14 Facts About Phyllis Frelich

Phyllis Annetta Frelich was a deaf American actress.

Phyllis Frelich was the first deaf actor to win a Tony Award.

Phyllis Frelich's parents were alumni of the North Dakota School for the Deaf.

Phyllis Frelich originated the leading female role in the Broadway production of Children of a Lesser God, written by Mark Medoff.

Children won the Tony for Best Play; Phyllis Frelich won the 1980 Best Actress Tony Award and her co-star, John Rubinstein, won the Best Actor Tony Award.

Phyllis Frelich was the first deaf actor or actress to win a Tony Award.

Phyllis Frelich later starred in other plays written by Medoff, including The Hands of Its Enemy and Prymate.

Phyllis Frelich was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the 1985 television movie Love Is Never Silent.

Phyllis Frelich appeared in the recurring role of Sister Sarah on Santa Barbara.

Phyllis Frelich's last acting role was in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2011.

Phyllis Frelich was elected to the ninety-member Screen Actors Guild Board in Hollywood, the highest policy-making body in the entertainment industry in 1991.

Phyllis Frelich was the first deaf actress to be recognized in the United States.

In 1991, Phyllis Frelich starred with Patrick Graybill in The Gin Game at the Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles drawing critical acclaim on their aesthetic art of American Sign Language.

Phyllis Frelich died on April 10,2014, at her home in Temple City, California at the age of 70 in April 2014 from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare degenerative neurological disease for which there are no treatments.