Tony Award-winning deaf actress Phyllis Frelich, of ‘Children of a Lesser God’ fame, dies

Phyllis Frelich, a Tony Award-winning deaf actress who starred in the Broadway version of “Children of a Lesser God,” has died. She was 70.

Her husband, Robert Steinberg, said Frelich died Thursday at her Southern California home. She suffered from a degenerative neurological condition for several years.

The oldest of nine deaf children born to deaf parents, Frelich became interested in acting while at the North Dakota School for the Deaf and Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C.

She joined the National Theatre of the Deaf, where she met Steinberg, who worked as a scenic and lighting designer on several plays by Mark Medoff.

The couple inspired Medoff to create “Children of a Lesser God,” which follows the relationship between a deaf woman and a teacher at a school for the deaf.