Donald

In A Different Key could not have been made without the participation of “Autism’s First Child,” Donald Grey Triplett. Named in the professional autism literature as “Case 1” in 1943, he was in and out of an institution, and spent time with one of history’s most important child psychiatrists, all by the time he was five years old.  The filmmakers first met Donald in 2007, when they profiled his remarkable life story for The Atlantic, in a piece that became a finalist for the National Magazine Award  and was later included in the paperback anthology Best Magazine Writing of 2011. This groundbreaking first detailed accounting of Donald’s life over its first seven decades can be found here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/10/autisms-first-child/308227/

Donald left this world in 2023. News of his passing was covered around the world.

A brief account of his last days can be found here.