Anne Bancroft

Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano; September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress, director, screenwriter and singer. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. She is one of only 24 thespians to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting.
Associated with the method acting technique, having studied under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Bancroft made her film debut in the noir thriller "Don't Bother to Knock" (1952). Following a string of repetitive and glamorous supporting roles, her film career took a toll with executives reluctant to cast her in prestige roles. In 1958 Bancroft made her Broadway debut with the play "Two for the Seesaw", winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. The following year she portrayed Anne Sullivan in the original Broadway production of "The Miracle Worker", winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Following her continued success on stage, Bancroft's film career was revived when she was cast in the acclaimed film adaptation of "The Miracle Worker" (1962) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her film career further progressed with Oscar nominated performances in "The Pumpkin Eater" (1964), "The Graduate" (1967), "The Turning Point" (1977), and "Agnes of God" (1985).
Bancroft continued to act in the later half of her life, with prominent roles in “Jesus of Nazareth” as Mary Magdalena (1977), "The Elephant Man" (1980), "Garbo Talks" (1984), "To Be or Not to Be" (1983), "84 Charing Cross Road" (1987), "Torch Song Trilogy" (1988), "Home for the Holidays" (1995), "" (1995), "G.I. Jane" (1997), and "Great Expectations" (1998). She received multiple Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including for the television films "Broadway Bound" (1992), "Deep in My Heart" (1999), for which she won, and "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (2003). Bancroft died on June 6, 2005, at the age of 73, as a result of uterine cancer. She was married to director, actor and writer Mel Brooks, with whom she had a son named Max.
Early life.
Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa (or Luisa) Italiano in the Bronx, New York, the middle of three daughters of Mildred (née DiNapoli), a telephone operator, and Michael G. Italiano, a dress pattern maker.
Bancroft's parents were both children of Italian immigrants. In an interview, she stated that her family was originally from Muro Lucano, in the province of Potenza. She was Roman Catholic. She was raised in Little Italy, Bronx, in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx, later moving to 1580 Zerega Ave. and graduating from Christopher Columbus High School in 1948. She later attended HB Studio, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Actors Studio and the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women at the University of California, Los Angeles. After appearing in a number of live television dramas under the name Anne Marno, she was told to change her surname, as it was "too ethnic for movies"; she chose Bancroft "because it sounded dignified."
Career.
In 1957, Bancroft was directed by Jacques Tourneur in a David Goodis adaptation, "Nightfall." In 1958, she made her Broadway debut as lovelorn, Bronx-accented 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 this role, she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play.
Bancroft 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 young woman who teaches the child Helen Keller to communicate in "The Miracle Worker". She appeared in the 1962 film version of the play and won the 1962 Academy Award for Best Actress, with Patty Duke repeating her own success as Keller alongside Bancroft. Because Bancroft had returned to Broadway to star in "Mother Courage and Her Children", Joan Crawford accepted the Oscar on her behalf, and later presented the award to her in New York.
Bancroft co-starred as a medieval nun obsessed with a priest (Jason Robards) in the 1965 Broadway production of John Whiting's play "The Devils". Produced by Alexander H. Cohen and directed by Michael Cacoyannis, it ran for 63 performances.
Bancroft received a second Academy Award nomination in 1965 for her performance in the 1964 film "The Pumpkin Eater".
Bancroft was widely known during this period for her role 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 son of her husband's business partner, the much younger recent college graduate played by Dustin Hoffman. In the movie, Hoffman's character later dates and falls in love with her daughter. Bancroft was ambivalent about her appearance in "The Graduate"; she said in several interviews that the role overshadowed her other work. Despite her character becoming an archetype of the "older woman" role, Bancroft was only six years older than Hoffman.
A 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 ten actors to have won both an Academy Award and a Tony Award for the same role (as Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker"), and one of very few entertainers to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony award. This rare achievement is also known as the Triple Crown of Acting.
She followed that success with a second television special, "Annie and the Hoods" (1974), which 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. She received a fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 1977 for her performance in "The Turning Point" (1977) opposite Shirley MacLaine, and a fifth nomination for Best Actress in 1985 for her performance in "Agnes of God" (1985) opposite Jane Fonda.
Bancroft made her debut as a screenwriter and director in "Fatso" (1980), in which she starred with Dom DeLuise.
Bancroft was the original choice to play Joan Crawford in the film "Mommie Dearest" (1981), but backed out and was replaced by Faye Dunaway. She was also a front-runner for the role of Aurora Greenway in "Terms of Endearment" (1983), but declined so that she could act in the remake of "To Be or Not to Be" (1983) with Brooks. In 1988, she played Harvey Fierstein's mother in the film version of his play "Torch Song Trilogy".
In 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 lent her voice to the animated film "Antz" (1998), which also featured performances by Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone and Woody Allen.
Bancroft also starred in several television movies and miniseries, receiving six Emmy Award nominations (winning once for herself and shared for "Annie, The Women in the Life of a Man"), eight Golden Globe nominations (winning twice) and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Bancroft's final appearance was as herself in a 2004 episode of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm". Her last project was the animated feature film "Delgo", released posthumously in 2008. The film was dedicated to her.
Bancroft received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6368 Hollywood Boulevard for her work in television. At the time of her star's installation in 1960, she had recently appeared in several TV series. Bancroft was also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1992.
Personal life.
Bancroft's first husband was lawyer Martin May; they married in 1953, separated in 1955 and divorced in 1957.
In 1961, Bancroft met Mel Brooks at a rehearsal for Perry Como's variety show "Kraft Music Hall". Bancroft and Brooks married on August 5, 1964 at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau near New York City Hall, and remained married until her death. Their son, Max Brooks, was born in 1972.
Bancroft worked with her husband three times on the screen: dancing a tango in Brooks's "Silent Movie" (1976), in his remake of "To Be or Not to Be" (1983) and in the episode entitled "Opening Night" (2004) of the HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm". The couple also appeared in "" (1995), but never appeared together. Brooks produced the film "The Elephant Man" (1980), in which Bancroft acted. He was executive producer for the film "84 Charing Cross Road" (1987) in which she starred. Both Brooks and Bancroft appeared in Season 6 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 a 2010 interview, Brooks credited Bancroft as being the guiding force behind his involvement in developing "The Producers" and "Young Frankenstein" for the musical theater. In the same interview, he said of their first meeting in 1961, "From that day, until her death on June 6, 2005, we were glued together."
Bancroft's son, Max Brooks, said in a 2020 interview that she was "a secret, closet scientist." He said that, as a child, she read to him Paul de Kruif's "Microbe Hunters" (1926) as a bedtime story.
In April 2005, two months before her death, Bancroft became a grandmother when her daughter-in-law Michelle gave birth to a boy, Henry Michael Brooks.
Death.
Bancroft died of uterine cancer at age 73 on June 6, 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Her death surprised many, including some of her friends, as the intensely private Bancroft had not released details of her illness. Her body was interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, near her parents, Mildred (who died in April 2010, five years after Anne) and Michael Italiano. A white marble monument with a weeping angel adorns the grave. Her last film, "Delgo", was dedicated to her memory.
Filmography.
Film.
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Theater.
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