Troy Kotsur

This is dedicated to the deaf community, the CODA community and the disabled community,” he said in his acceptance speech, delivered in American Sign ...

But he was in a car accident, and he became paralyzed from the neck down, and he no longer was able to sign. And the reason why is you brought the Deaf world and the hearing world together, and you are our bridge. Thank you to my biggest fans, my wife and my daughter, Kyra, and my hometown of Mesa, Ariz., and Mark Finley, my manager, and our team. My dad, he was the best signer in our family. I just wanted to say that this is dedicated to the Deaf community, the CODA community and the disabled community. I read one of [Steven] Spielberg’s books recently, and he said that the best director, the definition of the best director was a skilled communicator. Instead, I really want to thank all of the wonderful Deaf theater stages where I was allowed and given the opportunity to develop my craft as an actor. Thank you so much to all the members of the Academy for recognizing my work. It’s really amazing that our film “CODA” has reached out worldwide; it even reached all the way to the White House. And they invited the cast of “CODA” to visit and have a tour of the White House. We met our president, Joe, and Dr. Jill, and I was planning on teaching them some dirty sign language, but Marlee Matlin told me to behave myself. (Fun fact: He helped create the sign language that Tusken Raiders use in “The Mandalorian.”) Voters honored his heartstring-tugging supporting performance in “ CODA” as a fisherman struggling to relate to his hearing daughter. Kotsur had been the favorite to win the supporting actor Oscar after receiving similar honors from more than a dozen awards groups.