New Faces: In the Family

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The daughters of two celebrated actors scored smash hits in London theaters:

¶ Raymond Massey's hazel-eyed, gawky daughter Anna, 23, was playing Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker and scoring a triumph of acting over an ingénue's past (she started her acting career in The Reluctant Debutante). She flung herself about the stage with controlled abandon, was even tougher than Anne Bancroft in the unforgettable New York version—"more the obstinately dedicated skivvy," wrote one critic, "and less the intense angel of mercy."

¶ Sir Michael Redgrave's chestnut-haired, statuesque (5 ft. 10½ in.) daughter Vanessa, 24, was appearing in Ibsen's rarely performed The Lady from the Sea as Boletta, the awkward elder daughter, and achieving a superb characterization after years of promising but unspectacular parts. Wrote Kenneth Tynan in the Observer: "If there is better acting than this in London, I should like to hear of it."