ANNE BANCROFTThe lights were dimmed on Broadway when iconic actress Anne Bancroft died on 6 June 2005 aged 73.When she accepted the part of the older woman who seduces her daughter’s boyfriend in the 1967 film The Graduate, Ms Bancroft could not have foreseen that the role would be the defining one of her career.She complained in many interviews that “Mrs Robinson” overshadowed her other performances the majority of which were critically acclaimed.She was nominated for five Oscars, winning once and is one of the few performers to have won the “Triple Crown” of an Oscar, Tony and Emmy award.Anna Maria Louisa Italiano was born the second of three sisters, in the Bronx, New York on 17 September, 1931 - her parents Michael and Mildred were both children of Italian immigrants.She was educated at Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx before attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.Following some television and radio work, she changed her name to Bancroft and made her film debut in Don’t Bother to Knock in 1952 alongside Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe.Tied into a contract with 20th Century Fox she continued to make films but became disillusioned with the quality of roles she was being given and returned to New York.She studied at The Actor’s Studio before making a triumphant return to the stage in Two for the Seesaw opposite Henry Fonda in 1958 for which she won a Tony Award.Her spellbinding portrayal of Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher, in The Miracle Worker in 1960 won Ms Bancroft another Tony Award and when she reprised the role on film in 1962 she won an Oscar for Best Actress.Super-stardo m came with The Graduate in 1967 – Ms Bancroft’s elegant seduction of a bewildered Dustin Hoffman helped to make it a screen classic and, for some, an era-defining film.Her subsequent career was unconventional – fiercely independent she chose her roles carefully and although many films were unsuccessful her performances were nearly always critically acclaimed.Ms Bancroft was also an intensely private individual and when she died in 2005 of uterine cancer it came as a surprise, even to many close friends.After a short-lived marriage to Martin May, she married comedian Mel Brooks in 1964 and they would remain together until her death – they had one son, Maximillian, born in 1972.She was given an American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 and has also been awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Admired for her integrity and consummate professionalism Ms Bancroft’s position in screen history is assured. Director Mike Nichols said of her: “Her combination of brains, humour, frankness and sense were unlike any other artist.”
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