Marlon Brando [parent?]

[Cobweb]

Was reading the 'obits' for Marlon Brando and it said he had a ten year old autistic son who was being educated by the state.
Years ago I read that Sylvester Stallone had an autistic son.There is also an actor on British tv [coronation street] and was in Boyzone [pop group] who has an autistic daughter.
Anyone else know of any famous parents.

[Dave]

Dan Marino, Doug Flutie, and B.J. Surhoff are the only ones I can think of. I'm a bit of a sports nut and I have seen them talk about their children, foundations, or other functions they are involved with. All have boys if I remember correctly. Congressman Dan Burton has a grandson with autism. I did a quick search and found a list:

Richard Burton (deceased actor) about his daughter by his first wife.
William Christopher (Father Mulcahy on the TV show M*A*S*H) about his son, Ned.
Will Clark (Baseball player) about his son.
Myron Cope (Pittsburgh sportscaster) about his son.
Tom Henke (Toronto baseball pitcher) about his son.
Carl Erskine (former baseball player).
Audrey Flack (scuptor, photographer), mother of an adult with autism.
Doug Flutie (football player) about his son, Doug Jr.
Stephen J. Gould (scientist/writer) about his son, Jesse.
Merton Hanks (football player) about his daughter, Milan.
Scott Mellanby (hockey player) about his son.
Joe Mantegna (actor), father of daughter with autism.
Dan Marino (football player) about his son.
Wynton and Brandford Marsalis (jazz/classical musicians) about their brother.
Mark McEwen (TV weatherman on CBS Morning News), about his brother, Sean.
arbara Roberts (former Governor of Oregon), mother of adult with autism.
Tracy Rowlett (Dallas anchorperson) about his son.
Jonathan Shestak (movie producer) about his son, Dov.
Beverly Sills (opera singer) about her son, Bucky.
Phoebe Snow (singer), mother of daughter with autism.
Sylvester Stallone (movie actor) about his son, Seargeoh.
BJ Surhoff (Baltimore baseball player, 1996) about his son, Mason.
David Tomlinson (the actor who starred in Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the Love Bug etc) had an autistic son, whose diagnosis and education is mentioned in some detail in Mr Tomlinson's autobiography Luckier than Most.

[CarerQuie]

The other person that springs to mind is author Nick Hornby who has an autistic son.

kris.

[mlwear]

Here in Nascar land...
Hermie Sadler has a daughter with autism and started driving a car for Cure Autism Now a couple of years back. He does some fundraising for the Univerisity ABA preschool near here. I'm not a Nascar fan, but he has a brother (Eddie???--correct me on the name if anyone knows) who must be a better driver and is seems now to be doing more for autism causes and awareness. He drives the M&M car. He often talks about his niece who has autism and has done several different fundraisers, I believe in conjunction with M&M's.

[Cobweb]

Doesn't Dan Marino do some kind of fundraising as well ? When we came over to florida I think i read something about it but iId forgotton until I read his name again as not very well known in the uk. I only knew his name from his restaurants. :)

[mlwear]

I saw a TV news program that showed one of the fundraising football dad's son and the claim that he was "cured". Anyone know anything about this? He gave a lot of credit to his Dad and early intervention. Seemed like a pretty typical kid to me. I wish they wouldn't have said "cured" probably so much therapy that he fit in the neurotypical world so well that the autism was hard to detect now.

[Deester]

What a great post. I don't have any names to add but this information just makes me fell like "average" it could happen to anyone famous or not.

Keep adding to the list if you have one.

Denise

[Dave]

I saw a TV news program that showed one of the fundraising football dad's son and the claim that he was "cured". Anyone know anything about this? He gave a lot of credit to his Dad and early intervention. Seemed like a pretty typical kid to me. I wish they wouldn't have said "cured" probably so much therapy that he fit in the neurotypical world so well that the autism was hard to detect now.
I think that is Dan Marino's son. He has done a lot of good for people with disabilities in general. He and his wife also adopted a girl from China. He's a class act as far as I am concerned.

Mike's favorite thing to watch on TV are car races, so I know a little about NASCAR. The driver of the M&M's car is Elliot Sadler. He and a group of other drivers do a number of things to raise money and awareness. I believe his niece is his connection to autism.

[albkramer]

I remember reading an article on Dan Marino's son a while back. The son talked about how frustrating it was to not be able to convey what he was thinking or what he wanted. He was already a teenager when the article was written. When peers would ask him which of his brothers had autism, his reply was something like, ... oh yeah, that was me...

[Vanessa]

Wow, that's quite a list, a have a couple more people to add


Didi Conn (Frenchy in Grease) has a son with autism
Dominique Dunn (Olympic Gymnast) has a brother with autism
The other ones I knew about are already listed in there,
quite a few of them I knew about, but I didn't know about David Thomlinson. Our son watches Mary Poppins every chance he gets, so we see alot of the actor, I'll have to tell my husband. He'll be surprised.
Anybody know of any more celebrities with autistic children?
Vanessa

[Vanessa]

Hi everyone, I just want to make a correction to my list of celebrities who have family with autism...
I mentioned Olympic Gymnast Dominique Dunn, it's not Dunn, it's Dawes.
I don't know where I got Dunn from, but after I wrote this and said to myself, that doesn't look right. So I looked it up in one of my issues of the Advocate newsletter that she was in, and I found that I did have it wrong. Her last name is Dawes.
Sorry for the error.
Vanessa

[Willy]

Here is a link to the Dan Marino story
www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/5957706

[mlwear]

Thanks for the link to the article. Good to get the straight story. I'm glad they said there is no "cure", but instead he "overcame" autism. It is also interesting to read some of the messages that others wrote about the article. Lots of folks like us in this forum who have a clue but a few real idiots (but that's no shock, is it?)
Also, intriguing to think about the recently posted thread "would you use a cure" and think about the Marino story.

[StrictNon-Confo]

I'll agree, there's no "cure" but I'm not overly excited by the statement of "overcoming" it, as that seems a rather negative way of expressing their very nature, nonetheless. I must agree, it's far simpler to say, "I overcame *" rather than to state "I function in this way by nature, but I managed to optimize how to function with others that simply function differently than I do!"

In other words, in the Game of Life, they managed to make the best of the cards they were dealt.

Thanks for the link to the article. Good to get the straight story. I'm glad they said there is no "cure", but instead he "overcame" autism. It is also interesting to read some of the messages that others wrote about the article. Lots of folks like us in this forum who have a clue but a few real idiots (but that's no shock, is it?)
Also, intriguing to think about the recently posted thread "would you use a cure" and think about the Marino story.