While Bill Withers has long been on the SFA list of “Famous People Who Stutter,” many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away March 30, 2020.
The April/May 2006 issue of the magazine Waxpoetics sheds some light on the brilliant career of the famed singer and songwriter.
Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.
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Editor’s Note: Jean Gruss, the author of this article, is the grandson of Stuttering Foundation founder Malcolm Fraser and Mark Logue is the grandson of Lionel Logue.
I was very slow to see the movie The King’s Speech. I had wanted to see it for many months after I read my first review in late 2010. I am overjoyed with having seen it. It is a movie I will watch many times. I enjoyed it that much.
Many years ago when I was in the Air Force, stationed in San Antonio, Texas, I went through a traumatic, distressing, and humiliating experience.
Dave Taylor has been on the SFA’s list of “Famous People Who Stutter” for many years, but probably few people know all of the unique accomplishments of this former hockey great who was born on December 4, 1955, in Levack, Ontario.
Eric and Julia Roberts are a brother-and-sister act that is unique in the world of acting. They are only the third brother-and-sister act to be both nominated for Oscars for acting. Eric was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his 1985 role in Runaway Train.
While Jack Paar is among the most prominent of the entertainers on the Stuttering Foundation’s list of Famous People Who Stutter, he deserves special recognition as he was among the first to openly address his stuttering in public. As host of “The Tonight Show” from 1957-1962, he spoke of his difficulties as a stuttering child and teenager, giving hope to young people.
Editor’s Note: The author is a person who stutters. For many years he has been a collector of “stuttering” songs – the good and the bad!
B.B. King
Q: At what age do you remember first being aware that you spoke differently?
An interview with Travis Kruck
*Bruce Willis starred in the 1989 movie Look Who's Talking as the voice of baby "Mikey."
Byron Pitts has brought much attention to stuttering with his memoir, Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges,released in September, 2009. The book not only details his speech difficulties, but also his illiteracy until age 12 and his unstable family life. Pitts overcame the odds to become a national correspondent with CBS News.
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.
Brothers Dominick and John Gregory Dunne, who died in 2009 and 2004 respectively, are well known as having been famous writers and literary giants.
When moviegoers in the U.S. saw the television ads for the October 21, 2011, release of the new Rowan Atkinson movie Johnny English Reborn, few, if any, knew that Atkinson, most famous for his character Mr. Bean, is a person who stuttered. Unlike some other famous actors, Rowan Atkinson’s stutter is not widely known. However, stuttering still is a factor in his life.
Kirk and John Tarver and their Memphis-based Shelby Railroad Services Inc. raised a record $7,000 to help those who stutter.
Josh Cohen of Cherry Hill, N.J., wanted to do something special for his Bar Mitzvah last October. In fact, his plans had been in the works since the spring time.