Author of “Miracle Worker” William Gibson Dies at 94 (Photos)

Playwright William Gibson, who penned “The Miracle Worker”, the true story of the deaf-blind Helen Keller’s rescue from a world of ignorance, has died. William Gibson was 94. Read more on William Gibson’s death below.

Gibson died Tuesday in Stockbridge, Massachusetts at the age of 94.

William Gibson wrote a dozen plays, including the Tony-winning “Two for the Seesaw,” but was most well known for “The Miracle Worker.” The story of Helen Keller was written for television but went to Broadway in 1959.

“Nothing in the theatre 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.

Click Thumbnails for larger pictures

“The Miracle Worker” came a year after Gibson’s first professionally produced play, “Two for the Seesaw,” also a major success.

The 1958 romantic drama about a straight-laced lawyer who falls in love with a dancer brought Bancroft her first Tony and also nominations for best play and best director (Penn.) The 1962 film version starred Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine.

Gibson garnered another Tony nomination in 1965 as co-author of “Golden Boy,” a musical version of the play by Clifford Odets. It starred Sammy Davis Jr.

“The act of writing makes everything possible to me,” Gibson said in a 2003 interview with The Associated Press at his home in Stockbridge, Mass. “I’ve always found the business of writing has helped me to live.”

Gibson’s last Broadway play was “Golda’s Balcony,” a one-woman show starring Tovah Feldshuh as Israeli prime minister Golda Meir during one of her most difficult times — the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

It was a heavily revised version of “Golda,” Gibson’s 1977 Broadway flop that featured a large cast and Bancroft in the title role.

Although the 2003 play marked the last time Gibson wrote for Broadway, he continued to write novels, short stories and poetry.

Gibson’s wife, Margaret Brenman-Gibson, psychologist and author of a study on playwright Clifford Odets, died in 2004.

Images: PR/AP

Source: news

• “Laugh-In” Actor Henry Gibson Dies At 73 (Photos)
• Parker Posey Diagnosed With Lyme Disease
• Mel Gibson’s Girfriend Oksana Grigorieva Reportedly Pregnant (Photos)
• “Octo-Mel” Mel Gibson Confirms Girlfriend Oksana’s Pregnancy (VIDEO)
• Russia Singer Oksana Pochepa Confirms Relationship With Mel Gibson (Photos)
• Mel Gibson’s DUI Conviction Erased From His Record By Judge
• How did Christopher Ciccone & Sean Penn become blood brothers?
• Mel Gibson Divorce: Robyn Gibson Files For Divorce After 28 Year Marriage! (Photos)
• Mel Gibson Divorce? (Photos)
• Mel Gibson Wants DNA Test To Prove Girlfriend Oksana’s Baby Is His!

Posted by: Monya

No comments