Audree Norton
Audree Lauraine Norton was a deaf actress. She was born in Great Falls, Montana and raised in Minnesota.Biography
A 1952 graduate of Gallaudet University, she was one of the founding members of the National Theatre of the Deaf. In 1974, she was the first deaf person to earn a Master's degree in Rhetoric and Public Relations from California State University, East Bay.
She performed one of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems to music on the television series An Experiment in Television. She also performed in episodes of Family Affair, The Man and the City, Mannix and The Streets of San Francisco. In 1967, she was the first deaf actor to have a photograph featured in Time magazine.
In 1978, she was the center of a controversy towards deaf actors and actresses. Norton auditioned to appear in an ABC Afterschool Special titled Mom and Dad Can't Hear Me, but was told by the casting director that she could not have the part because he would rather have people who can speak. Norton complained to the Screen Actors Guild, which arose protests by deaf people in the United States. After this incident, Norton never performed on television again.
She was the lead actress for the Kodak TV commercial "Memories", which was directed by Stuart Hagmann. It won a Clio Award for Best Commercial of the Year.
In 2012, Norton received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Gallaudet University.
In 2015, Norton died in Fremont, California.
