Anne Bancroft

COP11 · August 20, 2010

Anne Bancroft (September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, after studying it under Lee Strasberg.

She made her film debut in 1952 in Don't Bother to Knock with Marilyn Monroe and worked as a contract player in several films before returning to her native New York and appearing in several Broadway plays. She later won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Miracle Worker (1962), and received subsequent nominations for her roles in The Pumpkin Eater (1964), The Graduate (1967), The Turning Point (1977), and Agnes of God (1985). Later in her career, she played character roles in many theatrical films such as Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), G.I. Jane (1997), Great Expectations (1998), Antz (1998), and Heartbreakers (2001). She also starred in several television productions, including The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003) for which she received Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. She died of uterine cancer at age 73 in 2005. Among her survivors was her husband of 40 years, Mel Brooks, and their son Maximillian Brooks.

Early life

Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Mildred (1908–2010), a telephone operator, and Michael Italiano (1905–2001), a dress pattern maker. Her parents were both children of Italian immigrants. Bancroft graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx in 1948, and attended HB Studio, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Actors Studio, and the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women at UCLA. After appearing in a number of live television dramas under the name Anne Marno, she was told to change her surname for her film debut in Don't Bother to Knock in 1952.

Career

Bancroft was a contract player in the early days of her career just as the studio contract system was ending. She left Hollywood because of the poor quality of roles she was being offered and returned to New York.

In 1958, Bancroft made her Broadway debut as lovelorn, Bronx-talkin' Gittel Mosca opposite Henry Fonda (as the married man Gittel loves) in William Gibson's two-character play Two for the Seesaw, directed by Arthur Penn. For Gittel, she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. (Though her role was quite equal to Fonda's, he, an established film actor, was the star, and so she was eligible in the featured category).

She subsequently won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1960, again with playwright Gibson and director Penn, when she played Annie Sullivan, the sight-impaired, heroically indefatigable Irish girl who teaches the child Helen Keller to communicate in The Miracle Worker (1962). She took the latter role back to Hollywood, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress, with Patty Duke repeating her success as Helen alongside her. Bancroft had returned to Broadway to star in Mother Courage and her Children. Joan Crawford accepted Bancroft's Oscar on her behalf, and later presented the award to her in New York. She is one of the very distinct few to have won an Academy Award and Tony Award for the same role. Bancroft also co-starred as a medieval nun obsessed with a priest opposite Jason Robards in the 1965 Broadway production of John Whiting's controversial play The Devils. Produced by Alexander H. Cohen and directed by Michael Cacoyannis, it ran for a total of 31 performances.

Bancroft received a second Academy Award nomination in 1965 for her performance in The Pumpkin Eater. Her best-known role during this period was as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967), for which she received a third Academy Award nomination. In the film, she played an unhappily married woman who seduces the much-younger recent college graduate played by Dustin Hoffman. Bancroft was ambivalent about her appearance in The Graduate; she stated in several interviews that the role overshadowed all of her other work. Although her status as the "older woman" in the film is iconic, Bancroft was actually only 36 years old to Dustin Hoffman's 30 when the film was released.

A highly-acclaimed CBS television special, Annie: the Women in the Life of a Man (1970), won Bancroft an Emmy Award for her singing and acting. Bancroft is one of a very select few entertainers to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony award. She followed that success with a second television special, Annie and The Hoods, which was telecast on ABC in 1974 and featured her husband Mel Brooks as a guest star. She made an uncredited cameo in the 1974 film Blazing Saddles, directed by Brooks. In 1978 she received a fourth Academy Award nomination for her performance in The Turning Point opposite Shirley Maclaine, and a fifth nomination in 1986 for her performance in Agnes of God opposite Jane Fonda.

In 1980, Bancroft made her debut as a screenwriter and director in Fatso, in which she starred along with Dom DeLuise. Bancroft was also the original choice to play Joan Crawford in the 1981 movie Mommie Dearest, but backed out at the 11th hour, and was replaced by Faye Dunaway. She was also a front-runner for the role of Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment, but declined in order to act in the remake of To Be or Not to Be (1983).

During the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, Bancroft took supporting roles in a number of films in which she co-starred with major film stars, including Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) with Nicolas Cage, Love Potion No. 9 (1992) with Sandra Bullock, Malice (1993) with Nicole Kidman, Point of No Return (1993) with Bridget Fonda, Home for the Holidays (1995) with Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Jodie Foster, How to Make an American Quilt (1995) with Winona Ryder, G.I. Jane (1997) with Demi Moore, Great Expectations (1998) with Gwyneth Paltrow, Keeping the Faith (2000) with Ben Stiller, and Heartbreakers (2001) with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sigourney Weaver and Gene Hackman. She also lent her voice to the animated film Antz (1998) which also featured performances from Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone, and Woody Allen.

Bancroft also starred in several television movies and miniseries, receiving six Emmy Award nominations (winning twice), eight Golden Globe nominations (winning twice), and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Her final screen appearance was in the TV movie The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003) for which she received critical acclaim. Her last project was the animated feature Delgo, released posthumously in 2008.

Anne Bancroft received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6368 Hollywood Boulevard for her work in television, although she was primarily a stage and film actress.

Marriage and family

Bancroft was married to Martin May from July 1, 1953, to February 13, 1957. They had no children.

In 1961, Bancroft met Mel Brooks at a rehearsal for the Perry Como variety show. Bancroft and Brooks married on August 5, 1964, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau near New York City Hall and were together until her death. They had one son, Maximillian, born in 1972.

They were seen three times on the screen together: once dancing a tango in Brooks's 1976 Silent Movie; in Brooks's 1983 remake of To Be or Not to Be; and in the episode entitled "Opening Night" of the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm. They were also in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, but never appeared together. Brooks produced the 1980 film The Elephant Man, in which Bancroft acted. He also was executive-producer for the 1987 film 84 Charing Cross Road in which she starred. Both Brooks and Bancroft appeared in season six of The Simpsons. According to the DVD commentary, when Bancroft came to record her lines for the episode "Fear of Flying", the Simpsons writers asked if Brooks had come with her (which he had), she joked, "I can't get rid of him!" In 2010, Brooks credited Bancroft as being the guiding force behind his involvement in developing The Producers and Young Frankenstein for the musical theater, citing an early meeting as "From that day, until her death on June 5, 2005, we were glued together."

Death

Anne Bancroft died of uterine cancer on June 6, 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, aged 73. Her death surprised many, even some of her friends. She was intensely private and had not released details of her illness.

Bancroft was survived by Brooks; their son, Maximillian; a grandson; her mother Mildred (who died on April 18, 2010, at age 102) and two sisters, Joanne and Phyllis. She is interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, near her parents, Mildred and Michael Italiano. A white marble monument with a weeping angel adorns her grave.