--- title: What Stephen Hawking Said About 'A Brief History of Time' description: Professor Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76. TIME looks back on our 1988 interview with the scientist on 'A Brief History of Time' canonical: https://time.com/5198804/stephen-hawking-obituary-brief-history-of-time/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-14T07:25:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T11:36:29.000Z article:section: History og:title: What Stephen Hawking Said About 'A Brief History of Time' og:description: The famed British theoretical physicist died Wednesday at the age of 76 og:url: https://time.com/5198804/stephen-hawking-obituary-brief-history-of-time/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt420f8630ab0f46ae/69892ac0656a3f52f8bd3d90/gettyimages-637776988.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3996 og:image:height: 2248 og:image:alt: Dr Stephen Hawking, 1988 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Stephen Hawking Said About 'A Brief History of Time' twitter:description: The famed British theoretical physicist died Wednesday at the age of 76 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt420f8630ab0f46ae/69892ac0656a3f52f8bd3d90/gettyimages-637776988.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Happened When TIME Met Stephen Hawking 30 Years Ago > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:36 AM UTCPublished: Mar 14, 2018 7:25 AM UTC  Dr. Stephen Hawking Physics professor and author at Cambridge University, Sept. 1, 1988\. Hawking's family spokesperson confirmed his death on March 14, 2018, at the age of 76. Dr. Stephen Hawking Physics professor and author at Cambridge University, Sept. 1, 1988\. Hawking's family spokesperson confirmed his death on March 14, 2018, at the age of 76. Mirrorpix/Getty Images by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:36 AM UTCPublished: Mar 14, 2018 7:25 AM UTC Famed British theoretical physicist Professor [Stephen Hawking has died](http://time.com/5198751/stephen-hawking-physicist-obituary/) at the age of 76. “He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years,” his children Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement announcing Hawking’s passing early Wednesday. Tributes from around the world poured in for the [much-loved scientist](http://time.com/annie-leibovitz-on-photographing-stephen-hawking/), whose 1988 work ‘A Brief History of Time’ became an international bestseller, cementing his status as an icon both in the scientific world and in popular culture. Born in 1942 in Oxford, 300 years to the day after the death of fellow famed physicist and astronomer Galileo, [Hawking](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2029483,00.html) was inquisitive and curious from a young age. [As he told TIME](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,966650-2,00.html) in 1988, just before the publication of his book, he enjoyed “finding out how the world around me worked,” but confessed that he was never very good at putting things back together. --- > “” --- His student years were spent focused on physics, first at Oxford, and later at Cambridge, where he would go on to [hold](http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Honours/Lucasian.html) the prestigious Lucasian Professor of Mathematics chair. At the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or ‘Lou Gehrig’s Disease,’ a normally fatal illness. As TIME observed in 1988: --- > “” ---  Physicist, author, and Cambridge University Professor Stephen Hawking, pictured in a lecture hall on Aug. 1, 1988. Terry Smith—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images As TIME [wrote in a review](http://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/30/all-time-100-best-nonfiction-books/slide/a-brief-history-of-time-by-stephen-hawking/) of ‘A Brief History of Time,’ included as one of the top 100 non-fiction books of all time, Hawking’s book posited questions such as “Why do we exist?” and provided answers “with hard physics, gentle metaphor and ideas so big they fill up space itself.” The book, which aimed to help the general reader “[understand](http://www.hawking.org.uk/a-brief-history-of-time.html) the fundamental questions of physics and our existence,” was recorded in the [1998 Guinness Book of Records](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/jul/21/spaceexploration.science1) as an all-time bestseller, and would propel Hawking to stardom. Before its publication in spring 1988, Hawking let TIME in on a secret in his typically witty way. --- > “” --- Described as [‘Einstein’s Heir’](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,975698-1,00.html) and [‘The Playful Genius’](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1665647,00.html) by TIME after the book’s publication, Hawking also occupied a beloved space in popular culture. With cameos in _The Simpsons_ and _Star Trek_, as well as the 2014 biopic of his life [_The Theory of Everything_](http://time.com/3558490/hawking-hollywood-marsh/) starring [Eddie Redmayne](http://time.com/3547822/oscars-eddie-redmayne-stephen-hawking/), his influence was phenomenal, even in his later years. Hawking was vocal in advocating for [collective action ](http://time.com/4843423/stephen-hawking-trump-climate-change/)on global climate change, supported space travel and the [colonization of new planets](http://time.com/4767595/stephen-hawking-100-years-new-planet/). In [his own words](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1665647,00.html), “The universe is not indifferent to our existence — it depends on it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5198804/stephen-hawking-obituary-brief-history-of-time/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5198804/stephen-hawking-obituary-brief-history-of-time/"},"headline":"What Happened When TIME Met Stephen Hawking 30 Years Ago","datePublished":"2018-03-14T07:25:11.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T11:36:29.000Z","description":"The famed British theoretical physicist died Wednesday at the age of 76","url":"https://time.com/5198804/stephen-hawking-obituary-brief-history-of-time/","keywords":["People","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt420f8630ab0f46ae/69892ac0656a3f52f8bd3d90/gettyimages-637776988.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Suyin Haynes","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt420f8630ab0f46ae/69892ac0656a3f52f8bd3d90/gettyimages-637776988.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dr Stephen Hawking, 1988","caption":"Dr Stephen Hawking, 1988","creditText":"Mirrorpix/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/people/","name":"People"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5198804/stephen-hawking-obituary-brief-history-of-time/","name":"What Happened When TIME Met Stephen Hawking 30 Years Ago"}}]}] ```