MOVIES - Dec. 4, 1987

Marlee Matlin, who won an Academy Award for her role in “Children of a Lesser God,” says Oscar helped break up her romance with co-star William Hurt. Matlin said in an interview with Glamour magazine that she thinks her success frightened Hurt. “It really shocked him when I won the Oscar because it took him a long time to win (for ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’). He’d gone through a great deal. I had just started. . . . I wouldn’t say we are friends,” Matlin, who is deaf, told the magazine through a sign language interpreter. “I still respect him very much and I’m not happy about the breakup. But I am happy with myself. I have things to do.” The couple lived together for almost two years.