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 Marlee Matlin mini-bio: Marlee Beth Matlin was born on August 24, 1965, to Don and Libby Matlin; she
was their third child. Marlee became deaf at the age of 18 months due to a bout
with Roseola Infantum. That didn't stop her, though, from acting in a
children's theatre company at age 7; she was Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." Her
deafness never held her back. As an adult she said it so eloquently: "I have
always resisted putting limitations on myself, both professionally and
personally." Marlee studied Criminal Justice at Harper College in Palatine,
Illinois, and maintained her passion for acting after graduating. While
performing on stage throughout Chicago and the Midwest, Marlee attracted notice
for her performance in a production of the Tony award-winning play "Children of
a Lesser God" and was cast in the movie version, Children of a Lesser God
(1986). Although this was her film debut, she won the Academy Award for Best
Actress. While shooting her next movie. Walker (1987) in Nicaragua,
big-hearted Marlee took time to visit both hearing and hearing-impaired children.
She continued this tradition of visiting local children throughout her travels to
Germany, England, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Canada, etc. Her interest in the
criminal justice field played a part in her onscreen career; she portrayed an
Assistant D.A. in the TV series "Reasonable Doubts" (1991), while offscreen she
married police officer Kevin Grandalski on August 29, 1993. Marlee was nominated
for an Emmy award in 1994 for her performance as Laurie Bey in the "Picket Fences"
(1992) episode "Dancing Bandit." Marlee is also a spokeswoman for the National
Captioning Institute. In 1995 she testified at a Congressional hearing, and helped
get a law passed that requires all TV sets 13 inches or larger to be manufactured
with built-in chips to provide "Closed Captioning" on their screens; this was a
godsend for deaf viewers.
Marlee is currently serving as the national spokeswoman for the largest provider of
TV Closed Captioning, and has spoken on behalf of "CC" in countries such as
Australia, England, France and Italy. She also serves on the boards of a number of
charitable organizations, including Very Special Arts, the Starlight Foundation, and
other charities that primarily benefit children. As someone who loves children so
much, it is only fitting that she has two of her own: Sarah Rose, born January 1996,
and Brandon, born September 2000. Professionally, Marlee has even tried producing,
being the Executive Producer for Where the Truth Lies (1999) (TV).
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