NEW YORK — Playwright William Gibson, whose “The Miracle Worker” has thrilled audiences for nearly a half-century with the true story of the deaf and blind Helen Keller’s rescue from a world of ignorance, has died. He was 94.
Gibson died Tuesday in Stockbridge, Mass., according to the Finnerty &Stevens Funeral Home in Great Barrington.
Gibson wrote a dozen plays, including the Tony-winning “Two for the Seesaw,” but would be forever known for “The Miracle Worker.” First written for television, the story of a young Keller forging a relationship with her teacher, Annie Sullivan, made its Broadway debut in 1959.
“Nothing in the theater this season is so overwhelming as the last inarticulate but eloquent scene in which a frantic little girl for the first time understands the meaning of a word and realizes that the teacher is not a fiend but a friend,” New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote. “One small but blinding ray of light has penetrated the frightening darkness.”
The production, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Anne Bancroft and 12-year-old Patty Duke, earned Tonys in 1960 for best play, best actress (Bancroft) and best director. It was made into a movie in 1962, bringing Academy Awards for Bancroft, as best actress, and Duke, best supporting actress, and Oscar nominations for Penn and Gibson.
“The Miracle Worker” came a year after Gibson’s first professionally produced play, “Two for the Seesaw,” also a major success.
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