Marlee matlin
Yes, Marlee Matlin is deaf. She is also Jewish, married, mother, writer, actress, and activist. She never let her disability define her, and she never gave up, instead continuing to inspire others while helping the less fortunate through her many charitable endeavors.
When she was just seven years old, she took on the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at a local children’s theater. He had lost his hearing at 18 months due to a malformed cochlea, but he finished school and studied criminal justice at university. He continued acting, mainly on stage, and in 1986 he made his first film, Children of a Lesser God. Although it was her first leading role, she won the Academy Award for it, becoming the youngest actress to do so, and one of only four women to have won for her first film. She is also the only deaf actress to have won an Oscar, although that is just a box for a woman who believes that “the disability of deafness is not in the ear, it is in the mind.”
That year he also received a Golden Globe for Children of a Lesser God, and has two other nominations, as well as four Emmy nominations to his credit. He has appeared over the years in other movies and many television shows ranging from Sesame Street to CSI: NY, Desperate Housewives, ER, Seinfeld, and The West Wing.
More recently, fans have seen Marlee Matlin on Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Apprentice, where she made a record amount of money for her chosen charity, although she did not win the title. She is also an author, and has written Deaf Child’s Crossing and Nobody’s Perfect. More recently, her autobiography, I’ll Scream Later, came out, a nod to the fact that when she found out she was nominated for an Academy Award, she was in rehab for drug abuse and didn’t want anyone to find out; I planned to celebrate, “shout later” once it was clean.
Matlin does not want to define herself as a deaf woman, but instead does a lot of charity work with organizations that help deaf people around the world. In 2007 he signed the National Anthem at the start of the Superbowl and in 2009 he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Not many can say that they are the godmother of a cruise ship, but Matlin has that distinction too, along with all the other wonderful things she has chosen to do with her life. She has a career, a family, and yes, a disability, but she has never let that stop her on the path to realizing her dreams.
