You'd be surprised to find out that part of this 5% includes many notable deaf celebrities. In this post, we've compiled a shortlist of these celebs and attempted to showcase how these famous athletes, singers, and actors have overcome the odds to find success.
- Whoopi Goldberg, Actor/Comic
- Jodie Foster, Actor
- Gerard Butler, Actor
- Halle Berry, Actor
- Derrick Coleman
- William Shatner
- Stephen Colbert
- Lou Ferrigno
- Grimes
- Jane Lynch
WHOOPI GOLDBERG
A global star of the stage, silver screen, and most recently, co-host of The View on ABC, Whoopi Goldberg has openly discussed her hearing loss and the fact that she wears hearing aids in both ears. She believes that her hearing was damaged by listening to very loud music too close to her ears for many years. Today, she uses her story as a platform to keep children from abusing the volume function on their portable listening devices so they can keep enjoying their favorite tunes well into their adult years.
JODIE FOSTER
In a 2002 interview with The Chicago Tribune, actress Jodie Foster admitted that she’s let her own health slide – including missing a doctor’s appointment to deal with a self-described “hearing-loss thing.” She also suffers from vertigo – a potentially related condition. Today, she’s often seen wearing in-the-ear hearing aids as she pursues her career
GERARD BUTLER
The Scottish star of 300 and many other film and stage productions, Gerard Butler had surgery as a child that left his right ear physically deformed. He suffers from lifelong tinnitus and hearing loss in that ear, which he says is responsible for his smile appearing crooked in photos. However, his condition did not prevent him from starring in the film version of the musical Phantom of the Opera and belting out the titular character’s bombastic rock-star anthems.
HALLE BERRY
One in three women have experienced domestic violence at the hands of a partner, and roughly 20 people are abused every minute in the United States. While the emotional trauma of abuse lasts a lifetime, the physical damage can be equally as permanent. In the case of Halle Berry, a toxic relationship cost her 80 percent of the hearing in one ear but couldn’t stop her from becoming one of the highest-grossing women in Hollywood. Today, she is a regular spokeswoman for domestic abuse victims and uses her story to encourage others to stand up against violence, before it’s too late.
DERRICK COLEMAN
Super Bowl champion Derrick Coleman, Jr. is the first deaf offensive player in NFL history. He lost his hearing when he was three years old, but pursued his love for football despite the odds. “If you have a disability, and you’re letting that disability affect your performance, you make excuses,” Coleman told CNN. “Football was the first thing [where] I didn’t want to make excuses for this. I just want to play.” Though Coleman uses hearing aids, he’s become adept at reading lips — in games, he positions himself close to the quarterback so he can see his lips moving and follow the call. “Every now and then, people forget,” Coleman said in an interview with ESPN. “I have friends back home that forget I have hearing aids because at the end of the day, I don’t change myself. Just because I have hearing loss doesn’t mean you have to do anything differently.”
WILLIAM SHATNER
Best known as Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk, William Shatner has suffered from tinnitus for decades, caused by a pyrotechnics accident while shooting a Star Trek episode. He described to The Baltimore Sun: “Some years ago, we had an explosion on the set of one of our ‘Star Trek’ movies. We got this ringing in our ears, and it never really went away…it’s like a radio left on, but just the static. And you can’t turn it off.” Tinnitus affects up to 20% of the population and is a symptom of an underlying condition — including ear injuries like Shatner’s. The Mayo Clinic describes this disorder as “the perception of noise or ringing in the ears.” Today, sound therapy has helped him adjust to his new normal, and Shatner is an active supporter of the American Tinnitus Association as they search for a cure.
STEPHEN COLBERT
Perhaps you’ve noticed that comedian Stephen Colbert’s right ear sticks out at an angle. As a child, he had surgery to repair a severely perforated eardrum, he told The New Yorker. “I had this weird tumor as a kid, and they scooped it out with a melon baller.” In order to safely remove the tumor, doctors had to remove Colbert’s eardrum — so he is completely deaf in his right ear. This new reality forced him to shift his career goals — he had dreamed of becoming a marine biologist. He told The Charleston Post and Courier, “Now I can’t get my head wet. I mean, I can, but I can’t really scuba dive or anything like that. So that killed my marine biology hopes.” Fortunately, he was able to pursue interests in acting and comedy to become the success he is today.
LOU FERRIGNO
Better known as the Incredible Hulk, actor, and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno lost 75% of his hearing when he was just three years old — the result of an ear infection. Growing up, Ferrigno was bullied because he couldn’t hear and had a hard time speaking. But he found refuge and inspiration in comic books. “I was very introverted as a child. I would read Superman comics because I was fascinated with power. That saved my life. In fact, that led me to a path to get involved with bodybuilding fitness and then eventually the film business, and it also gave me the motivation and discipline to work on myself.” Today, he’s a role model in the deaf community. “I think my hearing loss helped create a determination within me to be all I can be, and gave me a certain strength of character, too.”
GRIMES
Claire Boucher, professionally known as Grimes, is a Canadian singer who suffers from tinnitus. When she was just 24, she had to cancel her European tour due to hearing loss issues and tinnitus – she was advised to stay away from loud music. She tweeted about her struggle, mentioning that the ringing in her ears was so loud that she couldn’t sleep at night.
JANE LYNCH, ACTRESS
Though best known for her roles in comedies, Jane Lynch will be the first to tell you that hearing loss is no laughing matter. A virus stole the hearing from her right ear as an infant, but she was unaware of her condition for the first seven years of her life. In her 2011 memoir, she writes about the time her brother kept alternating listening to his radio between both ears, which marked the first time she realized that other people used both ears to hear.