Movies with mute characters

Hello all!

I am not sure of this is the right forum to talk about this. But I was just wondering, do you know of any movies with mute characters. I was just curious to see how they are played.

ET is the only movie I know of.

Thanks so much.

If you're going to count E.T. as mute, then you should count Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, at least in some versions. I guess it's harder to tell if a character is a true mute if you're watching a silent movie, but the character of Quasimodo is basically played with body language and makeup, especially by Lon Chaney in the silent 1923 version and Charles Laughton in the classic 1939 version. True, this character can speak but only haltingly and under extreme emotional distress.



I can think of at least three actresses who, off the top of my head, won Oscars for playing mute characters: Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda (1948) who plays the rape victim title character, Patty Duke as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962), and Holly Hunter in the exotic The Piano.



In Mute Witness (1993), Marina Zudina plays a mute makeup artist on a low budget slasher flick who witnesses the filming of a real snuff film and spends the rest of the movie in mortal danger from the killers and their boss.

There are dozens of other significant characters who are either really mute or playing mute, and there are hundreds of other supporting characters in hundreds of other films. I'm sure somebody else might want to add some before I hog the entire subject, at least as long as this is a legitimate request. All these films are easy to find from various sources.

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The Miracle Worker a movie about Helen Keller with a young Patty Duke.

A telemovie starring Matthew Modine called What the Deaf Man Heard.

Are the only two I can think of.

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Louise Vale first woman to play Jane Eyre in the flickers.

And its got an Indian version called Black.

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Every one of the Marx brothers' films. Also, Jane Wyman won an Oscar for her performance as a mute in Johnny Belinda (1948), a film well known to most movie buffs.
In 1962, Jackie Gleason played a French mute in Gigot, directed by Gene Kelly; the film bombed at the box office.
In 1958, Alan Ladd played an ex-soldier returning from the Civil War to find his traumatized son has become a mute in the Western The Proud Rebel. The role of the mute boy was played by Alan Ladd's real son, David.
In Stalag 17, there's a character, Joey, among the American prisoners who is in deep shell shock and mute.
Alan Arkin played a deaf-mute in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, 1966.
Will Sampson was a mute patient in One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest, 1975.
Other mute or at least non-speaking parts:
Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, 1931.
Harold Sakat as Oddjob in Goldfinger.

I had the same thought, too, Mark. There are many films out there with mute characters, including classics--like Johnny Belinda, which is hard to miss (you and I both listed it right away). Kinda made me wonder too if we're doing someone's homework.

Thank you all so much. I will definitely check some of these out. I was just wondering if you know of any love movies with a mute main character? Do you think this is possible? Just curious. Thanks.

How can you leave out Silent Bob?

Johnny Belinda! For the third or fourth time. There was another more recent film, can't think of the title, but introduced as a romantic figure, an actress who really uses sign language due to lost of hearing as a child. She can say a few words, but mostly signs. Can't think of her name, but Mark or Pike or others in the forum could tell you in a New York minute

The only one I can think of is Rocky in Rocky Horror Picture Show

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The rich woman in Fool for Love

Nashville had one

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Extremely Louds & Incredibly Close

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Children of a Lesser God (1986), starring Marlee Matlin and William Hurt. Excellent movie and love story.

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The boy in The Aggression Scale never speaks.

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Clue is in the name, Silent Ray Harris in Mystic River. I knew that kid was suspicious...

n Stalag 17, there's a character, Joey, among the American prisoners who is in deep shell shock and mute.

Cuba Gooding Jr as Ben Doyle...

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