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Actress Marlee Beth Matlin was born August 24, 1965 in Morton Grove, Illinois.  At barely four months, she became deaf due to a viral illness, the Roseola Infantum.  But this didn't stop her from pursuing her dream.  At age seven, she played Dorothy in a stage performance of The Wizard of Oz.  She graduated from John Hersey High School and took up criminal justice at Harper College.  Throughout the years, she remained active in the theatre world.

Matlin was well-recognized for her performance in the play Children of a Lesser God and was later chosen to take part in the movie version of it.  It became her big screen debut and it immediately brought her an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Drama.  At age 21, she became the youngest recipient of the Best Actress Oscar.

She has also made several TV appearances on shows like Seinfeld , ER , The Practice , Desperate Housewives , The West Wing , The L Word and My Name is Earl .

Matlin is involved with different charities including Red Cross Celebrity Cabinet, VSA Arts, Children Affected by AIDS Foundation and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.  She has also released two books entitled Nobody's Perfect and Leading Ladies.  She is married to law enforcement officer Kevin Grandalski and they have four children named Sarah Rose, Brandon, Tyler and Isabella Jane.

Marlee Matlin can is a celebrity contestant on season 6 of ABC's reality series Dancing with the Stars, a program which features the partnerships of celebrities and professional ballroom dancers as they compete in weekly elimination rounds until a winning duo is declared.  She is paired with Fabian Sanchez .



(Photo courtesy of ABC)

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.24 August 1965, Morton Grove, Illinois, USA

Marlee Matlin

Marlee Matlin

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.Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1986 Children of a Lesser God
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1987 Children of a Lesser God

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.Filmography and awards
Year Film Role Other notes
1986 Children of a Lesser God Sarah Norman Academy Award for Best Actress; Golden Globe
1987 Walker Ellen Martin
1991 The Linguini Incident Jeanette
L'Homme au masque d'or Mar?a
1993 Hear No Evil Jillian Shanahan
1996 It's My Party Daphne Stark
Snitch Cindy
1998 When Justice Fails Katy Wesson
In Her Defense Jane Claire
2000 Two Shades of Blue Beth McDaniels
2001 Askari Paula McKinley
2004 What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? Amanda
2006 What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole Amanda
2007 The L Word Jodi Lerner
2008 Sweet Nothing in My Ear Laura Miller TV film


Awards and Filmography

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.5' 4" (1.63 m)

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."The Earth does not belong to us: we belong to the Earth."

"Silence is the last thing the world will ever hear from me."

The handicap of deafness is not in the ear; it is in the mind.

In response to a new 2006 PBS censorship policy requiring additional visual pixelization for the deaf of recognizable lip movements of sworn words: "All I can say is I've been reading the lips of bleeped-out words, angry baseball players, and stoned-out rock stars on awards shows for years and it's been hilarious. Everyone is always asking me what the bleeped-out parts are saying. Just say no to pixelization! Hehe."

Dancing with the Stars Season 6 Results

Dancing with the Stars Finally Shakes Things Up