History Main / DisabledCharacterDisabledActor

* Actor Don Stroud had his face mutilated by a mugger and then played many characters who also had mutilated faces.

** In G3, Kayla Cromer, an autistic actress, voices the autistic Twyla Boogeyman.

Casting disabled actors as disabled characters is nothing especially new, as individuals like amputees can carry a benefit of not require camera tricks or special effects to portray their condition. It has become slightly more commonplace due to disability activists advocating on the importance of this kind of casting, pointing out how difficult it is for disabled actors to get roles at all, let alone when specifically disabled roles are being filled by able-bodied actors.

** In "Silent Night," Marlee Matlin played a deaf mother whose deaf daughter was murdered by the girl's deaf boyfriend (played by Russell Harvard, who is also deaf).
** Bryan Anderson, who lost three limbs in the Iraqi War, played a triple amputee in the season 4 episode, "DOA for a Day."

* Ruth Madeley, who has spinal bifula, plays the wheelchair-using companion Hebe Harrision in ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho Sixth Doctor Adventures''. Despite the fact we obviously can't see her, the thinking seems to be why ''wouldn't'' Madeley's character have a wheelchair?

Generally speaking the type of disability doesn't have to match exactly, only that there is a parallel between the actor and the character in that regard. A character may have been paralyzed from the neck down in an accident while the actor may have little use of their legs due to a childhood illness, but both require wheelchairs to get around.

This is about when a disabled person is cast for a role that has the same disability, rather than an able-bodied performer. For a long time in film, theater, and television, when a work called for a character with a disability, it was the norm to cast perfectly able-bodied actors in those roles, especially if the role was one of the leads (you still want to cast a big name star in the lead role, despite the character's disability, after all).

It was so much the norm that casting disabled actors as disabled characters has only become more commonplace since the late 1980s, though normally such actors are in supporting or background roles. Disability activists in recent years have become more insistent on the importance of this kind of casting, pointing out how difficult it is for disabled actors to get roles at all, let alone when specifically disabled roles are being filled by able-bodied actors.

* ''Series/NotDeadYet'': Rick Glassman plays Edward, Nell's autistic roommate who is also an environmental lawyer.