has been outfitted with [[ArtificialLimbs leg enhancers]], allowing her to walk again.

* The ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series has Huey Emmerich, father of Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, and one of the minds behind the predecessors to the Metal Gears. He suffers from a malformed spine that leaves him wheelchair-bound. Around the time of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', he has invented his own wheelchair that can navigate stairs, and by ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV'', he seems to have replaced them with mechanical leg braces.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'': Cyrus Borg, the wheelchair-bound head of Borg Industries. His inventions singlehandedly turned Ninjago City from a modern metropolis into a cyberpunk mega city. He's introduced using a spider-like mech for mobility and points out that his parents naming him "Cy Borg" sort of determined his future for him.

* Chip Chase from ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers G1'' is your basic wheelchair-bound genius.

* ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'': During the Creator/LindaThorson years, the Avengers' boss, called "Mother", is a stocky man in a wheelchair (who can get around briskly in his office via a series of ceiling-mounted hand grips).
** Also, [[Characters/TheAvengers1960s Dr. Armstrong]] from episode 4x3, the Cybernauts.

* Creator/StephenHawking appears as a cartoon version of himself on several episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', driving a wheelchair that features a spring-loaded boxing glove and rockets. Even though it would have been really easy to get another computer to fake his voice, they got him into the studio to record his lines. According to later interviews, he loved it and plans to build a boxing glove into his next chair. He also presented a UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}} for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' on one occasion.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': [[spoiler:Izaya becomes this. During his fight with Shizuo, he's horribly injured and left on the verge of death. In his spin-off, it's revealed that he survived but lost the ability to use his legs. Thus, he now uses a wheelchair, albeit a moderately tricked-out one. However, Izaya is still highly intelligent and a ManipulativeBastard, plus his knife skills haven't changed]].

* Mashiro from ''Franchise/MyHime'' uses a wheelchair throughout most of the series, but is otherwise very capable both as a school principal and spiritual leader to some of the [=HiME=]. It helps that in [[Anime/MyHime the anime version]], she's [[spoiler:supposedly ''way'' [[OlderThanTheyLook older than her 11 years of age]]]].

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Downplayed with Nuralla, Parvana's father from ''WesternAnimation/TheBreadwinner''. He lost a leg in the war, but before that, he was a teacher and as such is well-versed in history and literate in two languages. He, and later Parvana, uses this literacy to earn money as a scribe.
* Dr. Finkelstein from ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', who doubles as an EvilCripple (or at least a Jerkish Cripple). He's a wheelchair-bound MadScientist who is the creator and OverprotectiveDad of the film's deuteragonist Sally.

* ''Exo-Man'': The eminently forgettable failed-series-pilot features a scientist who permanently lost the use of his legs, and so built a super-powered robotic exoskeleton for himself to make up for it.

* Stephen from ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'', [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed being]] Creator/StephenHawking [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed with the serial numbers filed off]], and having created the Demon Summoning Program. [[spoiler:''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' [[BonusBoss reveals]] that [[IAmNotLeftHanded he's actually a subversion]].]]

* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': Malcolm's nerdy friend Stevie can only move around in a wheelchair. Although he knows, and acknowledges, that the able-bodied Malcolm is a lot smarter than him (or anyone else, for that matter).

[[folder:Real Life]]
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Dominique_Bauby Jean-Dominique Bauby]], who was left with his left eyelid as his only functional body part after a stroke. Using a system of blinking that eyelid, he was able to dictate an entire book about his life with Locked-In Syndrome, during which he had to keep the entire book in his memory and edit the whole thing before giving instructions to his typist.
* Creator/JorgeLuisBorges, one of the most renowned writers of the 20th century, wrote many of his works when he was blind.
* UsefulNotes/LouisBraille, creator of the Braille alphabet, was blind.
* Irish writer and artist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy_Brown Christy Brown]], who could only move his left foot due to cerebral palsy, but still wrote several poetry books and became very famous in the Irish literary circles. Creator/DanielDayLewis won an Oscar for portraying him in the movie ''Film/MyLeftFoot''.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cecil,_1st_Earl_of_Salisbury Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury]] stood barely over five feet tall, with a curved spine caused by scoliosis. He had a shrewd mind for politics and served as Secretary of State under both UsefulNotes/ElizabethI and [[UsefulNotes/JamesVIAndI James I]]. He personally managed the ascension of James to the throne and was instrumental in foiling the Gunpowder Plot. However, he suffered frequent mockery for his appearance, even from the monarchs who depended on him.
* Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Claudius}}, became Emperor by surviving, faking [[ObfuscatingInsanity mental illness]] and [[ObfuscatingStupidity idiocy]], and suffered lameness in his legs (as well as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius#Affliction_and_personality other physical deformities]]). Considered now a pretty good Emperor, and a great builder.
* The famously cunning [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Dandolo Enrico Dandolo]] was blind and in his eighties when he was elected to rule UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}, and ''ninety'' when he led his troops in the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Fourth Crusade]]. Even after that, he lived to the age of ''ninety-eight'', during TheHighMiddleAges no less.
* Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of [[UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin Sir Charles]], suffered from morbid obesity and gout for most of his adult life and became lame after he was flung from a carriage he invented. In the 18th century, he was England's most famed physician, as well as a poet, inventor, scientist, and scholar; he also founded the intellectuals' Lunar Society, whose scientists and industrialists pioneered Britain's Industrial Revolution.
* [[OlderThanTheyThink Leonhard Euler]]: 18th-century mathematician, and one of the most prolific of all time. He went blind in one eye at the age of 21, and blind in the other when he was about forty. After this, he kept turning out papers by dictating them to his secretaries. In addition to many fundamental results, he innovated much of the current mathematical notation. He was able to juggle the symbols and numbers of the most difficult problems of his day entirely in his head; at one point during his blindness, he even managed to ''prove that a 10-digit number was prime''. Around this time, he was publishing papers at the average rate of one per week.
* The [[TropeMaker inspiration for many of these entries]]: Creator/StephenHawking, perhaps one of the most famous scientists in the world, who as the result of [[AndIMustScream Motor Neurone Disease]] (also known as ALS and Lou Gehrig's Disease) was quadriplegic and used a wheelchair, and who, following a 1985 tracheotomy, used a computer voice synthesizer to speak. Somehow, though, he was able to have an extramarital affair, so apparently not ''everything'' was paralyzed. When asked about how he'd fathered children despite the disease, Hawking joked that it only restricted ''voluntary'' muscle movements.
* According to tradition, Creator/{{Homer}}, author of ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', was blind. Of course, since we don't actually know anything about the entity known as "Homer" other than that he/she/they wrote ''The Iliad'' and ''The Odyssey'', there's no way of verifying whether or not this is true.
* UsefulNotes/HelenKeller, known for her great writing and activism as well as for being both deaf and blind. She appears on the back of one of Alabama's statehood quarters.
* Arab Syrian poet [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ma%27arri Al-Ma'arri]] lost his eyesight at the age of four. It didn't prevent him from becoming one of the greatest poets and philosophers of his age. It's worth mentioning that not only did he [[BadassPacifist stop a band of raiders from raiding a village with nothing but his own words]], he is one of the oldest vegan [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Maʿarri#Antinatalism antinatalists]] in history.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apolinario_Mabini Apolinario Mabini y Maranan]], who lost both his legs to polio, was a Filipino revolutionary leader, educator, lawyer, and statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, serving first under the Revolutionary Government, and then under the First Philippine Republic.
* Creator/JohnMilton was blind by the time he dictated ''Literature/ParadiseLost''.
* UsefulNotes/HoratioNelson was missing his right arm and blind in one eye. He was also an incredible admiral if there ever was one, holding the distinction of outmaneuvering UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte at the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar.
* Christopher Nolan (no, not that Creator/ChristopherNolan), an Irish author who was rendered quadriplegic and mute by cerebral palsy. He can only properly write with a "unicorn stick" on his head ''only'' after the effects of spasmodic medication.
* Itzhak Perlman, the great Israeli violinist, was crippled by polio at the age of 4.
* Creator/AlexanderPope suffered from a form of tuberculosis that deformed his body, stunted his growth to about four and a half feet, and caused a whole slew of other health problems. He's also renowned as one of history's greatest poets.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Rodrigo Joaquin Rodrigo]], Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez. Blind ever since he was a toddler. Virtuoso piano player and one of the most famous Spanish classical music composers, author of the ''Concert of Aranjuez''.
* US President UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt. Using a wheelchair because of an illness,[[note]]either polio or Guillain-Barré syndrome, there's some debate as to which,[[/note]] he still managed to become one of the greatest presidents America ever had. Of course, the general public didn't know that he was disabled. That's the benefit of a respectful press and a nice combination of leg braces and sheer willpower for those occasions that mandated standing up.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz Charles Proteus Steinmetz]] was a mathematician and electrical engineer to whom we owe a lot of progress in the electric industry. He suffered from a number of problems, including hip dysplasia, hunchback, and dwarfism. His co-workers also considered him a nice and funny guy.
* Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec broke both his legs as a teenager, stunting his growth to only 4'8" since his legs stopped growing after that. He also had a slew of other health problems, likely due to the fact that his parents were KissingCousins. Unable to participate in much physical activity, Toulouse-Lautrec immersed himself in painting... and became one of the greatest artists of the Post-Impressionist era.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Herman_Unthan Carl Herman Unthan]] of Prussia, born without arms. Thanks to a supportive father in his earliest years, Carl never let infirmities hold him back, and taught himself how to use his feet in lieu of hands, and became a famous virtuoso violinist and card magician, ''using only his feet''. Also a good example of TheDeterminator.
* Frank Williams, paralysed and hugely successful UsefulNotes/FormulaOne team owner. In 1986 he suffered a car crash, thereafter requiring a wheelchair. Rival team owners credited much of his team's increased success to the fact that he had to take a more hands-off role with his team and could only ''think'' his way to success.
* French king Charles V the Wise suffered from an ill-proportioned and weak body, as well as gout in his right hand and an abscess in his left arm, which eventually made him unable to fight and ride a horse. He proved to be a very smart and pragmatic king, managing to overcome many rebellions, replenish France's finances, establish the first permanent French army with wages, and turn the tide of UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar in French favor with nearly all territories conquered by English being taken back.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/SevenDays'': Dr. John Ballard designed the time machine that is the impetus of the show, and is paraplegic due to a diving accident in his youth (he was showing off in a rock quarry to impress some girls).

* Christopher Nolan ([[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant no, not]] '''[[NamesTheSame THAT]]''' Creator/ChristopherNolan), another Irish author who was also rendered quadriplegic and mute by cerebral palsy. He can only properly write with a "unicorn stick" on his head ''only'' after the effects of spasmodic medication.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E24S7E1Descent Descent]]": Data plays poker against {{Hologram}}s of famous geniuses, including UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, and Creator/StephenHawking (who [[AsHimself plays himself]] and is famous for being so crippled that he can't even talk). Naturally, Hawking beats everyone. [[FridgeBrilliance After all, how could you tell if he's bluffing? His tone of voice?).

Examples will often be a SquishyWizard, BlindMusician, BlindSeer, or DeafComposer. See also IronicallyDisabledArtist, when physical impairment doesn't stop creative skill (as opposed to brains). Also compare HandicappedBadass for the physical counterpart of this trope, and GeniusBruiser if both tropes overlap with each other.