Kitty O'Neil

Born in Texas, Kitty O'Neil was deaf from an early age due to illness. Despite this, she pursued an incredibly active and dangerous life, first as a competitive diver, then moving into powerboat racing, drag racing, and eventually becoming a fearless stuntwoman in Hollywood. She might not have heard the roar of her engines or the director yell "Action!", but she certainly felt the rumble of speed and the impact of her daring feats.

Her resume included setting the women's absolute land speed record in 1976 at 512.762 mph, a record that stood for decades. On the big screen, she doubled for stars like Lynda Carter in "Wonder Woman" and Lindsay Wagner in "The Bionic Woman," plummeting from buildings and crashing vehicles with a seemingly endless supply of courage. It's almost as if she couldn't hear the warnings.

As far as Jewish heritage goes, Kitty O'Neil was as gentile as they come, meaning her I and O scores are a definitive zero. She was of Cherokee and Irish descent, a combination not typically found on the membership rolls of your local shul. So, while she was breaking barriers and records, she wasn't breaking any matzah.

Nevertheless, her incredible resilience and death-defying accomplishments earned her considerable "nachas" for humanity as a whole, even if not specifically for the tribe. We'll give her a solid K for pushing the boundaries of what a human being, with or without hearing, can achieve.