Anne Sullivan
Portrayed by: Teresa Wright (Playhouse 90), Anne Bancroft (Broadway and 1959 film), Patty Duke (1979 film), Alison Elliott (2000 film)
Anne Mansfield Sullivan is a "half-blind Yankee schoolgirl" who moves to Alabama to try to teach language to Helen Keller.
- Blind People Wear Sunglasses: Anne wears sunglasses even indoors due to her sensitive eyesight, having been previously blind in her childhood until she underwent operations to restore her vision.
- Cool Shades: Justified in late 19th-century America as they protect her weak eyes, but they're still cool.
- Deadpan Snarker: In the dinner scene in both the 1962 and 1979 movies, Annie snarks silently at Helen, knowing that she can neither see nor hear her. Helen has been lying on the ground, acting out by kicking her boots, but when nobody comes to pick her up, she falls silent. Annie, who's been sitting at the table eating her dinner, lifts a forkful of food and raises it ironically at Helen, as if to say "Screw you, kid, I'm eating."
- Determinator: Annie is determined to get Helen to realize her potential, and will stop at nothing to make it happen.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She gets aggravated when other people express sympathy for her disability.
- Genius Cripple: Partially blind (and totally blind later in her life), but smarter than shit.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: An abrasive teacher than nevertheless wants Helen to thrive.
- Magical Nanny: Type Two
- Self-Deprecation / Stealth Insult:Annie: Well, what should I say, I'm an ignorant opinionated girl, and everything I am I owe to you?Anagnos: That is only half true, Annie.Annie: Which half?
- Tough Love: Her methods of disciplining Helen are undeniably harsh, but that's because she genuinely wants to teach the child how to function in society, and most of all, to communicate — she knows Helen is smart as a whip, she should have a chance to use it.
- Voice for the Voiceless: Annie tells other characters (and the audience) what words she and Helen are finger-spelling.
Helen Keller
Portrayed by: Patricia McCormack (Playhouse 90), Patty Duke (Broadway and 1959 film), Melissa Gilbert (1979 film), Hallie Eisenberg (2000 film)
Struck by illness as an infant which left her deaf and blind, six-year-old Helen is wild and out of control with no way of communicating with others.
- And I Must Scream: Far more realistic and less gruesome than most examples, Helen spent five years in complete darkness and silence with no way of communicating with the people around her except for a few vague gestures — in reality she had invented over sixty home signs
note long before Annie got there, but those weren't nearly enough as she got older — and horrible tantrums. - Epiphany Therapy: Once she learns a language that can say everything she wants to say, everything gets better.
- The Speechless: While not physically mute, Helen does not know how to speak, and most of her vocalizations are wordless, feral sounds (the real Helen did retain the word "wah-wah" for water, as shown in the play, and eventually did learn to speak by feeling people's mouth and throat as they said various words).
- Spoiled Brat: Her parents can't find it in their hearts to "discipline an afflicted child."
- Talking in Your Sleep: Finger-spelling in her sleep. Annie said she really did, and during the day went around chattering to herself if nobody was around.
- Troubled Child: She is a violent child who cannot communicate and frequently puts herself and others in danger. Her parents fear being forced to put her in an asylum for "mental defectives".
- Wild Child: Being unable to see or hear other people, Helen has only the faintest idea (whatever she can pick up from touch) how to act around others.
James Keller
Portrayed by: John Drew Barrymore (Playhouse 90), James Congdon (Broadway), Andrew Prine (1962 film), Stanley Wells (1979 film), Lucas Black (2000 film)
Helen's older half-brother
- Calling the Old Man Out: During the climax of Act 3:"She's right, Kate's right, I'm right and you're wrong. If you drive her away from here it will be over my dead—chair. Has it never occurred to you that on one occasion you might be consummately wrong?"
- Deadpan Snarker
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: James Keller starts off the film as an apparent JerkAss who cares little for his half-sister, recommending that she be sent off to an asylum, and is rather condescending to Anne in his reference to her as someone else "to look after" after discovering that she's partially blind. That said, as the film goes on and Helen's gradual process in communicating becomes clear, James softens somewhat and sees Anne's presence as beneficial. It gets to the point where, right after his father insists on having her removed again in the film's climax, James actually defends Anne's methods and calls his father out on finally being wrong for once in his life.
- The real Jimmy did care for Helen, and treated her as a real child rather than accommodating her; he stood up to her, resisted her wild fits and tried to give her some structure. Years later she remembered someone trying to comfort her during the illness that took her sight and hearing. It was Jimmy.
- The Un-Favourite: Implied.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy
Kate Keller
Portrayed by: Katharine Bard (Playhouse 90), Patricia Neal (Broadway), Inga Swenson (1962 film), Diana Muldaur (1979 film), Kate Greenhouse (2000 film)
Helen's mother
- Doting Parent: Genuinely wants the best for her child. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the courage to discipline Helen when she does something wrong, which has resulted in Helen being nearly uncontrollable.
- Southern Belle
Captain Arthur Keller
Portrayed by: Burl Ives (Playhouse 90), Torin Thatcher (Broadway), Victor Jory (1962 film), Charles Siebert (1979 film), David Strathairn
Helen's father
- Doting Parent
- Officer and a Gentleman: Tries hard to be this, though his temper and impatience often get the better of him.
- Southern Gentleman
- "Well Done, Son" Guy
Aunt Ev
Portrayed by: Carroll McComas (Playhouse 90), Kathleen Comegys (Broadway and 1962 film), Anne Seymour (1979 film), Patricia Gage (2000 film)
Helen's paternal aunt.
Mr. Anagnos
Portrayed by: Akim Tamiroff (Playhouse 90), Michael Constantine (Broadway), Jack Hollander (1962 film), Titos Vandis (1979 film), Damir Andrei (2000 film)
Director of the Perkins School of the Blind.
