October, 1959
Anne Bancroft won a Tony Award in 1960 for playing Annie Sullivan in Broadway’s The Miracle Worker and an Oscar two years later for playing the same role in the film version of the play. Can you name seven other performers who enjoy this distinction? (Many actors have both trophies; the key here is that these eight won Oscars for recreating on film the same role for which they had won a Tony Award on the Broadway stage.) This quiz is a departure from the theme of this website: West Side Story is not one of the eight films in the answers, however one of these eight films did employ the services of two or three of WSS's own Oscar winners. Click here to identify this particular film. Click here for the answers
That’s Anne Bancroft on the cover, bearing a saintly and most benign countenance that, to the unwary, may be a perfect fit for the kindly, benevolent teacher that, for all they know, she is presumably playing. In fact, the poised and composed demeanor is one in stunning and dramatic contrast to the willful, hot-tempered, rebellious characterization Ms Bancroft actually and most successfully turned in as Annie Sullivan, the title character in William Gibson’s newly-opened The Miracle Worker, a memorable role which garnered her both a Tony for her Broadway success and an Oscar for repeating her inimitable achievement for the screen.
Along with Mr. Gibson’s account of his experiences as author of both Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker, (both starring Ms Bancroft), this issue devoted some twenty-three pages to the complete text of West Side Story, a package that includes all the dialogue and lyrics, an opening-night cast list, synopsis of scenes and production credits. This informative and entertaining presentation was a typical practice of Theatre Arts and this example constitutes yet another confirmation of the esteem in which the masterwork was held, since no more than twelve shows per year could be placed on such an exclusive list.
Play the Game.
Six Degrees of Anne Bancroft. Without limiting the progressive steps exclusively to co-starring performers, how many degrees would it take Anne Bancroft to reach West Side Story? We have a standard answer that gives us a low "two-steps" qualification, and by waiving the "co-stars only" rule we can provide an answer that returns the absolute minimum (short of the lady actually appearing in the masterwork!) of "one step." As always we happily welcome additional submissions.
Click here to check our answers.
Click here to submit another answer.
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