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Deaf People on Television Fifties to Today
before Marlee Matlin and Deanne Bray

By Jamie Berke, About.com

Updated November 03, 2009

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  • Off Centre (WB)/"Hear No Evil, See No Package" (March 2002) - deaf character (Shoshannah Stern)
  • Inspector Lynley Mysteries (British) April 2002 - deaf girl murdered
  • Providence/"Great Expectations" (April 2002) - Shoshannah Stern
  • Odyssey 5 (Showtime)/"Symbiosis" (July 2002) - young deaf girl has a cochlear implant
  • Soul Food (Showtime)/"Child Safety" (August 2002) - deaf girl (Michelle Banks)
  • Night Visions/"Patterns/Voices" (September 2002)- deaf woman (Terrylene) reads people's minds
  • Girlfriends (UPN)/"Don't Leave Me a Loan"(October 2002) - deaf boss (Michelle Banks)
  • Boston Public/Chapter Fifty(November 2002) - Shoshannah Stern
  • John Doe/"Idaho" (November 2002) - deaf killer
  • Strong Medicine/"Philadelphia Chromosome" (December 2002) - deaf girl with arthritis

Marlee Matlin continues to be a staple guest star on shows, just a few examples of which are below.

  • Chicken Soup for the Soul (late 1999)
  • Judging Amy/"An Impartial Bias" (November 1999)
  • Gideon's Crossing/"Orphans" (January 2001) (Kovacs was also in this episode)
  • The Practice/"Life Sentence" (2000)
  • Blues Clues (2001)
  • The Division/"Testimonial" (Lifetime) (February 2003) (also included Shoshannah Stern, who also had a guest role in January 2003 on ER's "A Little Help from My Friends" episode)

Deaf People on Television, 2002-Present

In the present day era, deaf actors and actresses are now full-fledged stars of television programs,and are taking roles where deafness is just part of the character, not the sole focus of the character. In other words, their roles could be played by hearing actors just as easily - the producers just happened to select a deaf actor or actress for the role.

  • In the 2002-2003 season, the way was led by Deanne Bray, who starred in the Pax program Sue Thomas, FBEye.
  • In the 2003-04 season, Shoshannah Stern became a regular on ABC's Threat Matrix, playing security analyst Holly Brodeen at the National Security Agency.

Sources:

IMDB.com, Epguides.com, and TV.com were the sources for much of this material.

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