Anne Bancroft

Anne Bancroft (1931-2005) was an American stage and film actress. She made her breakthrough with the general public with her role as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate (1967). She also appeared in several films directed or produced by her husband, Mel Brooks.


West-German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1166. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CA, no. Personality # 18, no. C32309. Photo: Douglas Kirkland. Caption: Anne Bancroft - Star of The Turning Point and other stage and cinematic successes. Ms. Bancroft is the wife of actor-writer-producer-comic Mel Brooks, October 1976.

To fulfil her dreams of becoming an accomplished stage performer

Anne Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano in The Bronx, New York, in 1931. She was the middle daughter of Michael Italiano, a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli, a telephone operator.

She was trained at the AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts). As Anne Marno, she began her career on television in the 1950s. In 1952, she signed a contract with 20th Century Fox.

She was advised to change her surname for her debut, the Film Noir Don't Bother to Knock (Roy Ward Baker, 1952) with Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe. She chose Bancroft because she thought it was a dignified name.

After that, she played in the mediocre Sword and Sandal epic Demetrius and the Gladiators (Delmer Daves, 1954) starring Victor Mature, the Film Noir New York Confidential (Russell Rouse, 1955) starring Broderick Crawford and several B movies. By 1957 she grew dissatisfied with the scripts she was getting and after her contract with Fox expired, she left the film business.

Bancroft returned to New York where she enrolled in acting classes at HB Studios to 'unlearn' some of her film and TV techniques to fulfil her dreams of becoming an accomplished stage performer. In 1958 she won a Tony Award for her role in the play 'Two for the Seesaw' filmed in 1962. In 1960 she won another Tony for her role in 'The Miracle Worker' in 1959. Both plays were written by William Gibson.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D. 681. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Yugoslavian postcard. Sedma Sila, Morava Film, Beograd (Belgrade). On this card, Bancroft's last name has turned into something only vaguely similar to her original name.

The ultimate 'older woman' who seduces her neighbour's boy

After these Broadway successes, Anne Bancroft returned to Hollywood, where she starred as Annie Sullivan in the film version of The Miracle Worker (Arthur Penn, 1962). She won an Oscar for it, but could not be at the presentation, as she was on Broadway at the time.

Bancroft went on to give acclaimed performances in The Pumpkin Eater (Jack Clayton, 1964) and The Slender Thread (Sydney Pollack, 1965) with Sidney Poitier. Her first husband, Martin May, was a lawyer from an oil-rich Texas family. In 1964, she married for the second time, this time to director Mel Brooks.

Her worldwide breakthrough was followed by The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967). In it, she played Mrs Robinson, the ultimate 'older woman', who seduces her neighbour's boy - the much younger Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman - into a sexual relationship. For this role, she was nominated for an Oscar. She gave birth to a son in 1972. She continued her career with such interesting films as Young Winston (Richard Attenborough, 1972), The Turning Point (Herbert Ross, 1977) with Shirley MacLaine, The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980) and To Be or Not to Be (Mel Brooks, 1983).

She made her directorial debut with the film Fatso (Anne Bancroft, 1980), starring Dom DeLuise. The film was financed by her husband's production company, Brooksfilm. She also started to make TV films, including Deep in My Heart (Anita W. Addison, 1999) for which she won an Emmy Award. Bancroft is one of the few people to have won 'The Triple Crown of Acting': an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy. She is also one of the few actresses to win both an Oscar and a Tony for the same role. She was also Tony-nominated in 1978 for 'Golda', in which she played the title character, Golda Meir.

Anne Bancroft was again nominated for an Oscar for her roles in The Turning Point (Herbert Ross, 1977) and Agnes of God (Norman Jewison, 1985) with Jane Fonda. Her later career highlights include 84 Charing Cross Road (David Hugh Jones, 1987) as the American correspondent of Anthony Hopkins, Torch Song Trilogy (Paul Bogart, 1988) as the mother of Harvey Fierstein, and as one of the villagers in Waking Ned (Kirk Jones, 1998). In 2005, Anne Bancroft died of cancer in New York, at the age of 73. She is buried at the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, NY. Her final film was the animated feature Delgo (Marc F. Adler, Jason Maurer, 2008). It was released posthumously in 2008 and dedicated to her memory.


Vintage postcard. American poster by United Artists of The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) with Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft.


French postcard by Editions 'Humour à la Carte', Paris, no. A-C 91. British poster by EMI for The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980) with John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins and and Anne Bancroft.

Source: Volker Boehm (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.