LEST WE FORGET ANNE BANCROFT ON HER BIRTHDAY
(September 17, 1931 - June 6, 2005)

When she portrayed Regina Giddens in a revival of The Little Foxes at Lincoln Center, the New York Times critic found her "possessed of iron instead of bone in her skeleton, a huskily musical voice that hums a dance of death, and a smile so icy that you almost expect it to melt leaves."  WOW!

Though neither of her Italian parents were involved in the theatre, her mother was supportive of her ambition to become an actress. She gave her tuition to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She was a member of the Actors Studio.  Her television appearances including a continuing role on The Goldbergs, the
Gertrude Berg series, led to a 20th Century-Fox screen test and the offer of a contract.  Mediocre roles, except for the cavalry colonel's wife she played in the psychological western The Last Frontier (1956) plus a short-lived marriage to businessman Martin A. May, fueled her desire to return to New York to pursue her studies. Producer Fred Coe convinced playwright William Gibson and director Arthur Penn to cast her in the leading role of Gittel Mosca in Two for the Seesaw.  She was also co-starring with veteran actor Henry Fonda and found early rehearsals unnerving.
       With the director's nurturing guidance, she developed such a memorable character that proved to the critic of the New York World-Telegram and Sun she was "a deliciously captivating comic." She won the Theatre World Award, the Drama Critics' Poll Award and her first Tony award.

One of her most memorable roles is Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker by William Gibson which concerned her struggle to teach the young Helen Keller. A physically taxing role, she spent three weeks studying blind and disabled children in New York City's Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She also visited the Vacation Camp for the Blind to practice the use of the manual alphabet. She spent time with her eyelids taped down and wore dark glasses in an effort to understand what it would be like to be blind.  The play won unanimous praise from the critics and earned her a second Tony Award and New York Drama Critics Award.   The Gibson-Penn-Coe team insisted that Anne and Patty Duke reprise their stage roles in the film.   Duke won the best supporting actress Oscar and Bancroft won a best actress Oscar beating Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. 

Future Oscar nominations followed for her work in The Pumpkin Eater, 
The Graduate, The Turning Point, and Agnes of God.  
     Her best-known role was Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate who seduces a younger character played by Dustin Hoffman.  She was ambivalent about her appearance in The Graduate and stated in several interviews that the role overshadowed all of her other work.  Her "older woman" role was only six years older than Hoffman.

A CBS television special in 1970 entitled Annie: The Women in the Life of a Man won her an Emmy Award for her singing and acting. She is one of the few entertainers to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony Award. Her second television special, Annie and The Hoods was telecast on ABC and featured her husband Mel Brooks as a guest star.  She made an uncredited cameo in the film Blazing Saddles (1974) directed by Brooks.  He also directed her in the remake of To Be or Not to Be in 1983.

She 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.

In 2010, Mel Brooks credited her as being the guiding force behind his involvement in developing The Producers and Young Frankenstein for the musical theatre.    Both Brooks and Bancroft appeared in season six of
The Simpsons.  According to the DVD commentary, when she 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!"

She died of cancer on June 6, 2005. Her death surprised many, even some of her friends. She was intensely private and had not released details of her illness. A white marble monument with a weeping angel adorns her grave.


Resource:  Notable Women in the American Theatre. 1989 ed.   William Lindesmith
Wikipedia