Children of a Lesser God
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Children of a Lesser God is a 1986 film which tells the story of a speech teacher at a school for the deaf who falls in love with a sign language-using deaf woman. It stars William Hurt, Marlee Matlin, Piper Laurie and Philip Bosco.
The movie, directed by Randa Haines, was adapted by Mark Medoff, Hesper Anderson and James Carrington (uncredited) from Medoff's Tony Award-winning play, which ran on Broadway from 1980-1982.
It won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Marlee Matlin) and was nominated for Best Actor (William Hurt), Best Supporting Actress (Piper Laurie), Best Picture and Best Writing for an Adapted Screenplay.
Marlee Matlin, herself almost completely deaf in real life since the early age of 18 months, is the youngest actress to have received an Oscar for Best Actress. She remains active in charities for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing around the world.
Matlin plays Sarah Norman, a deaf, troubled young woman working at a school for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in New England. An energetic new teacher, James Leeds (William Hurt), arrives at the school and encourages her to set aside her isolated life of frustration by learning to lip read but she resists. Romantic interest develops between James and Sarah and they are soon living together, though their mutual stubbornness strains their relationship.
Production
The movie was shot primarily in and around Saint John, New Brunswick with the Rothesay Netherwood School serving as the main set.
Trivia
Marlee Matlin won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Sarah Norman. At 21, she was the youngest winner of a Best Actress Oscar.
The film's box office sales shot up by an unprecedented 164% after Matlin's win for Best Actress.
In one of the film's early scenes, the truck belonging to William Hurt's character can clearly be seen to have a Wyoming license plate on it. (Look for the distinctive bucking horse and cowboy logo on the plate. The first number on the plate is a 2, which means the plate is from Laramie County, Wyoming.)