Phyllis Frelich

Phyllis Frelich was an actress and activist who first achieved renown as one of the stars of the 1980 Broadway hit Children of a Lesser God, for which she won a Tony Award.

The oldest of nine deaf children whose parents were also deaf, Frelich was born in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, in 1944. She attended the North Dakota School for the Deaf and Gallaudet College in Washington, where she earned a degree in library science while also performing in plays. In 1967 she was invited to join the National Theater of the Deaf.

Playwright Mark Medoff, who met Frelich in 1978, wrote Children of a Lesser God for her after she told him that there were no meaningful roles for deaf actresses. Inspired to write one, he created the story of a speech teacher who falls in love with a young deaf woman who is one of his pupils. In the Broadway production, which won the Tony for best play, Frelich starred opposite John Rubinstein who played the teacher. In the 1986 film adaptation, William Hurt played the teacher and the student was played by Marlee Matlin, who won an Oscar for her performance.

Medoff wrote other plays for Frelich, including The Hands of Its Enemy and Prymate.

She also made several television appearances, with credits that included the 1985 television movie Love Is Never Silent and such series as Barney Miller, Santa Barbara, L.A. Law, ER and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Frelich died April 10, 2014, in Temple City, California. She was 70.