Bill Pugin is an entertaining award-winning ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter and the author of Fly on the Wall. #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos has the scoop.
Most of his incredible experiences would never have happened if he hadn’t been desperate to communicate with his Deaf older sister, Mary Anne, and learn what her “dancing fingers” were saying. In addition to owning the top ASL agency on the West Coast and interpreting for many in Hollywood and all around the world.
Pugin has also travelled the world as Marlee Matlin’s on-set interpreter for decades and they share a level of trust that goes beyond words — ASL words, of course. Because of that and his own performing background, Pugin was tapped to co-star with Matlin and Mark Harmon as, what else — ASL interpreter Ben Douglass on NBC’s Reasonable Doubts for two years. Marlee Matlin graciously wrote a beautiful foreword to his book.
Pugin met with Presidents, movie stars, the Dalai Lama and very memorably, the late Princess Diana. Pugin also starred in stage musicals where he sang and danced, others where he simultaneously acted in voice and ASL, to include the entire audience. He was a cruise director and stage show star for the real life Love Boat, he worked on countless film and TV sets behind the camera (but sometimes on-camera), and he’s bridged the gap in courtrooms and hospital rooms between the Deaf and the hearing worlds, as he’s equally adept at both. Pugin’s dedication has made countless people in the Deaf community seen, heard and advocated for, a responsibility he takes very seriously, which is not the usual path of a class clown Navy brat.
Some of the many highlights in Pugin’s career as an interpreter include interpreting on countless sets and stages with legendary Tony-winning Deaf star of Children of a Lesser God, Phyllis Frelich, working at his home with Paul McCartney, Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman, spending months working with Meryl Streep on location for The River Wild, watching George Clooney pull one of his infamous pranks on the ER set, teaching Sheryl Lee Ralph how to communicate with an unusual non-verbal co-star for a television movie, helping Jeff Probst communicate with a deaf Survivor contestant and hundreds more.
Pugin was passionate and intensely driven to communicate with Deaf sister, Mary Anne. At 17, he spent a summer working at Gallaudet University, the only university for the Deaf. His passion to connect with her changed the course of his life and led Pugin to devote himself to connecting other Deaf and hearing people through his interpreting. In 1990, Pugin became the founder and president of The Sign Language Company, an agency for ASL interpreters dedicated to offering a higher level of talent and service to all genres, from showbiz to politics, business, world leaders and tech to the more conventional legal, medical, education, churches, synagogues, and everything in between. As an ASL interpreter, Pugin is often perceived as the almost invisible key to communication between the Deaf and the hearing worlds and now he is finally sharing his own story in his aptly titled memoir, Fly on the Wall.
At Gallaudet, Pugin completed his formal training in Sign Language Interpreting in 1979. He received constant interpreting requests while working at Gallaudet and if you read his book, you can find out why he was interpreting for Elizabeth Taylor while there. He was recruited to do the same in Los Angeles and although he rarely wavered from his ASL goals, he said yes to being a cruise director and performing in musicals all over the world. If he hadn’t said yes to that experience, then he would never have met Princess Diana, and while it was glamorous, Pugin was lured back to the ASL and interpreting world because he missed it too much.
Pugin lives in Palm Springs with his partner, Nigel Sanches, who helps run the day-to-day operations of The Sign Language Company. Pugin is clearly so much more than just a fly on the wall, he has been an integral part of countless once-in-a-lifetime experiences for most people, but it’s normal in his world, and all because he was curious, passionate and determined to communicate with his big sister. “Fly on the Wall is both a love letter and a thank you note to my sister, Mary Anne, and to the Deaf community,” states Pugin. “I’ve gotten so much more than I bargained for from this world.”
His book “Fly on the Wall” is available on Amazon by clicking here.
