# Deaf stuntwoman Kitty O'Neil dies at 72 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 6, 2018, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059 "2018-11-06T07:15:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/1 "2018-11-06T07:15:37Z")
Does anyone here remember the 1970s TV series “That’s Incredible”? She appears on it regularly, and never considered herself disabled. Her career as a stuntwoman was short, but wowzers, what a career it was. In time, she moved with a companion to rural South Dakota, and that’s where she died last week. > **[Kitty O’Neil, deaf daredevil who became ‘world’s fastest woman,’ dies at 72](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/kitty-oneil-deaf-daredevil-who-became-worlds-fastest-woman-dies-at-72/2018/11/04/5d88dc9c-e044-11e8-8f5f-a55347f48762_story.html?utm_term=.2b15e2fe7b27)** > > ‘People say I can’t do anything. I say to people I can do anything I want.’ ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/2 "2018-11-06T08:25:21Z")
Thanks for sharing that; it was quite a story. It’s like for the first third of her life, God was trying to kill her with diseases, and she made a deal with him: _You stop trying to kill me your way, and I’ll try it my way…_ ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Krupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/3 "2018-11-06T14:15:22Z")
It’s strange–at this point in my life, 72 seems kind of young. But yes, I remember her, and I’m sad to hear about this. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/4 "2018-11-06T20:34:45Z")
At the age of 5 months, she simultaneously contracted measles, mumps, and chicken pox, and nearly died from the high fever alone. (Some sources said she had smallpox, but that would have been extremely unlikely in this country in the late 1940s.) Her mother, who was widowed around the same time, put herself through college to become a teacher and advocate for the deaf. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/5 "2018-11-06T21:42:20Z")
I remember reading about her in Dynamite magazine as a kid and how she did stunts for the Wonder Woman TV show. I also remember one of her stunts from That’s Incredible. What an amazing woman. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/6 "2018-11-07T19:26:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Thanks for sharing that; it was quite a story. It’s like for the first third of her life, God was trying to kill her with diseases, and she made a deal with him: _You stop trying to kill me your way, and I’ll try it my way…_ I’m glad you made this comment, because after seeing the OP, I figured it was just another celebrity death, but when you said this, I went ahead and read the story. And with every paragraph, my eyes got wider and wider until my eyeballs about popped out of my head. Quite a story indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/7 "2018-11-07T21:52:14Z")
I remember her most from the Stockard Channing biopic about her, truth be told. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2023, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/8 "2023-03-25T01:15:23Z")
On the 77th anniversary of her birth, she is today’s Google Doodle. RIP, Ms. O’Neill. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2023, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/9 "2023-03-25T14:13:07Z")
Uhh, don’t you mean 7th anniversary? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2023, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/10 "2023-03-25T19:38:51Z")
No, yesterday was her BIRTHday. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaf-stuntwoman-kitty-oneil-dies-at-72/824059/11 "2023-03-25T22:49:54Z")
Oh, sorry.