By Mark Rhoads
"The handicap of deafness is not in the ear, it is in the mind." - Marlee Matlin
Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin was born in Morton Grove, Illinois on August 24, 1965. She was born with normal hearing but became deaf at the age of 18 months due to a disease called Roseola Infantum. She performed at the Children's Theatre of the Deaf in Des Plaines and starred as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at the age of 7.
Marlee was active in school plays and graduated from John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. She studied criminal justice at Harper College in Palatine but she continued with her passion for acting after graduation from college. In 1986 Marlee won a Golden Globe Award for her film debut and she was the youngest person ever to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her perfomance in Children of a Lesser God. She was also nominted for an Emmy Award for one her TV episodes in Picket Fences and played a recurring character, pollster Joey Lucas, on The West Wing. Marlee married police officer Kevin Grandalski on August 29, 1993 and the couple have four children.
Wherever in the world she goes on location for movies, Marlee always takes time to visit both hearing-impaired children and children with normal hearing. In 1995 she testified before Congress and was influential and successful in seeking passage of a bill to require that all TV sets made in the U.S. with a screen that is 13 inches or larger must include a chip to provide for "closed captioning" on the screen. This was a major benefit to all hearing-impaired viewers in the U.S. Marlee has also served as a spokesperson for the National Captioning Institute. Marlee is currently a celebrity spokesperson for The American Red Cross.
For a complete list of films and TV shows featuring Marlee Matlin, visit her page on the Internet Movie Data Base or visit Marlee Matlin's personal web site.
