What's with the way she talks?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Gail Strickland
Auntneice7 — 20 years ago(September 22, 2005 11:05 AM)
What is the deal with her speech pattern where she exhales huge amounts of air in the middle of a word? Has anyone noticed that but me? It has made me wonder since the first time I ever saw her in anything. If anything, over the years, it has gotten worse. Just curious. Not a judgement or anything, just curiousity. Thanks.
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blue_blue — 18 years ago(November 21, 2007 08:23 AM)
It was definitely there in 1985. I came here looking for the reason why she spoke strangely on the Dallas episodes she appeared on in 1985. It was slight, but I noticed something odd. Although I feel bad that she had such a condition, I'm glad to see that it
is
a condition and that she's not just a terrible actress with a really poor choice of peculiar schtick. I suspected it wasn't just that, but you never know. In the "Disability?" thread here, someone said she had lung cancer in 1993. I wonder if the dysphonia was a precursor of that in some way. At the very least, maybe it helped them find the cancer more quickly than had she not had any other breathing or vocal difficulties.
With the vocal weirdness explained away, she's a pretty good actress. Especially for Dallas. -
sportin_jenny — 20 years ago(October 26, 2005 04:50 PM)
She hasn't always talked like thatshe was on an episode of Mashand she didn't talk like that at allI think it's a health problem of some sort, and I've been very curious about what it is, but have never found out
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sportin_jenny — 20 years ago(November 05, 2005 05:54 PM)
There's a very dramatic scene when she quits drinking cold turkey, and gets the DT's and thinks there are bugs in her food and crawling up her arms.she did a great acting job, and whenever I come across that episode I always wa2000tch it, which was just last week
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peyton-8 — 20 years ago(March 09, 2006 11:05 AM)
I LOVE that episode. I think her dysphonia has really killed her career in the last 10 years, though she said she originally cut back to be with her daughter. I think the dysphonia got so much worse that she's never really been able to come back. Her daughter must be about 13 or so now.
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timtonruben359 — 20 years ago(December 16, 2005 05:05 PM)
In 1993 Gail was diagnosed with Lung Cancer, that is why she sounds like she is breathing in the middle of her worlds. She is cancer free now, but I understand her lungs were damaged and she still has problems with her voice.
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Fluke_Skywalker — 20 years ago(December 30, 2005 03:01 PM)
I have the Seindfeld season 6 DVD here and noticed her in the episode "The switch" I'll have to go back and watch it again and pay close attention to her voice (Think it's from '94-95 season). I noticed that it says she's from Alabama, but I don't detect an accent. Guess whatever training she had wiped that out.
Oh, and she's kinda sexy in a school marm kinda way.
"Use the Force, Fluke!" -
peyton-8 — 20 years ago(March 09, 2006 11:00 AM)
That's actually not true. She talked like she was breathing in the middle of words long before 1993. I first started watching her in the late 80s when she was on Heartbeat. It's always been that way but has gotten progressively worse in the last 10 years.
She has a condition called Dysphonia. I understand they had to loop her voice in First Monday to make her audible (big breathy gaps). Her stage career is over.
Here's a description:
"Abductor spasmodic dysphonia A form of spasmodic dysphonia in which sudden involuntary muscle movements or spasms cause the vocal folds to open (abduct). The vocal folds can not vibrate when they are open. The open position of the vocal folds also allows air to escape from the lungs during speech. As a result, the voices of these individuals often sound weak, quiet and breathy or whispery. As with adductor spasmodic dysphonia, the spasms are often absent during activities such as laughing or singing."
The dysphonia was just starting to get worse in the late 80smuch much worse in the mid 90s. I read a terrible review of some of her stage work around the mid 90s. They said her voice was so breathy on stage the critic couldn't understand her.
I'd be interested to know where you heard she had lung cancer, because she was on Dr. Quinn in 93 and judging by the age of her daughter when I spoke to Gail, I always assumed she left because she was pregnant (late in life baby). It would be very interesting to find out otherwise. -
Auntneice7 — 19 years ago(May 27, 2006 03:49 PM)
Thank you so much for responding! Sorry it's taken me so long to get back here, but sometimes I forget when I've posted. Thank you for the information. I was wondering. I've been in the medical field a while an never seen this before. I probably will now! LOL! Thanks again. Take care and have a great one.
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booksofstars — 19 years ago(March 04, 2007 11:18 AM)
Is this the same affliction with which both Diane Rehms (of NPR fame) and Robert Kennedy Jr suffer? They both require regular treatments of some sort to be able to speak at all. Strickland is an excellent actress whom one would hope would have these same treatments available.
I am so glad to have found this thread as from time to time I have Googled her name to see if I could find any mention of why her speaking was so labored.
Jan
"Since I gave up hope I feel a lot better." -
peyton-8 — 18 years ago(May 08, 2007 03:40 PM)
There's no cure. There are treatments that work for some and not for others. It's an interesting condition. I just pasted this link elsewhere in the thread, but since you asked about treatment..
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/spasdysp.asp -
evixir — 16 years ago(August 02, 2009 10:47 AM)
There's an excellent article in a recent Wired that details how Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) suffered from this affliction and has discovered a new treatment that can bring relief to sufferers. RFKJr is mentioned as another sufferer, and I would have liked to see mention of Ms. Strickland among those as well but I don't believe it's been publicly confirmed that she does have this disease.
I hope she's been able to find some relief in the years since; she had a wonderful, memorably cultured voice with a terrific gravitas and I always enjoyed her work. -
musicallover — 18 years ago(June 25, 2007 04:50 PM)
Wow, I feel badly about how I've thought about her in the past. I didn't realized she had an actual condition. The explanation makes perfect sense. As a voice teacher, I can't believe I haven't heard of this before! I'll have to study up on that some more.
Slotted spoons don't hold much soup . . . -
Paul-308 — 19 years ago(November 18, 2006 06:42 PM)
In the Walking Tall episode "Sudden Impact",she plays Lynn Hudson,employee out to reveal illegal dumping by Ballard Industries.In this episode filmed in 1980,she has no breathing disability.In fact she speaks rather clearly and plainly,and hardly seems to take a breath at all.
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peyton-8 — 18 years ago(May 08, 2007 03:36 PM)
It's not a breathing disability. Spasmodic dysphonia is a vocal cord disability that gets worse over time. Having watched most of what she's done over and over (I had a huge crush on her when I was young), I can start to hear the subtle changes pre-1980, but it's mostly a light breathiness (not present in the mid 70s) that became increasingly pronounced over time until Dr. Quinn when she occasionally "breathes words" or creates extra syllables in words (she yells "Jake" and her voice drops out in the middle making it a two syllable word with an H in the middle.Juh Hake). If you watch some of her early 70s performances (like the Drowning Pool), then watch a few eps of her on Dr. Quinn, you'll see what I mean.
I thought it was a bad habit when I first started paying attention to her work (circa 1988). Critics started noticing it in the early 90s. I don't think she's done much stage work since. Once review I read said she was almost inauble and "breathed" most of her words.
Here's a link to an article on Spasmodic Dysphonia: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/spasdysp.asp