maleficent

Anne Bancroft dead at 73

Actress Anne Bancroft dies at age 73
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Anne Bancroft, who won the 1962 best actress Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" but achieved greater fame as Mrs. Robinson, the seducer of her daughter's boyfriend in the 1967 movie "The Graduate," has died, a spokesman for her husband, producer Mel Brooks, said Tuesday. She was 73.

She died of cancer on Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital, spokesman John Barlow said.

Bancroft was awarded the Tony for creating the role on Broadway of poor-sighted Annie Sullivan, the teacher of Keller, who was born deaf and blind. She repeated her portrayal in the film version. Despite her Academy Award and four other nominations, "The Graduate" overshadowed her other achievements.

Dustin Hoffman delivered the famous line when he realized his girlfriend's mother was coming on to him in a hotel room: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. ... Aren't you?"

Bancroft complained to a 2003 interviewer: "I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about `The Miracle Worker.' We're talking about Mrs. Robinson. I understand the world.... I'm just a little dismayed that people aren't beyond it yet."

Her beginnings in Hollywood were unimpressive. She was signed by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1952 and given the glamour treatment. She had been acting in television as Anne Marno (her real name: Anna Maria Louise Italiano), but it sounded too ethnic for movies. The studio gave her a choice of names; she picked Bancroft "because it sounded dignified."

After a series of B pictures, she escaped to Broadway in 1958 and won her first Tony opposite Henry Fonda in "Two for the Seesaw." The stage and movie versions of "The Miracle Worker" followed. Her other Academy nominations: "The Pumpkin Eater" (1964); "The Graduate" (1967); "The Turning Point" (1977); "Agnes of God" (1985).

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I don't think there's a movie of hers that I didn't enjoy...

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sadistikdreams

Man, I just heard about this.
Bummer.

Well, here's to you.

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ngdawg

What a shock to read this. If I had to name a favorite actress, hers is the only name I could come up with. If her name was in the credits, I would be sure to see it.
This saddens me truly.

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santafe5000

She will be missed. An excellent actress. I vividly remember seeing her in "The Gradute" and wishing it were me instead of Hoffman. I was also just graduating at that time.

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Charlatan

I just heard this on the radio... she was awesome. Mel Brooks was a lucky man.

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Fremen

One of my favorites.

Rest in peace, Anne. You will be missed.

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Cynthetiq

nothing seems more fitting....

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ShaniFaye

She has forever been in my heart as Annie Sullivan.....I have never been able to explain just how much I love the Miracle Worker

she had to be a special woman to be married to mel brooks all these years

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flat5

I loved "Charring Cross Road" and "Agnes of God" and realized it was largely because of her.

(Haven't seen Miracle Worker since I was a kid)

I hope Mel is doing/copeing well.

BalloonKnots

For reasons unknown, two days ago I decided to watch the Graduate on dvd. It was the weirdest thing. I was glancing over my collection and somehow decided that I wanted to watch the Graduate again (it had been a few years since my last viewing). And that same night I heard the sad news.

Great movie by the way.

Here's to you Mrs. Robinson.

Cynthetiq

In May I was invited to the MPAA theater in Hollywood to watch a restored print of The Graduate. I couldn't make it since I was already scheduled to ride roller coasters all day and wouldn't make it to the theater in time.

glad you watched it...

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MikeyChalupa

Yes, she was great in The Miracle Worker and The Graduate, and will always be remembered for those two roles, but for me, I always associate her with G.I. Jane, where she played the evil Texas Senator from Hell, and I think, turned in the most over the top performance in the film.

Sorry to see her go.

-Mikey

Fremen

In recent years when I picture AB, it's in her role as mentor/teacher to Bridget Fonda's character in Point of No Return.

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