The 1988 film starring Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbitt that won Best Picture is Rain Man.
Barry Levinson’s road drama follows Charlie Babbitt, played by Tom Cruise, after he discovers that his estranged brother Raymond has inherited their father’s fortune. Raymond is an autistic savant with extraordinary memory and calculation abilities, and the brothers gradually develop a relationship during a cross-country journey.
Screenwriter Barry Morrow based Raymond partly on his encounters with real-life savant Kim Peek and on Bill Sackter, a character from an earlier film Morrow wrote. The film helped bring autism and savant abilities into mainstream popular conversation, although Raymond’s portrayal should not be treated as representative of all autistic people.
Rain Man won four Academy Awards from eight nominations at the 61st ceremony: Best Picture, Director for Levinson, Actor for Hoffman, and Original Screenplay. Its title is a childhood mishearing of “Raymond,” not a reference to weather.