History Main / GeniusCripple

* In ''Series/TheAvengers'' Linda Thorson years, their boss, called "Mother," was a stocky man in a wheelchair (who could get around briskly in his office via a series of ceiling-mounted hand grips.)

* Doctor Octopus in ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan.'' Because of an accident, he lost the use of his limbs. He uses his metal arms to work, fight and move around. He's still menacing and looks rather creepy. Doubles as an EvilCripple.

* Chip Chase from ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers G1''.

* Dr. Finkelstein from ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', who doubles as an EvilCripple.
* 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.

* Another real-life example: 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.

* Yarvi, one of the main characters of ''Literature/ShatteredSea'' has a crippled arm and hand which prevent him from taking part in the activities expected of a man/warrior. However, he makes up for his lack of physical prowess by being extremely well-read, an accomplished orator, and extremely clever/cunning.

* Dr. Arliss Loveless in the film version of ''Film/WildWildWest'' did not have congenital dwarfism like his TV counterpart - he was literally half a man, missing from about his hips downward, in a steampunk wheelchair. That sometimes sprouted legs. And not just two - sometimes four.

* Stevie from ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''. Although he knows, and acknowledges, that the able-bodied Malcolm is a lot smarter than him (or anyone else, for that matter).
* Subverted in ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'', in which a JerkJock ends up in a wheelchair after a car accident and discovers that he now has no useful skills whatsoever.
* Former Superman Christopher Reeve guest-starred on ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' as genius scientist Dr. Virgil Swann.
** In Season 8 EvilGenius [[spoiler: ComicBook/LexLuthor]] becomes one of these, courtesy of horrific injuries sustained earlier in the show.
* Dr. Kerry Weaver of ''Series/{{ER}}'' uses a cane and is revealed to have an IQ of 145.
* The recurring villain Davros from ''Series/DoctorWho'' has apparently been reduced (whether by age or war injury) to a single functional limb; his own wheelchair-like life support apparatus and cybernetic eye are implicitly the inspiration for the "travel machines" used by his infamous creations, the Daleks. Julian Bleach, one of the actors to portray him, called the character "a cross between Stephen Hawking and Hitler."

* Miguelito Loveless in ''Series/TheWildWildWest'', and Arliss Loveless in [[Film/WildWildWest the movie remake]], although the nature of their physical handicaps were very different.
* Series/{{House}} is a crippled genius, but that injury more often hurts his genius rather than enables or is neutral to it. On the other hand, to the extent this trope extends to the ''emotionally'' crippled...
* Wheelchair-bound physicist Dr. Ernst Longbore in the final season of ''{{Series/Lexx}}''.
* Sebastian from ''Series/DarkAngel'' can barely move and requires a computer to talk. Yeah, he's pretty much a Stephen Hawking knockoff.
** Logan would probably qualify as well.
* Dr. John Ballard from ''Series/SevenDays''. He 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).
* The eminently forgettable failed-series-pilot ''ExoMan'' featured 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.
* Marginally less forgettable series ''Series/{{MANTIS}}'' used basically the same plot.
* In ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', Bennett's left arm is permanently disabled. Unlike many examples, she was actually quite a genius ''before'' the arm was damaged.
* Perhaps most notably of all, Stephen Hawking is the only person to ever play himself (or at least a hologram of himself) in any ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise.
** Especially since he's playing poker with Data, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein. And beats everyone.
*** [[FridgeBrilliance Well how could you tell if he's bluffing? His tone of voice?]]
* Chief of Detectives Robert T. Ironside, in both ''Series/{{Ironside 1967}}'' and its {{remake}} ''Series/{{Ironside 2013}}''.
* Doc Robbins, the medical examiner on the original ''Series/{{CSI}}'', is (and is played by) a double amputee.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' had a wheelchair-bound forensics expert in season one.
* In ''Series/TheAvengers'' Linda Thorson years, their boss, called "Mother," was a stocky man in a wheelchair (who could get around briskly in his office via a series of ceiling-mounted hand grips.)
* In ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', Dr. Walter Bishop is clinically insane and a drug addict. Nina Sharp is not a super-genius like Walter, but she is quite a brainiac and she has an artificial arm. [[spoiler: In season 5, she also needs a wheelchair]]
** In the episode ''[[Characters/FringeBrownBetty Brown Betty]]'', when Walter tells a fairy tale to a child, his counterpart is in a wheelchair and has a heart condition (which is part of the plot).
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'' has Dr. Harrison Wells, the genius scientist who designed the particle accelerator only to wind up injured and confined to a wheelchair after it exploded. [[spoiler: However, not only is he not who he claims to be, he is actually faking being paralyzed. He's undeniably a genius, though.]]
* ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' has wheelchair-bound tech expert Patton Plame, who only avoids being a TwoferTokenMinority because the cast is split nearly 50-50 along racial lines.
* Jack Hodgins qualifies during the last season and a half of ''{{Series/Bones}}''. He’s rendered paraplegic from an explosion but remains a vital member of the lab, even becoming its temporary head in the end. He’s also been very smart all along.

* OlderThanFeudalism: [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hephaestus]], the ancient Greek god of the forge (counterpart to the Roman Vulcan), has a crippled foot -- according to one version of the story, he was severely injured as a child when he tried to intervene in a quarrel between his parents, Zeus and Hera, and was hurled off Mt. Olympus. Nevertheless, he's the local UltimateBlacksmith, able to invent robots and the ancient version of HumongousMecha.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' had a wheelchair-bound forensics expert in the early seasons.

* ''Series/CSINewYork'' used to have a wheelchair-bound forensics expert in the early seasons.
** Doc Robbins, the medical examiner on the original ''Series/{{CSI}}'', is (and is played by) a double amputee.
* In ''Series/TheAvengers'' Linda Thorson years, their boss, called "Mother", was a stocky man in a wheelchair (who could get around briskly in his office via a series of ceiling-mounted hand grips.)

* Lionel Canter from ''Comicbook/TheSurrogates'' is Stephen Hawking crossed with Series/MacGyver. He's the original creator of the surrogates and [[spoiler: even modified his own to use [[ShockAndAwe lightning in combat]].]]

In the world of fiction, physical impairment = scientific credibility. The world is actually a RPGMechanicsVerse, and when this {{Munchkin}} rolled up their character, they were MinMaxing. Anyone in a wheelchair will possess super intelligence to compensate for his disability. This allows the character to remain a vital part of the cast without being expected to do anything physical. They are the exact opposite of DumbMuscle, which exist on the same principle.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': While not a genius on the level of her brother [[MagnificentBastard Lelouch]], blind and wheelchair-bound Nunnally vi Britannia joined [[spoiler: Schneizel, successfully convinced him to hand over the key to the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads, and came up with a plan that was ''eerily'' similar to Lelouch's, focusing all the world's hatred on a single target (in this case, ''Damocles'')]]. Being a child of the Emperor, she was undoubtedly quite intelligent, and showed more insight than normally attributed to her by the end of the series. [[spoiler: And after the end of the series, she makes a pretty good Brittannian Empress...]]
** Subverted in that this was all part of [[spoiler:Schneizel's latest Xanatos Gambit, which he started off by [[ILied lying to Nunnally about Pendragon and his own motives]], and later on intended 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 sovereignity over Britannia]]. So Nunnally had basically become an UnwittingPawn. [[spoiler: Though she ''does'' wise up and then becomes a decent Empress after the GrandFinale.]]
* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': [[spoiler: Izaya becomes this. During his fight with Shizuo, he was horribly injured and left at 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]].

*** She's arguably the poster girl for this trope, as she was presented as varying from ditzy to reasonably-but-not-exceptionally sharp (depending on the era's views on women) as Batgirl... but once she became wheelchair-bound, she suddenly remembered she had an eidetic memory and world class hacking, strategic, and organizational skills!

* The Silver Age version of ComicBook/GreenLantern villain Hector Hammond. Unusual for this trope, his handicap and intellect is 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.

* Subverted in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'', when the title character [[spoiler:spends most of the movie posing as a bad-tempered, handicapped disabled self-made millionaire, ("I didn't blame anyone for the loss of my legs! Some Chinaman took them from me in Korea!") and turns out to be a phony. That is to say he's not a genius, as Walter learns the hard way, he genuinely is crippled.]]

* Dr Connors in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', whose right arm was amputated above the elbow, although he'd rather people didn't think of him as this trope: "I'm not a cripple, I'm a scientist, and I'm the world's foremost authority on herpetology."
* The main character of ''Film/MyLeftFoot'' could only move his left foot due to cerebral palsy, but still wrote several poetry books and became a very famous in the Irish literary circles. Creator/DanielDayLewis won an Oscar for his portrayal.

** Less obvious is Honor's own treecat partner Nimitz. Due to an injury sustained in ''In Enemy Hands'', Nimitz was rendered telepathically mute. He could hear other treecats telepathically, and his empathic sense was fine, but he could not communicate beyond that. However, with a bit of help he was instrumental in adapting human sign language for 'cat use.

* Dr. Heilan Rotham from ''StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe's]] Legacy of the Force books. In ''Betrayal,'' she uses a repulsorlift-powered wheelchair of some kind, and serves the plot by providing the Jedi with specialized information that other experts were unable to give.

* Lord Vetinari from the Literature/{{Discworld}} series is uncannily clever at [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating people]] and [[XanatosGambit creating plans that work to his advantage whatever happens]]. Fairly early in the series, he got shot in the leg with a prototype gun and uses a cane to walk for the rest of the series, and after that point he seems to get even more scary-smart than he was before.

** In Season 8 EvilGenius [[spoiler: ComicBook/LexLuthor]] becomes one of these, courtesy of horrific injuries sustained earlier in show.

** ''The Dalek Invasion of Earth'' featured a brilliant, but crippled scientist named Dortmund.

* In ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', Bennett's left arm is permenantly disabled. Unlike many examples, she was actually quite a genius ''before'' the arm was damaged.

** Especially since he's playing poker with Data, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein. And beats everyone.

* ''Series/CSINewYork'' used to have a wheelchair bound forensics expert in the early seasons.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'' has Dr Harrison Wells, the genius scientist who designed the particle accelerator only to wind up injured and confined to a wheelchair after it exploded. [[spoiler: However, not only is he not who he claims to be, he is actually faking being paralyzed. He's undeniably a genius, though.]]

** Although a fairly mild example, High Loremaster Teclis qualifies. Teclis suffers from considerable physical infirmity - highly unusual among the normally disease-free High Elves - such that he is only kept alive thanks to magical potions and the powers of his formidable magical items. Were it not for these measures he would probably have died in childhood, and even with them he is still more feeble than any other elf in the game. Teclis is, however, the most powerful wizard in this age of the world, and possessed of a brilliant, obsessively analytical mind.
** Venerable Lord Kroak has perhaps the most crippling of all disabilities - he's dead. Not undead, just the ordinary not-moving-about kind. And although it has robbed him of most of his vast magical ability, he's still a very powerful wizard, even in this state! To a lesser degree even the living Slann come under this trope, as they are all but immobile thanks to their bloated, lethargic physiques and the terrible psychic strain that living in such a chaotic and disordered world has wrought on their minds.
** The Daemon Kairos Fateweaver is also a formidably powerful sorcerer, but shrivelled and feeble thanks to his experience being thrown into the Well of Eternity. He's also blind to the present (although one of his two heads can see the past and the other the future), which means he is virtually incapable of fighting in close combat.

** Gideon Ravenor, a very intelligent and highly psychic Inquisitor whose body was completely crippled thanks to an aircraft crashing into it during an attack on a religious parade. He operates from within a sealed life support chair, and occasionally possesses his followers to make use of their physical abilities.

* Mecha Maid from the series ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}'' qualifies, as she designed the nerve stimulator that gives her super strength and enables her to move around. Without it, she needs a wheelchair and has trouble even speaking due to her ALS.

* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueGodsAndMonsters'', Lex Luthor is astoundingly brilliant, but has a disease that, over the course of several years, leaves him confined to a chair.

* Hawking appeared 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.

* Hawkins appears several times on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', first as a non-speaking character in "Peter Peter Caviar Eater" being kept on hold at the Pewterschmidt estates in case someone needs help with their ''math homework'', and later in an episode dealing with a black hole threatening to consume the Earth (in reality an april fools prank by Channel 6). This episode reveals that Hawkins isnt even crippled, and the whole "crippled genius" bit is just a role he plays whenever the media needs a smart guy.

* 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.

* [[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, Euler innovated much of current mathematical notation. Euler 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.

* Another real life example: 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.
* 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 a very famous in the Irish literary circles. Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for portraying him in the movie ''My Left Foot''.
* 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 an "unicorn stick" on his head ''only'' after the effects of spasmodic medication.

* Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of 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.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz Charles Proteus Steinmetz]] was a mathematician and electrical engineer whom we owe a lot of progress in 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.
* 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.

* The subject of the ''GIJoe: A Real American Hero'' episode, "My Brother's Keeper". Sgt. Slaughter and Sci-Fi must rescue a handicapped (and frankly, [[InsufferableGenius pretty dickish]]) scientist named Dr. Jeremy Pinser.

* The Silver Age version of GreenLantern villain Hector Hammond. Unusual for this trope, his handicap and intellect is 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.

Examples will often be a SquishyWizard, BlindMusician, BlindSeer or DeafComposer.

* Arab Syrian poet 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.

* ComicBook/{{Oracle}} from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''. Especially interesting in that she started out as [[BadassNormal Batgirl]] and was shot and paralyzed by the Joker; she became [[BadassBookworm Oracle]] because she [[PluckyGirl refused to stay helpless]].

* Oracle from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''. Especially interesting in that she started out as [[BadassNormal Batgirl]] and was shot and paralyzed by the Joker; she became [[BadassBookworm Oracle]] because she [[PluckyGirl refused to stay helpless]].

* Bentley of the ''Franchise/SlyCooper'' games becomes this in [[VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves the third game]] after he was 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 [[HandicappedBadass better fighter than he was before]].

* Jack Hodgins qualifies during the last season and a half of ‘’{{Series/Bones}}’’. He’s rendered paraplegic from an explosion but remains a vital member of the lab, even becoming its temporary head in the end. He’s also been very smart all along.

* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueGodsAndMonsters'' Lex Luthor is astoundingly brilliant, but has a disease that, over the course of several years, leaves him confined to a chair.

* Chip Chase from ''WesternAnimation/{{Transformers}} G1''.

* [[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 UsefulNotes/ThePhilippines, serving first under the Revolutionary Government, and then under the First Philippine Republic.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'' has Dr Harrison Wells, the genius scientist who designed the particle accelerator only to wind up injured and confined to a wheelchair after it exploded. [[spoiler: However, not only is he not who he claims to be, he is actually faking being paralysed. He's undeniably a genius, though.]]

** In other episodes, Hawking shows up in a "way cool rocket" equipped with lasers. Oh, and he's at a huge science convention.

* [[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. However, he had a shrewd mind for politics and served as Secretary of State under both Elizabeth I and 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.

** If you look at pictures or video of FDR giving a speech, it seems like he can stand just fine. But actually he's wearing leg braces, and during the speech he ''always'' keeps at least one hand on the lectern so he can steady himself.

* Fredrick Brennan was born with brittle bone disease, stunting his growth to only a few feet tall and forcing him to use a motorized wheelchair. (He estimates that he broke his bones ''120 times'' during his childhood.) Since he couldn't move around much as a kid, he got hooked on computers at age six, and wrote his first independent program at age thirteen. Due to his programming skills, he became a prominent figure (under the nickname "Hotwheels") on several UsefulNotes/ImageBoards - he joined Website/FourChan in 2006, helped preserve Encyclopedia Dramatica in 2011, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick owned Wizardchan (a board for male virgins) in 2013 until he lost his virginity]]. Nowadays, his big claim to fame is his site 8chan, which he founded in 2013.
** He's also known for his controversial views. For example, he once wrote a pro-eugenics article for a neo-Nazi newsletter online. [[note]]He's not a Nazi himself, but he does support voluntary sterilizations to prevent kids from being born with conditions like his. Still, pretty damn controversial - that Nazi newsletter was the only site that would publish his article.[[/note]] Due to these views, some people might consider him an EvilCripple. ''[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we have to say about that.]]''

!!Examples

[[folder:Comics]]
* Professor Xavier from ''Comicbook/XMen''. Paraplegic and not just smart, but also the most powerful telepath in the world.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* As per the [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 source material]], The Emperor in ''WebVideo/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' is hooked up to a giant machine to "rule" his empire. Except he isn't near the brink of death and instead has been trying to communicate since the Horus Heresy as his mind is still in control of his body despite a fragment of is soul shines in the Warp. Once he has the text to speech device installed he immediately starts bitching about how terrible his empire has become and begins a plan to take control again, succeeding in playing everyone including his "son" and [[spoiler:Fallen Primarch Magnus the Red]] and the Inquisition in a massive plan that [[BatmanGambit hinges on everyone acting like themselves]].

* The ''Franchise/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'', seems to have replaced them with mechanical leg braces.