Anne Bancroft

Anne Bancroft Headshot

Actress

Birth Date: September 17, 1931

Death Date: June 6, 2005

Birth Place: Bronx, New York

Spouses: Mel Brooks

While some actors were lucky enough to find one role for which they would always be remembered, actress Anne Bancroft was both blessed and cursed for her turn as the icily seductive Mrs. Robinson in Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" (1967). Bancroft's legendary career spanned some six decades and encompassed parts as varied as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the Broadway production of "Golda" (1977), as well as the sight-impaired teacher of Helen Keller, Annie Sullivan, in "The Miracle Worker" (1962), the latter of which earned her both an Oscar and a Tony award. In fact, Bancroft was that rarest of performers who managed to earn her profession's Triple Crown, winning an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy. Bancroft undeniably fashioned an envious array of performances. Unlike many in showbiz, she also managed to find the love of her life in the form of comedy writer and director Mel Brooks, whom she married in 1964 and remained close to up until her death in 2005. Bancroft also turned in multi-nominated performances in "The Turning Point" (1977), "Agnes of God" (1985) and "Neil Simon's Broadway Bound" (ABC, 1992), all of which underscored an exemplary career unlikely to ever be duplicated again.

Bancroft was born on Sept. 17, 1931 in the Bronx, NY to Italian immigrant parents; her father, Michael, was a dress pattern maker and her mother, Mildred, was a telephone operator. After graduating from Christopher Columbus High School in 1948, Bancroft attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she studied with Herbert Berghof from 1948-1950. Shortly after the completion of the two-year program, she adopted the stage name Anne Marno and soon found work in live television, a training ground which she found more helpful than any drama class. Bancroft made her professional debut on the anthology drama series, "Westinghouse Studio One" (CBS, 1948-1958) with "The Torrents of Spring" (1950). She also began a semi-regular on the serialized drama, "The Goldbergs" (CBS, 1949-1951). Naturally, Hollywood came calling, which led the actress to sign a studio player contract in 1952. Under orders from legendary producer, Darryl F. Zanuck, she adopted the surname of Bancroft from a list he provided. She later admitted that during her early years in California that she was more interested in becoming a movie star than an actress. The films in which Bancroft was cast were often forgettable at best, like "Demetrius and the Gladiator" (1954), "Gorilla at Large" (1954) and "The Girl in the Black Stockings" (1957).

Frustrated by her lack of progress out West, Bancroft returned to New York where she became a member of the Actors Studio and adopted The Method, which soon resulted in richer, more rewarding work. Under the guidance of director Arthur Penn, she delivered back-to-back Tony-winning stage performances, first opposite Henry Fonda in the two-character love story "Two for the Seesaw" (1958). With renewed vigor, Bancroft next threw herself into her next role, deftly adopting a strong Irish accent to play the indefatigable Annie Sullivan, who doggedly taught a blind, deaf and mute Helen Keller (Patty Duke) to communicate, in "The Miracle Worker" (1959). After earning her second Tony, she reprised the role in a rare instance of Hollywood using the original stage players, co-starring opposite Patty Duke in Arthur Penn's feature film version of "The Miracle Worker" (1962). Hailed by critics for her exemplary performance, Bancroft was bestowed with an Academy Award for Best Actress. It was during this time that Bancroft became entranced with comedy writer, Mel Brooks, whom she met after a previous marriage to a building contractor. The two were inseparable from the moment they met in 1961 and later married in August 1964, embarking on that rare Hollywood marriage that managed to stand the test of time while the two remained ever devoted to each other.

Despite the acclaim she earned from her Oscar-winning performance in "The Miracle Worker," Bancroft continued to divide her time between the stage and screen. After starring in a Broadway revival of "Mother Courage and Her Children" (1963), Bancroft offered a strong turn as an unhappily married woman in "The Pumpkin Eater" (1964) which earned her the Best Actress award at Cannes and a second Oscar nomination. In John Ford's "Seven Women" (1965), she replaced an ailing Patricia Neal as a physician who sacrifices herself to a Mongol warlord in order to save the residents of a religious mission. That same year, she was effective as a would-be suicide who contacts a call-in center looking for someone to talk to in "The Slender Thread" (1965), co-starring Sidney Poitier. But it was her next role as the icy seductress Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate" (1967) that forever cemented Bancroft into the pantheon of Hollywood's great actresses. Directed by Mike Nichols, the film followed Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a young college graduate who embarks on an illicit affair with an older family friend (Bancroft), only to find true love in her daughter (Katharine Ross). Despite Bancroft being only five years older than Hoffman at the time of the film's release - she was 35 to his 30 - her performance as a woman twice his age onscreen earned the actress a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

As her stature grew, Bancroft became more selective in her roles, eventually putting her acting career on the back burner in order to care for Maximilian, her only child with Mel Brooks. She headlined the well-received special "Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man" (CBS, 1970), which earned the actress an Emmy Award, giving her that rare feat of winning acting's three biggest awards. Returning to features, she was cast as Churchill's American-born mother in the middling biopic "Young Winston" (1972) and was teamed with Jack Lemmon in the screechy version of Neil Simon's "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" (1974). After being miscast as a grande dame in "The Hindenburg" (1975) and performing a cameo as herself in Brooks' "Silent Movie" (1976), Bancroft fared better as an aging ballerina facing old rivalries with her best friend (Shirley MacLaine) in the high entertaining, if soap opera-like drama "The Turning Point" (1977), for which she picked up a fourth Best Actress Academy Award nomination. Also that year, she returned to the small screen to play Mary Magdalene opposite the likes of Laurence Olivier, Michael York, Rod Steiger, Olivia Hussey and Robert Powell in the exemplary miniseries, "Jesus of Nazareth" (NBC, 1977). Back on Broadway, she played another historical figure; this time Golda Meir, in the Broadway play, "Golda" (1977), which earned the actress yet another Tony Award nomination.

Having trained at the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women, Bancroft made her debut behind the camera with "Fatso" (1980), a comedy-drama about an overweight man (Dom DeLuise) and his determination to diet. Working from her own script, she fashioned a rather uneven movie and under her own direction, offered one of her least successful performances as DeLuise's shrill sister. The film ultimately proved to be the only time she sat in the director's chair. Bouncing back, Bancroft offered a nicely formed cameo as actress Madge Kendal in David Lynch's version of "The Elephant Man" (1980) before starring opposite her husband in the comedy "To Be or Not To Be" (1983), in which they played the roles originally made famous by Jack Benny and Carole Lombard; that of a Polish husband-wife acting team who must flee their country after the Nazis invade by using an assortment of disguises. Though not one of Brooks' finer efforts, the remake of the Ernst Lubitsch 1942 classic earned Bancroft a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. She next delivered a whirlwind performance as Estelle Rolfe, an unconventional woman who learns she is dying, which leads her faithful son (Ron Silver) to try and fulfill her wish to meet reclusive actress Greta Garbo in "Garbo Talks" (1984).

In the stagey "Agnes of God" (1985), Bancroft played a combative mother superior who tries to protect a young nun (Meg Tilly) from a court-appointed psychiatrist (Jane Fonda) trying to uncover the truth after a baby winds up strangled to death. The role as the tough-talking nun earned her a fifth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Bancroft next delivered a touching performance as the feisty writer who conducts a 20-year correspondence love affair with a London bookseller (Anthony Hopkins) in "84 Charing Cross Road" (1986), while offering moments of both high comedy and seriousness as Harvey Fierstein's nagging mother in "Torch Song Trilogy" (1988). After starring in the British television series "Freddie and Max" (ITV, 1990), Bancroft turned in an Emmy-nominated performance as the titular "Mrs. Cage" (PBS, 1992), a suburban matron who shocks everyone following her confession to murdering a shopper in a supermarket parking lot. Also that year, she earned a second Emmy nod for playing the mother of struggling playwright Eugene Jerome (Corey Parker) in "Neil Simon's Broadway Bound" (ABC, 1992).

As the 1990s developed, Bancroft made the transformation from leading star to character actress, which allowed her to deliver finely tuned, nuanced performances in a wide array of roles. Parts as diverse as an operative who polishes the finesse of a female assassin (Bridget Fonda) in "Point of No Return" (1993) or the pot-smoking Glady Joe in "How to Make an American Quilt" (1995) allowed her to display her various talents, but sometimes with limited results. Even a comic cameo as a gypsy - ironically named after the great screen star Maria Ouspenskaya - in Brooks' "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" (1995) merely hinted at her full potential. She did, however, have her moments as a ballsy senator in "G.I. Jane" (1997) and was delightfully theatrical as the Miss Haversham character in the modern day "Great Expectations" (1998). But neither project compared with her earlier work. It took television to offer Bancroft three-dimensional roles which reminded viewers just what she could do with meaty roles. In 1994, she offered a pair of performances that had critics raving. Under old-age makeup, Bancroft embodied the centenarian titular character in CBS' "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All," for which she earned another Emmy nomination. She also starred as a 66-year-old widow determined to return to work in the PBS remake of Paddy Chayefsky's "The Mother," perfectly delineating the character's mixture of fierceness and fragility.

Bancroft further excelled as the estranged grandmother of four children who trek cross-country to visit her in "Homecoming" (USA Network, 1996) and delivered an Emmy-winning turn as a white woman who slowly warms to an abandoned black girl (Kimberlee Peterson) and her siblings in the fact-based "Deep in My Heart" (CBS, 1999). While the actress periodically spoke of retirement, she maintained a steady output of work, offering scene-stealing performances as an overbearing Jewish mother in "Keeping the Faith" (2000) and a glamorous expatriate in 1930s Italy in "Up at the Villa" (2000). She continued to deliver awards-worthy performances on the small screen with an Emmy-nominated performance as the feisty mother of real-life Jewish journalist, Ruth Gruber (Natasha Richardson), who helped shepherd almost one thousand Holocaust survivors from war-torn Europe to temporary asylum in the United States in the miniseries "Haven" (CBS, 2001). The following year, Bancroft returned to Broadway for the first time since 1981, appearing in Edward Albee's "Occupant," inspired by the success of her husband's "The Producers," which he had turned into a stage show at her suggestion. The two later appeared on an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (HBO, 2000- ), spoofing the monster success of Brooks' show by hiring Larry David (Larry David) to play Max Bialystock in an effort to sabotage the show.

Bancroft went on to play what ultimately became her final dramatic performance as the aging contessa who procures a gigolo (Olivier Martinez) to enliven the life of a widowed former Broadway star (Helen Mirren) in the small screen adaptation of the Tennessee Williams' novella, "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (Showtime, 2003). Then on June 6, 2005, Bancroft died of uterine cancer while at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital. She was just 73. The news, however, was announced two days later and shocked many who remained unaware, thank to Bancroft's intensely private life. Regardless, her death was mourned by many who had worked with her over the years, including Patty Duke, Arthur Penn and Dustin Hoffman. While haunted throughout her career by her performance as Mrs. Robinson, to whom she was indelibly linked and fought tirelessly to cast off, Bancroft left behind a gallery of complex and intriguing characters, performed throughout her long and venerable career. As for Mrs. Robinson, Bancroft understood the character intimately: "Film critics said I gave a voice to the fear we all have - that we'll reach a certain point in our lives, look around and realize that all the things we said we'd do and become will never come to be - and that we're ordinary." It was something Bancroft would never have to face herself. In both her art and her life, the actress was extraordinary.

Credits

Delgo

Voice
Sedessa
Movie
2008

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Actor
Contessa
Movie
2003

Haven

Actor
Show
2001

Haven

Actor
Mama Gruber
Movie
2001

HeartbreakersStream

Actor
Gloria Vogal/Barbara
Movie
2001
54%

Curb Your EnthusiasmStream

Guest Star
Herself
Series
2000
92%

Keeping the FaithStream

Actor
Ruth Schram
Movie
2000
69%

Up at the Villa

Actor
Princess San Ferdinando
Movie
2000

Deep in My Heart

Actor
Geraldine 'Gerry" Eileen Cummins
Movie
1999

Echoes From the Ancients

Narrator
Show
1998

Great ExpectationsStream

Actor
Ms. Nora Dinsmoor
Movie
1998
39%

AntzStream

Voice
Queen
Movie
1998
92%

Mark Twain's America in 3D

Narrator
Movie
1998

G.I. JaneStream

Actor
Sen. Lillian DeHaven
Movie
1997
53%

Critical Care

Actor
Nun
Movie
1997

The Living Edens

Narrator
Show
1996

Homecoming

Actor
Abigail Tillerman
Movie
1996

The Sunchaser

Actor
Dr. Renata Baumbauer
Movie
1996

Lazos de Familia

Actor
Movie
1996

The Mother

Actor
Show
1995

How to Make an American Quilt

Actor
Glady Joe Cleary
Movie
1995

Home for the Holidays

Actor
Adele Larson
Movie
1995

Dracula: Dead and Loving It

Actor
Madame Ouspenskaya (Gypsy Woman)
Movie
1995

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

Actor
Show
1994

Point of No Return

Actor
Amanda
Movie
1993

Malice

Actor
Mrs. Kennsinger
Movie
1993

Mr. Jones

Actor
Dr. Catherine Holland
Movie
1993

Mrs. Cage

Actor
Mrs. Cage
Movie
1992

Broadway Bound

Actor
Kate Jerome
Movie
1992

Honeymoon in Vegas

Actor
Bea Singer
Movie
1992

Love Potion No. 9Stream

Actor
Madame Ruth
Movie
1992
25%

The SimpsonsStream

Guest Voice
Dr. Zweig
Series
1989
85%

Bert Rigby, You're a Fool

Actor
Meredith Perlestein
Movie
1989

Torch Song Trilogy

Actor
Ma Beckoff
Movie
1988
77%

84 Charing Cross Road

Actor
Helene Hanff
Movie
1987

'Night, Mother

Actor
Thelma Cates
Movie
1986

Agnes of GodStream

Actor
Mother Miriam Ruth
Movie
1985
42%

Garbo Talks

Actor
Estelle Rolfe
Movie
1984

To Be or Not to Be

Actor
Anna Bronski
Movie
1983
55%

Fatso

Actor
Antoinette
Movie
1980

Fatso

Director
Movie
1980

Fatso

Screenwriter
Movie
1980

The Elephant ManStream

Actor
Mrs. Kendal
Movie
1980
92%

Jesus of NazarethStream

Actor
Mary Magdalene
Miniseries
1977

The Turning Point

Actor
Emma
Movie
1977
63%

Jésus de Nazareth

Actor
Mary Magdalene
Movie
1977

Silent Movie

Self
Movie
1976

LipstickStream

Actor
Carli Bondi
Movie
1976
18%

Viol et châtiment

Actor
Movie
1976

The Prisoner of Second Avenue

Actor
Edna Edison
Movie
1975

The Hindenburg

Actor
The Countess
Movie
1975

Young Winston

Actor
Lady Jennie Churchill
Movie
1972

Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man

Actor
Show
1970

The GraduateStream

Actor
Mrs. Robinson
Movie
1967
86%

Seven Women

Actor
Dr. D.R. Cartwright
Movie
1966

The Slender Thread

Actor
Inga Dyson
Movie
1965

The Pumpkin EaterStream

Actor
Jo Armitage
Movie
1964
67%

The Miracle WorkerStream

Actor
Annie Sullivan
Movie
1962
96%

The Girl In the Black Stockings

Actor
Beth Dixon
Movie
1957

The Restless Breed

Actor
Angelita
Movie
1957

So Soon to Die

Actor
Isobel Waring
Movie
1957

The Girl in Black Stockings

Actor
Beth Dixon
Movie
1957

Zane Grey TheaterStream

Actor
Series
1956

Nightfall

Actor
Marie Gardner
Movie
1956

Walk the Proud Land

Actor
Tianay
Movie
1956
0%

The Alcoa Hour

Actor
Alegre
Show
1955

Savage Wilderness

Actor
Corinna Marston
Movie
1955

The Naked Street

Actor
Rosalie Regalzyk
Movie
1955

A Life in the Balance

Actor
María Ibinia
Movie
1955

Climax!Stream

Actor
Series
1954

Demetrius and the GladiatorsStream

Actor
Paula
Movie
1954
75%

Gorilla at Large

Actor
Laverne Miller
Movie
1954

The Raid

Actor
Katie Bishop
Movie
1954

Tonight We Sing

Actor
Emma Hurok
Movie
1953

Treasure of the Golden Condor

Actor
Marie
Movie
1953

The Kid From Left Field

Actor
Marian Foley
Movie
1953

Don't Bother to Knock

Actor
Lyn Lesley
Movie
1952

The Bob Hope Show

Actor
guest
Show
1950

What's My Line?Stream

Guest
Game Show
1950

SuspenseStream

Actor
Series
1949

Studio OneStream

Actor
Series
1948

Lights Out

Actor
Show
1946