'Miracle Worker' author William Gibson dies at 94

NEW YORK (AP) — Playwright William Gibson, whose "The Miracle Worker" has thrilled audiences for nearly a half-century with the true story of the deaf-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 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.

"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 was born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1914. A skittish teenager who found comfort in Broadway shows and the written word, Gibson studied creative writing at City College.

Associated Press - November 27, 2008 11:03 PM ET

NEW YORK (AP) - Playwright and novelist William Gibson, author of such Broadway hits as "The Miracle Worker" and "Two for the Seesaw," has died at the age of 94.

Gibson died Tuesday in Stockbridge, Mass., according to the Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home in Great Barrington.

Gibson wrote more than a dozen plays, but it was "The Miracle Worker," the story of a young deaf and blind Helen Keller forging a relationship with her teacher, Annie Sullivan, that was his biggest success.