The King's Speech 'More than Entertainment to People Who Stutter'

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (January 16, 2011) — Jane Fraser, president of The Stuttering Foundation (www.stutteringhelp.org), issued the following reaction to tonight’s Golden Globe Awards:

“A tsunami called The King's Speech has turned our world upside down," said Jane Fraser, president of The Stuttering Foundation. "This movie has done in one fell swoop what we've been working on for 64 years – raising awareness of the complexities of stuttering and the help that is available to those in need.The King’s Speech, with its seven Golden Globe nominations and tonight’s much-deserved “Best Actor in a Motion Picture” award for Colin Firth, is more than entertainment to people who stutter. We have heard universal praise for both the movie and the actors’ performances from the stuttering community across the world. People who stutter have a movie and a hero they can call their own. We congratulate the director, producers, writers and actors for their work, and their humanity in helping millions of people who stutter with understanding and hope.”

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Bob Love

Bob Love has dreamt about being a great public speaker since his early days in Bastrop Louisiana, even though, as a young man, he could barely put two words together, let alone speak a full sentence.

In spite of his severe stuttering disability, Bob Love, the son of a sharecropper, rose to become a Chicago Bulls NBA superstar, whose records were eventually surpassed by Michael Jordan. Throughout his entire athletic career, Bob Love kept his stuttering a secret from the fans who adored him, thinking he could do his “talking” on the basketball court.

King George

In November 2010, worldwide movie audiences were presented with a most interesting and unusual movie release with The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, history may have forgotten the courageous and inspiring story of Prince Albert who stuttered badly and never dreamed that he would ever be king when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abruptly abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

Lewis Carroll

The recent Disney version of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, garnered a great deal of media hype. Even though the mainstream media has not made mention that Carroll was a person who stuttered, his family history gives credence to the discovery of the genetic link to stuttering. Carroll was born to parents who were first cousins; almost all of their eleven children, three girls and seven boys, struggled with stuttering past childhood.

Bruce Willis

While the world knows Bruce Willis as an A-list actor, few know that he struggled with stuttering throughout his first 20 years.

Walter Bruce Willis was born in 1955 in West Germany to his German mother, Marlene, and his American GI father, David Willis. The family settled in David’s hometown of Penns Grove, New Jersey in 1957, and the couple has three other children.

Mel Tillis

Mel Tillis, born Lonnie Melvin Tillis, was an influential figure in country music, both as a songwriter and a performer. His journey to fame was marked by overcoming personal challenges, including a stutter that he turned into a defining part of his public persona.