Marlee Matlin Biography Quotes 31 Report mistakes

Early Life and Identity
Marlee Matlin was born on August 24, 1965, in Morton Grove, Illinois. A bout of illness with high fevers when she was a toddler left her deaf, and she grew up using American Sign Language as her primary language. She was raised in the Chicago suburbs in a family that encouraged her talents and independence, and she found an early home onstage with a local program for young deaf performers at what became the International Center on Deafness and the Arts. Those formative experiences made performance a fluent extension of her identity rather than a contradiction to it. She learned early to navigate both deaf and hearing spaces, developing an instinct for collaboration and advocacy that would later define her public life.

Stage Roots and a Mentor
As a teenager and young adult, Matlin performed in community and regional theater, including a stage version of Children of a Lesser God at the Center on Deafness. The production drew encouragement from actor Henry Winkler, who became an early mentor and friend to Matlin and her family. His belief in her potential, coupled with her own determination, helped bridge the path from local stages to Hollywood auditions at a time when few deaf actors were being cast in leading roles.

Breakthrough on Film
Matlin's screen debut in Randa Haines's 1986 film Children of a Lesser God was a landmark. Starring opposite William Hurt and Piper Laurie, she portrayed Sarah Norman with a fierce, self-defined intelligence that challenged the industry's assumptions about deaf characters and deaf actors. Her performance won the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe, making her at 21 the youngest Best Actress Oscar winner and the first deaf performer to receive an Academy Award for acting. The role also began her long collaboration with interpreter and producer Jack Jason, whose presence behind the scenes helped ensure that communication on sets supported her best work.

Film Career Beyond the Debut
After her breakthrough, Matlin sustained a varied film career, choosing roles that ranged from thrillers to independent dramas. Credits include Hear No Evil, the ensemble drama It's My Party, and the documentary-style narrative What the Bleep Do We Know!? Decades after her debut, she returned to the center of the cultural conversation with CODA, directed by Sian Heder, playing Jackie Rossi, the deaf mother in a working-class fishing family. Working alongside Troy Kotsur, Emilia Jones, and Daniel Durant, Matlin helped anchor a story told on its own linguistic and cultural terms. CODA won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor, and the cast earned the Screen Actors Guild Award for ensemble, cementing the film as a watershed for authentic representation.

Television and Long-Form Storytelling
Matlin has been a consistent presence on television, where she expanded the kinds of characters audiences expect to see and hear. She headlined Reasonable Doubts opposite Mark Harmon, earning Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal of a prosecutor whose world is interpreted to and from ASL. She recurred on Picket Fences and later gave another defining performance as pollster Joey Lucas on The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin, where sharp political dialogue met her crisp, witty screen presence. Additional memorable turns include appearances on Seinfeld, The L Word, Nip/Tuck, and Switched at Birth, the latter of which normalized bilingual ASL-English storytelling for a wide audience. She has also participated in popular reality and competition series, including Dancing with the Stars and The Celebrity Apprentice, using those platforms to elevate deaf talent and accessibility causes.

Authorship and Public Voice
Matlin extended her influence as an author. Her memoir, I'll Scream Later, recounts her life in detail, including early challenges, the pressures following sudden fame, and difficult personal experiences she later discussed publicly, as well as her path to sobriety and a sustainable career. She also wrote for young readers with titles such as Deaf Child Crossing and Nobody's Perfect, helping children understand friendship across differences and the everyday texture of deaf life. Through public speaking, she has advocated for equal access in media, education, and employment, frequently highlighting captioning, sign-language interpreting, and the value of deaf culture.

Collaborators, Partners, and Community
Across decades, certain collaborators have been central to Matlin's work. Jack Jason has been her longtime interpreter and producing partner, supporting communication and representation on and off set. Her early mentor Henry Winkler has remained a friend and ally. Directors including Randa Haines and Sian Heder, and colleagues such as William Hurt, Piper Laurie, Mark Harmon, Troy Kotsur, Emilia Jones, and Daniel Durant, form part of a professional circle that reflects her range across genres and generations. She has lent time and visibility to organizations that advance accessibility and deaf rights, working with advocates and institutions dedicated to captioning, interpreting services, and sign language education. She has also brought ASL to mass audiences by performing the National Anthem in sign language at multiple Super Bowls, a symbolic gesture of inclusion viewed by tens of millions.

Personal Life
Matlin married Kevin Grandalski in 1993, and they have raised four children together. Over the years she has spoken about juggling family life with a career in film and television, insisting that access and accommodation for deaf professionals is both achievable and beneficial for entire productions. Her marriage and family, along with a close-knit circle of friends and collaborators, have provided the stability she cites as essential to her longevity in a demanding industry.

Impact and Legacy
Matlin's influence extends far beyond the milestones of her first Oscar. She changed how studios, casting directors, and audiences think about deaf performers, proving that ASL can be a cinematic language and that stories led by deaf characters can be commercially and critically successful. By consistently choosing roles that neither flatten deafness into a plot device nor avoid its reality, she has modeled a broader, more nuanced vision of inclusion. Her career demonstrates that authentic representation opens creative possibilities for everyone on a set, from writers to camera crews to fellow actors. Through decades of work, honors including major film and television awards and nominations, and an enduring public voice, Marlee Matlin has helped remake mainstream culture's understanding of who gets to speak on screen, how, and to whom.

Our collection contains 31 quotes who is written by Marlee, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Motivational - Music - Art - Overcoming Obstacles.