FILE - In this May 29, 2014 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II meets Professor Stephen Hawking, during a reception for Leonard Cheshire Disability in the State Rooms, St James's Palace, London. Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died, a family spokesman said early Wednesday, March 14, 2018. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
Hawking came down with pneumonia in 1985 and lost his ability to speak after doctors were forced to insert a tube in his windpipe.
The physicist initially communicated by gesturing to letters on a spelling card with the help of his eyebrows, but the process was agonizingly slow.
His wheelchair was later fitted with a speech-generating device, and Hawking's "voice" is that of American engineer Dennis Klatt.
When Hawking met with the Queen in 2014, she joked, "Have you still got that American voice?"
He responded, "Yes, it is copyrighted actually."
