Audree Norton
Audree Norton was best known for her work as a deaf actress, considered the first with that disability to appear in a featured role on an American network television series. She was also a founding member in 1967 of the National Theatre of the Deaf. She performed with the company on tours across the U.S., on Broadway and in Europe. She was also an advocate for the employment of real deaf actors for deaf roles in movies and television.
Norton began her acting career in the 1950s as a model, appearing in television commercials for Kodak and Royal Crown Cola, while accompanied by an actor’s voice-over. Her work in television included a role on the CBS crime drama Mannix, in which she played Jody Wellman, a deaf woman who reads the lips of a man in a phone booth, and then realizes he is plotting a kidnapping. On the long-running comedy series Family Affair she played Dr. Robinson, a specialist in deaf children, and a friend of lead character Uncle BillDavis, played by Brian Keith. In 1971 she played Ann Larrabee, a deaf mother who wanted to adopt a child, on ABC’s The Man and the City. Finally, on The Streets of San Francisco, in 1975, she had an uncredited role as a deaf witness of a crime. She also appeared on an episode of NBC Experiment in Television; the episode is credited as being the first time Sign Language was used on American television.
Audree Norton was best known for her work as a deaf actress, considered the first with that disability to appear in a featured role on an American network television series. She was also a founding member in 1967 of the National Theatre of the Deaf. She performed with the company on tours across the U.S., on Broadway and in Europe. She was also an advocate for the employment of real deaf actors for deaf roles in movies and television.
Norton began her acting career in the 1950s as a model, appearing in television commercials for Kodak and Royal Crown Cola, while accompanied by an actor’s voice-over. Her work in television included a role on the CBS crime drama Mannix, in which she played Jody Wellman, a deaf woman who reads the lips of a man in a phone booth, and then realizes he is plotting a kidnapping. On the long-running comedy series Family Affair she played Dr. Robinson, a specialist in deaf children, and a friend of lead character Uncle BillDavis, played by Brian Keith. In 1971 she played Ann Larrabee, a deaf mother who wanted to adopt a child, on ABC’s The Man and the City. Finally, on The Streets of San Francisco, in 1975, she had an uncredited role as a deaf witness of a crime. She also appeared on an episode of NBC Experiment in Television; the episode is credited as being the first time Sign Language was used on American television.
In her later years she taught English, psychology and drama at Ohlone College in Fremont, California.
Norton died April 22, 2015, in Fremont. She was 88.
The Television Academy database lists prime-time Emmy information. Click here to learn more