• Celebrities and Stuttering

    Posted on April 4, 2012 by in Stuttering

    Has anyone noticed how many celebrities out there stutter? We have seen several celebrities “come out” about their stuttering.  Just a couple of weeks ago Shaquille ONeal decided to come out about his stuttering.  Did everyone see the dove commercial?

    I have seen both positive and negative responses to this commercial.  Why has there been so much negativity? I think it is great that he decided to come out about his own stuttering.  I believe him when he says that he actually is a person who stutters. I truly feel that he would have never said that he stutters if he if he doesn’t actually stutter. Would he really claim he stutters if he actually doesn’t? Just because we have never see him stutter on camera doesn’t mean that he doesn’t stutter in certain situations.  Remember John Stossel, from Fox news. I heard he would never do live broadcasts so the his crew could edit out his stuttering. Again, just because we never hear him stutter, doesn’t mean that he doesnt stutter.  I actually talked to John Stossel on the phone several months ago and he openly talked about his stuttering with me.

    Lets not look down on celebrities such as Shaq for coming out about his stuttering so late in the game.  We don’t know his reason for not coming out earlier, but I feel that it shouldn’t matter to us. If you really think about it, this ad actually raised a lot of awareness.  He said in his commercial “I still stutter to this day, but I’m more cool with it now.” Everyone knows Shaq, and millions of people saw this commercial. Maybe some of those who saw this will now be “cool” with their own stutter. He also talked about his experience reading out loud in school. I guarantee that  most people who stutter can relate to this experience as well. I know I can. I used to dread reading in front of class.  Lets welcome him into the stuttering community. Thanks for opening up Shaq!

    There are several other famous people who stutter. Sports stars such as Tiger Woods, Darren Sproles, Johnny Damon, Kenyon Martin all stutter. Just recently, Micheal Kidd-Gilchrist of the national champion Kentucky  Wildcats Basketball team just opened up about his stuttering. What about other celebrities who stutter like Joe Biden, James Earl Jones, Marc Anthony, B.B. King.  Who could forget King George VI.

    What celebrities did I leave out?  Leave some comments!

7 responses so far.

  1. David says:

    This is kinda random but Moses! In the Bible when the Lord asks him to be the leader of his people he says he doesn’t want to because he is slow of speech and slow of tongue and asks if his brother can do his speaking for him. Then later it says the Lord asked him to speak to a king and Moses said why would anyone listen to me if I can’t speak fluently.

    • Evan Sherman says:

      Moses did stutter! The ultimate celebrity. Thanks for the comment David!

      • Steven Kaufman says:

        Of course you have James Earl Jones, Bob Love, Marilyn Monroe (if only she was alive), former L.A. Kings superstar Dave Taylor, Johnny Damon, Julia & Eric Roberts, Nicholas Brendon from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” Darren Sproles, Tommy John, King George VI, David Seidler, so many more!

        • Evan Sherman says:

          Steven, doesnt Bruce Willis stutter also. Have all of these people talked openly about their stuttering? Wouldnt it be great if these celebrities all did a promo similar to Shaq’s?

  2. Sam Sherman says:

    There’s also TV Commentator Bill Walton and Baseball Hall of Famer Bo Jackson.

  3. Rajesh Bhandari says:

    Also , one of the top bollywood superstar and the most sexiest Asian of the year “hrithik roshan” also Stutters. He openly admitted about it in a live Tv talk show

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