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Actor Sam Neill Talks About Stuttering
In the pre-Internet era of the early 1990s, actor Sam Neill seemed to be one of the few celebrities who was open about his stuttering in both print and broadcast media. At the time, he spoke openly of his stuttering on entertainment shows in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand.
A Healthy Self-Esteem
As a young boy, I was confident in myself and enjoyed being the center of attention. I liked to have fun and laugh, and stuttering did not begin to affect me until my middle school days and worsened in my teenage years.
Orlando Convention a Magical Time
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association held its November convention in Orlando, and the Stuttering Foundation was there to spread the word about stuttering to the nearly 14,000 attendees.
Foundation Vice President Honored
Lisa A. Scott, Ph.D., Vice President for Education for the Stuttering Foundation, was elected a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), which has 173,000 members. Fellowship is one of the highest forms of recognition given by ASHA of an individual’s accomplishments and is a public declaration of outstanding professional achievements.
All Hail the King's Speakers!
It’s undeniable that the movie The King’s Speech has had a profound impact on the stuttering community. For one group, however, it has been more than an inspiration – it’s a namesake.

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CELEBRITY FOCUS

Emily Blunt

Actress Emily Blunt struggled with stuttering early in her life. A teacher encouraged her to act in a school play at age 12 despite her stuttering.

Blunt’s name is prominently featured on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter.

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.

Marilyn Monroe

From Edward S. Herrington's letter to Southcoasttoday.com

I am writing in response to "The importance of voice" (May 29), which mentioned that famous actor James Earl Jones struggled with stuttering. Another famous voice that you cited was the trademark breathy voice of Marilyn Monroe; however, you did not make mention of the fact that Marilyn Monroe also struggled with stuttering at various points in her life, sometimes very painfully.

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.