“There are so many people, deaf or otherwise abled, who are so talented but overlooked or not given a chance to even get their foot in the door.” This quote is by an American actress named Marlee Matlin who did not allow her deafness to get in the way of her dreams. She didn’t just take her deafness as an excuse to give up; she fought tooth and nail to get the recognition that she deserves.
Marlee Beth Matlin was born on August 24, 1965, to Libby and Donald Matlin in Morton Grove, Illinois. Matlin grew up with two older brothers, Eric and Mark, and she was the only one in her family to have hearing issues. She lost 80 percent of her hearing in her right ear and all of her hearing in her left by the age of 18 months. In her autobiography I’ll Scream Later, she states that she believes her hearing loss may be due to a malformed cochlea.
Matlin attended John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights and got a law degree at Harper College.
Matlin made her debut as an actress at the age of seven with a children’s theater (ICODA) in a production of The Wizard of Oz. She continued to perform with the children’s group until she was discovered by Henry Winkler which led to her role in the movie Children of a Lesser God which came out in 1986.
Matlin continued to take roles in movies and shows such as Sesame Street, Seinfeld, Blue’s Clues, and many others. Later in her career, she even performed the national anthem in American Sign Language at Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Florida. Currently, she plays the recurring role of Melody Bledsoe on Switched at Birth.
Marlee Matlin is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God at the age of 21, also making her the youngest to ever win that award. In her time she has also won a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations and four Emmy nominations. Besides these awards, she was also a dancer on the sixth season of Dancing with the Stars and on May 6, 2009, she received a star on the Hollywood’ Walk of Fame.
Matlin was a large part of the deaf community and at one point donated, with the help of various sponsors, a million dollars to the Starkey Hearing Foundation. She also was a part of many other charities such as Easter Seals and Children Affected by AIDS Foundation.
She received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Gallaudet in 1987 and was appointed to the Gallaudet University Board of Trustees in 2007.
In 2009, Matlin came out with her own autobiography where she discusses her own drug abuse and sexual abuse that she suffered at the hands of her babysitter. Marlee and her husband Kevin were married in 1993 and have four children together.
Marlee Matlin is an individual whose deafness never slowed her down. She constantly fought to make a place for herself in this world through the good and bad times. Her struggles are an inspiration to deaf and hearing people alike, and no one will forget the woman who made her dreams come true despite the obstacles that stood in her path. She doesn’t look at her hearing loss as a disability and no one else should because she didn’t allow it to become one. Any person who is talented shouldn’t let something like a hearing loss, or any other factor that is considered a disability, slow them down.