Marlee Matlin
Marlee Matlin
Marlee Beth Matlinis an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Children of a Lesser God, and is the only deaf performer to win the award. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy nominations. Deaf since she was 18 months old, she is also a prominent member of the National Association of the Deaf. Her longtime interpreter is Jack...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth24 August 1965
CityMorton Grove, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I live my life like everyone else; everyone has their own obstacles. Mine is deafness.
Maybe my way of communicating through sign made me more in tune with my body and how it moved. Who knows? I just know when I saw a stage for the first time, I wanted to be on it.
I guess not being able to hear just made me adventurous and daring. And in most cases, that didn't make my parents very happy with me.
I've been around since I was 19, I won the Oscar when I was 21, I've had a couple of TV series. I've continued to work despite the predictions of some naysayers.
What parent has it easy? I just never make the difficulty of it an obstacle. I just do it.
When I was 13, I told Henry Winkler I wanted to act. He said, Do it and don't let anyone stand in your way. His validation just made it all the more true. I haven't stopped thanking him since.
By the time I was a teenager, my desire to be daring and taste everything got me in trouble. Too often, I was in the company of kids my parents would call 'wild.'