Andrew Wiles did not win the Fields Medal because of the 40-years age limit, the IMU made a special reference to his great achievement, search Fields Medal in Google. Wiles' achievement however provided a great inspiration to very competent and ambitious mathematicians, it was a breach of historical momentum! 

 Grigory Perelman is -by right- a living legend of Mathematics, in fact I do not know how many mathematicians working in Differential eometry and Algebraic Topology can study his proof or the book (e.g. by Moran and Tian) writing down Perelman's proof.

 How Thymo can write down correctly a french name?

IMO, his achievement (proving the Poincare conjecture) ranks among the very greatest achievements in the history of pure mathematics (and is certainly of more intrinsic importance than "Fermat's last theorem", although the solution of that was a great achievement and led to important mathematics).

I can only infer that he fears that accepting the very large monetary prize might have some negative effect on his mathematical abilities (his mathematics is surely more important to him than everything else). I think if it was me, I'd risk it, and if the fears were true, I could donate the money to someone later to regain my abilities.  Being less exceptional has its advantages, as I have never been close to this sort of dilemna. 

Poincare is correct it has a c in it  ;D

He refused to accept both the Clay math prize and the Fields Medal .. Wiles recieved the Fields Medal when proved Fermat's Last Theorem .. (even though he was older than 40) .. Apparently Perelman has left Mathematics after he did the Poincare Conjecture thing and is now living with his mom... (sorry if all of this is in the movie - didn't watch it)

The poincare conjecture was one of the seven millennium prize  problems 

"In order to celebrate mathematics in the new millennium, The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts (CMI) has named seven Prize Problems. The Scientific Advisory Board of CMI selected these problems, focusing on important classic questions that have resisted solution over the years. The Board of Directors of CMI designated a $7 million prize fund for the solution to these problems, with $1 million allocated to each."

to learn about the other millenium problems see the official site here.

Wow thanks for good vids!

I heard of Perelman. He refused some maths price? And he solved something heavy...

Of course we've heard of Perelman! :D

At least, I first met him when I watched the "History of Maths" by Marcus du Sautoy.

Didn't the reporter mispronounce the "Poinaré Conjecture"? He said "Poincáre"...

If you dont know what the Poincare conjecture is and want a quick overview see here for a short video.