Marlee Matlin celebrates 61st birthday and career milestones

Marlee Matlin, the acclaimed American actress and advocate, is celebrating her 61st birthday. Matlin made cinematic history with her debut in ‘Children of a Lesser God’, becoming the first deaf person to win the Academy Award for Best Actress and the youngest woman to receive the honor in that category.

Beyond her film career, which includes roles in ‘The West Wing’, ‘Switched at Birth’, and ‘CODA’, Matlin is a prominent advocate for the deaf community. She has famously required film captioning for deaf audiences as a condition for accepting roles and has served as a celebrity ambassador for the ACLU since 2015.

Matlin is married to Kevin Grandalski, and the couple has four children: Sarah, Brandon, Tyler, and Isabelle.