Richard Masur — American Actor born on November 20, 1948,

Richard Masur is an American actor who has appeared in more than 80 movies. From 1995 to 1999, he served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild. Masur currently sits on the Corporate Board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund... (wikipedia)

But people who think they can project themselves into deafness are mistaken because you can't. And I'm not talking about imagining what a deaf person's whole life is like I even mean just realizing what it is like for an instant.
No one will ever argue that someone could have played Helen Keller better than Patty Duke. It was an incredibly demanding role and I don't think anyone can argue that it was a false performance.
Spelling is very easy to practice yourself whereas signing is not. So I would sit on the subway riding around New York and I would spell whatever I would see. When I watched a movie I would spell words as they came up.
Most profoundly deaf people have speech that is very difficult to understand.
There is no relation to sound for deaf people. It is a totally different mental process.