Undaunted by a Stutter Trivia Quiz

Answer: King George VI

The struggles of King George VI were shown in the film "The King's Speech", which highlighted the efforts of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue to help the prince and then king with his speech. The British establishment resisted Logue, since he was not a certified speech therapist; but George stood by him. The abdication of his brother Edward VIII to marry Wallis Simpson made George king and forced him to make public speeches.

George VI was a natural left-hander who was forced to write right-handed. At one time this or ambidexterity were considered possible causes of stuttering, but these theories are no longer favored by experts in the field. However, the stress of converting "handedness" can accentuate existing stuttering.

An interesting sidelight to the film was that the screenwriter David Seidler also suffered from a profound stammer.

Answer: James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones is an accomplished actor who won Tony awards in "The Great White Hope" and "Fences", and starred in many Shakespearean and other prominent stage plays. In films he has acted in "The Great White Hope" and several films adapted from Tom Clancy novels. He also provided voices for Mufasa in "The Lion King" and Darth Vader in "Star Wars".

Jones' stutter developed after his parents separated when he was 5 years old and he moved. He recalled a very painful childhood when he would speak only to family and to farm animals due to other children laughing at his speech. During those years he became an avid reader and gifted poet. Like many stutterers he developed an expansive vocabulary. (Most stutterers have difficulty starting to talk and with certain sounds that are difficult for them to say. Many become quite adept at using easier-to-say synonyms or alternative phrases in lieu of difficult words to reduce stuttering).

After years of acting, performing voice-overs, and countless interviews, most people assume that James Earl Jones has conquered stuttering; but he says that he still will lapse and tries to avoid certain words.

Answer: Mel Tillis

Mel Tillis was a prominent country western singer and songwriter. He was able to sing without a stammer, although he initially refused to interact with his audience due to his stutter. Minnie Pearl told him frankly that he would not succeed without overcoming his discomfort speaking to the audience. His idea of purposely using stuttering in his monologues was quite successful, both in throwing humor on an uncomfortable situation and relieving pressure on himself not to stutter. (Generally stressful situations, such as public speaking, increase the likelihood and severity of the stutter).

The fact that Tillis was able to sing without a stutter is not uncommon. Many other stutterers have been able to reduce the severity of their stutter by changing speech patterns by singing or using accents (Emily Blunt).

Both Tillis father and brother also stuttered. This also is not unusual, since stuttering seems to occur in families frequently.

Answer: Bill Walton

Bill Walton was an All American center for UCLA and later won two NBA championships. Up to age 28 he had a severe speech problem that even caused him to ask other people to speak for him. He related that he was laughed out of a college speech class by classmates, even though he was the star athlete on campus who would have been afforded deferential treatment. As his basketball career was ending, famous sportscaster Marty Glickman challenged Walton to end hiding behind his speech difficulties.

Walton used the tips he was given, such as speak slowly and think ahead, and was able to conquer his fears and improve his speech. Today he is a spokesman for the national Stuttering Foundation and a prominent basketball sportscaster.

Answer: Bo Jackson

Vincent Edward (Bo) Jackson was one of the most famous athletes in America during the 1980s and 1990s, featured in the "Bo Knows" commercials for Nike. Bo and two of his sisters stuttered. When he arrived at Auburn, he went to great lengths to avoid interviews; however, university officials worked with him on his speech, knowing sportswriters were interested interviewing him.

Because he had difficulty with the word "I", he began to speak in the third person, such as "Bo likes hamburgers", as means of compensation - thereby inspiring many young athletes to follow suit in speaking in the third person without knowing the reason why it had started.

In a PBS series "Ghostwriter" Jackson said
"My teachers thought I couldn't read. I could read, but I'd never read aloud because I stuttered. The other kids would laugh at me, and I became a recluse. I was angry at myself and at them, and it often resulted in my beating someone up after school. I had to live with it for eight or nine years, but I finally decided to pay it no attention and forced myself to do everything from reading in class to making speeches. Eventually, I learned to relax and take my time".

Answer: Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods was the dominant profession golfer in the world between 1989 and 2010, winning 13 of the so-called major tournaments during that time frame. A series of injuries and personal problems set him back since that time. Tiger was a golfing prodigy who produced amazing results from an early age. He shot a score of 48 on a 9-hole pitch and putt course when he was 3; he won the junior world championship six times; and first broke 70 at age 12.

He is a very private person, and few knew about his childhood stuttering until a young man wrote to Swedish professional golfer Sophie Gustafson (a stutterer) about his despair over stuttering. Tiger heard about this and wrote a supporting letter that included the following statement:

"I know what it's like to be different and to sometimes not fit in. I also stuttered as a child and I would talk to my dog and he would sit there and listen until he fell asleep. I also took a class for two years to help me, and I finally learned to stop."

Answer: Emily Blunt

Emily Blunt is a British actress who has won numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe. She recently starred in the remake of "Mary Poppins". Before that she had roles in "Young Victoria", "The Devil Wears Prada", "A Quiet Place", and "The Girl on the Train".

Emily has been very forthright in speaking about her issues with stuttering. In an interview with "W Magazine" she stated:
"I did have a bad stuttering problem as a child. I'd try to push the words out, but it was frustrating. My parents took me to speech coaches and relaxation coaches. It didn't work."

At the suggestion of a teacher she began to speak with funny accents, breaking her normal speech pattern, and that greatly aided her. Through her work with the American Institute for Stuttering she discovered that her grandfather, uncle, and a cousin also stuttered. She also mentioned that her own stutter may reappear during stressful conditions and was very prominent in her late pregnancies.

Answer: Jimmy Stewart

Jimmy Stewart was one of the most famous American actors in the period just before and after World War II, starring in "The Philadelphia Story", "Mr Smith Goes to Washington", Rear Window", "Vertigo", "It's a Wonderful Life".

Stewart was the first major American movie star to volunteer for service in WWII, joining before Pearl Harbor. He fought efforts of those to keep him safely behind battle lines, and eventually was credited with 20 sorties over Germany, many deep into German territory. Even when promoted to a desk job, he managed to join missions as an uncredited capacity.

Stewart also suffered from a pronounced stutter that punctuated his dialogue on and off the set. But instead of being ashamed, Stewart made it a signature part of his identity. Actor Michael Palin of Monty Python fame explained, "Jimmy Stewart dealt with his stutter openly and elegantly - it became a charming part of his persona."

Answer: Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was one of the most popular actresses on the 1950s and early 1960s, noted for her blonde bombshell roles. Her most noted films were "Some Like It Hot", "How to Marry a Millionaire", and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". Her struggles in private life were well documented, as well as her marriages to baseball star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller. She also gained notoriety towards the end of her career with a sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday" to John F Kennedy.

As is all too common among youngsters who have gone through serious childhood trauma, Marilyn Monroe began stuttering and became more and more withdrawn. Making matters worse, she became a ward of the state, entering the foster care system, which shuffled her back and forth between different foster families and an orphanage that she came to know as her childhood home. She continued stuttering even as she entered high school, but through hard work and diligence was eventually able to overcome it enough that most people knew she ever had a problem at all.

Answer: Demosthenes

Demosthenes (384-312 BC) was an Athenian statesman and orator. Plutarch refers to a weakness in his voice of "a perplexed and indistinct utterance and a shortness of breath, which, by breaking and disjointing his sentences much obscured the sense and meaning of what he spoke." Others seem to think Demosthenes suffered from rhotacicsm, an inability to pronounce the letter r correctly.

Demosthenes started as a lawyer, and his political advocacy speeches soon won him a place in the Assembly of Athens. He was most noted for his resistance to the expansion of Philip of Macedonia into Athens. After Philip's death, Demosthenes continued his resistance to Alexander the Great.