Richard Feynman (1918-1988) wasn't your average Nobel Prize winner. He bucked the image of the introverted, socially awkward scientist who prefers the lab to people. He cracked safes for fun.
When Doris Lessing, age 89, finally won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007, her response was, "Oh, Christ." Lessing's name had been floated for years, and she had given up hope--or had simply st