What's with the way she talks?
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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 -
josephbrando — 18 years ago(October 19, 2007 07:27 PM)
Whatever it isshe has a very strong prescence. I just happened to walk in on my Mom watching a Lifetime movie and she was in it (as usual in a small role) but I recognized her right away and couldn't remember from where. After looking her up here on IMDB, I realized it was from "Three of Hearts" and I also saw her in Seinfeld. She is a strong character with a cool voice and she can play "the bitch" amazingly well. She's cool.I'd like to see her play a really nuts role where she is a serial killer or something, I think she'd do very well at that.
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jsn_hylnd — 12 years ago(June 19, 2013 09:20 AM)
I just saw her play a major bitch on a Walker Texas Ranger episode titled "Forgotten People" where she was testing this deadly drug "ps130" on elderly folks at a nursing home and I did notice the gasp in her speech at the beginning of the episode she said something like "relax nobody is going to catch on to anything" with the gasping done at the word "catch".
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mser — 12 years ago(September 09, 2013 02:31 PM)
I like going through the list guest stars and find out if I've seen them in anything else besides MSW. I noticed Ms. St5b4rickland was in Walker but offhand, I couldn't place the episode. When I read your post, I heard her in my head and knew exactly who she was. I may be one of few who do this, but I love that "Aha!!" moment with recognition. Thank you for posting