The True Stories Behind the 3 Remarkable Women in Hidden Figures

Born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, WV, Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson) was a gifted child and had an increased proficiency in math at an early age. Due to segregation, Johnson's hometown didn't offer public school classes for black people past the eighth grade. Not wanting to squander her gift, her family moved to Institute, WV, for her to continue her education. Katherine proceeded to skip several grades and graduated high school at just 14 years old. She went on to receive degrees in mathematics and French before accepting a job in 1953 as a "human computer" by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics or NACA (which became NASA in 1958).

Her brilliance did not go unnoticed and, in 1961, she was transferred to the all-white male Space Task Group, helping calculate the trajectory of 1961 space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in space. From there, she calculated John Glenn's orbit around the Earth, in addition to contributing her skills to the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 missions to the moon. She continued to make significant strides in the scientific community before retiring from NASA in 1979. In 2015, President Barack Obama presented Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She is currently 98 years old.

Born in Kansas City, MO, in 1910, Dorothy Vaughan (played by Octavia Spencer) received a full ride to Wilberforce University and graduated with a BA in mathematics at the young age of 19. She worked as a teacher for over a decade before beginning her career at NASA's Langley Research Center. Not only was Vaughan an experienced mathematician, but she was also a talented self-taught programmer, proficient in technology that was revolutionary at the time. While working in the space program, Vaughan calculated numerous flight paths, contributed to satellite-launching program SCOUT, and taught her colleagues FORTRAN, a complex scientific computer programming language developed by IBM in the 1950s.

In 1949, Vaughan became the head of the West Area Computers, a black female group of skilled mathematicians at NACA, sometimes referred to as "computers who wore skirts." Both Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson were members. After over two decades of working on what she referred to as "the cutting edge of something very exciting," Vaughan retired in 1971 at the age of 60.

Vaughan passed away in 2008 at the age of 98.

Born in 1921, Mary Jackson (played by Janelle Monáe) was raised in Hampton, VA, where she earned degrees in mathematics and physical science. After graduating, Mary took various jobs — teaching, tutoring, bookkeeping, clerking, and more. Finally, in 1951, Jackson was recruited by NACA and worked as a "computer" in the West Area Computing Section, which was supervised by Dorothy Vaughan. Two years later, she began working for engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki, who encouraged her to study to become an engineer herself.

Unfortunately, this required graduate-level degrees, which she was unable to obtain because the school system was still segregated. She petitioned the city of Hampton to attend the necessary university courses, which were offered as night classes at an all-white high school. Her petition was granted and Jackson went on to become NASA's first black female engineer in 1958. She worked on wind tunnel experiments, particularly the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, in addition to conducting several flight experiments used to better understand theoretical aerodynamics.

Although she eventually went on to become the most senior engineer in the department after 34 years, she took a demotion to become an equal opportunity specialist, helping to create opportunities for women and minorities in the field. She retired from NASA in 1985.

Jackson passed away in 2005 at the age of 83.

In the film, the three women are depicted as best friends, but in actuality, they weren't that close. It's true that Dorothy Vaughan acted as Jackson and Johnson's supervisor, but the scenes showcasing their personal relationship are fictional. As much as we'd love to imagine it, chances are that they never carpooled, Jackson and Vaughan didn't convince Johnson to date Colonel Jim Johnson, nor did they help her get ready for the wedding.

Despite what you see in the movie, their work achievements didn't happen at the same time, either. Not only was there a 10- to 12-year age difference between Vaughan and the other two women, but Vaughan became the acing head of the West Area Computers in 1949 (five years before Katherine began working there), Jackson became an engineer in 1958, and John Glenn's orbit that Johnson calculated for occurred in 1961.

Not at all. The bathrooms at Langley were, indeed, segregated, but they had no signs stating so. Because the restrooms were unmarked, Johnson used the white restroom every day without realizing that she had done so. Jackson, however, worked with the engineers in the East Side building where there were no colored restrooms. While she didn't have to sprint across campus every day, it did take her a few times to find a bathroom that she was allowed to use, and it wasn't nearby.

This is complicated. Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons), Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), and Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst) are all actually fictional characters. Al's character is loosely based on a number of men, but the others were created to showcase the sexism, racism, and hostile workplace environment.

Furthermore, when asked about how segregation affected her at NASA, Johnson responded, "I didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research. You had a mission and you worked on it, and it was important to do your job. . . . I didn't feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it." Even though Johnson may have been treated as a peer, the reality of segregation for others, especially outside of the office, was very real.

Absolutely! In 1939, Johnson married James Goble and the couple had three daughters, before he tragically died of a brain tumor in 1956. Three years later, she married Colonel James Johnson (played by Mahershala Ali). The happy couple are still married today after all those years, residing in Hampton, VA.