I'd say his popularity stems from how engaging a person he is: It's hard to watch Feynmann talk about something he's interested in (and he's interested in everything!), and to see that twinkle in his eye, and not be gripped by whatever the subject is. There's something special about his childlike wonder at the way things work.

All of that, and he's absolutely astoundingly intelligent, articulate, and friendly.

This video where he's asked how magnets "work" [youtu.be/ewcJR2nqDV4 - 7:30 long, from The Fantastic Mr. Feynmann] is amazing. He takes seven minutes to respond to a question. He doesn't even answer the question properly, and yet it's the perfect response. Even the most science-averse of my friends are able to enjoy watching that video.

And that's just the science bit! He's also done crazy and interesting things: Cracking safes in Los Alamos that had research documents on the atomic bomb and leaving taunting notes. He used to work off napkins in topless bars. He was just an all-round interesting guy.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that neither Schwinger nor Gell-Mann have these same qualities.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/08/magazine/the-man-who-knows...

Or check out his Santa Fe homepage to appreciate his incredible range of interests.

http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~mgm/Site/Front_Page.html

A moderately famous physicist came to lecture at the university where Feynman was teaching. Feynman, a few minutes before the physicist had arrived at the lecture hall, read the notes at the lectern and spotted a mistake.

As the lecture was going on, Feynman apparently pointed out the mistake as if he had spontaneously identified it. The physicist, obviously astonished at that point, offered to stop the lecture if there was a mistake in his calculations. But Feynman asked him to continue, and apparently they became good friends later.

Schwinger and Gell-mann were pissed off because of two things - obviously they couldn't match Feynman's charisma, but they also felt he went around "generating anecdotes about himself" which contributed to that charisma somewhat.

Can someone confirm this story?

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2103