Among the acclaimed actress’s dozens of film roles was The Slender Thread (1965), only the third major-studio feature film ever shot in Seattle. Bancroft shone as a suicidal mom (the original “desperate housewife”), calmed into continuing to live by Crisis Clinic volunteer Sidney Poitier. For a story contrived around a producer’s desire to team Poitier with a white actress but with no romance (the two characters never meet in person), it’s a near-classic of understated personal drama (and a beautiful B&W rendition of everyday life in post-world’s-fair Seattle).