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Marlee Matlin

Marlee Matlin
Marlee Matlin
Born: Aug 24, 1965 in Morton Grove, Illinois
Occupation: Actor,
Active: '90s-2000s
Major Genres: Drama, Thriller
Career Highlights: Children of a Lesser God, It's My Party, Dead Silence
First Major Screen Credit: Children of a Lesser God (1986)
10 Videos for Marlee Matlin
What the Bleep!? Down the Rabbit Hole (2006) It's My Party (1996) The Linguini Incident (1992)
What the #$*! Do We Know?! (2004) It's My Party (1996) The Player (1992)
Two Shades of Blue (1998) Hear No Evil (1993) Walker (1987)
When Justice Fails (1997)
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Biography:

A bout of roseola infantum rendered actress Marlee Matlin almost completely deaf at the age of 18 months. Never permitting her affliction to impede her ambitions, Matlin launched her stage career at age 8, playing Dorothy in the Des Plaines Childrens Theatre of the Deaf production of The Wizard Oz.

She put her theatrical aspirations on the back burner while studying criminal justice at William Rainey Harper college, but by her early 20s was back on stage, playing a minor role in the original Chicago Immediate Theatre Production of Children of a Lesser God. By the time this community-theatre effort went professional and was transplanted to New York, Matlin had been promoted to the leading role of Sara.

She repeated this role in the 1988 film version of Children of a Lesser God, and in so doing became the first deaf actress to win the Academy Award. During this same period, Matlin was involved in a well-publicized romance with her Lesser God co-star William Hurt. In her talk-show appearance, Matlin is invariably accompanied by an interpreter, who relays the meaning of her sign language to the studio audience; from the 1989 TV movie Bridge of Silence onward, however, the actress has endeavored to speak as often as possible.

From 1991 through 1993, Marleen Matlin starred as assistant district attorney Tess Kaufman on the weekly TV series Reasonable Doubt and in 1995 and '96 she played Mayor Laurie Bey on the Emmy Award-winning Picket Fences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.