john nash
Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash arrives to the 74th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California, in this file photo taken March 24, 2002. Reuters/Fred Prouser/Files

Mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Prize winner who inspired the movie "A Beautiful Mind," was killed in a car crash along with his wife in New Jersey, state police said on Sunday.

The couple were in a taxi cab whose driver lost control and crashed into a guardrail on Saturday afternoon while driving on the New Jersey Turnpike, said Sgt. Gregory Williams, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police.

They were thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, Williams said.

Nash was 86 and his wife was 82, and were living in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, according to New Jersey police.

Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994 for his work on game theory and the mathematics of decision-making.

The Oscar award-winning film "A Beautiful Mind" starring Russell Crowe was loosely based on Nash's longtime struggle with schizophrenia.

Crowe wrote on Twitter on Sunday that he was stunned by reports of the death of Nash and his wife, Alicia.

"An amazing partnership. Beautiful minds, beautiful hearts," he wrote on Twitter.

(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by David Clarke and Raissa Kasolowsky)