 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anne Bancroft,
the American husky-voiced beauty who rose from an Italian neighborhood
in New York to become a Hollywood star immortalized as the seductive Mrs.
Robinson in 1967's "The Graduate" has died.
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- She was 73.
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- Bancroft died in New York of uterine cancer, a representative
for her husband, Mel Brooks, said on Tuesday.
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- Brooks' spokeswoman said the actress died on Monday evening
at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
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- Born Anna Maria Italiano in 1931 in New York's Bronx
borough, she got her start in movies in the 1950s.
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- She won an Oscar for her 1962 film "The Miracle
Worker," where she played the teacher to Helen Keller in the movie
directed by Arthur Penn.
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- Over her long career, she garnered a further four Academy
Award nominations and won two Tony Awards for her work on the Broadway
stage, including one for the stage version of "The Miracle Worker"
in 1960.
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- In 1964, she married comedian and director Mel Brooks.
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- A Tribute To Anne Bancroft
- By Brad Lang
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- Let's get this out of the way up front: Anne Bancroft
doesn't quite fall into the category of a "classic" actress.
She's still working steadily, for one thing, and she didn't break into
films until 1952. She turned a very young 73 years old on September 17,
2004.
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- But she also appeared on screen with Marilyn Monroe,
Richard Widmark, Cornel Wilde, Susan Hayward, and Victor Mature. She was
nominated five times for Best Actress. Even in the dumbest films, she can
almost always be counted upon to turn in a sparkling performance. So happy
birthday, Ms. Bancroft, and here are some highlights.
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 Born as Anna Maria
Italiano in the Bronx in 1931, Anne first appeared on screen in Don't Bother
to Knock (1952), with Marilyn Monroe and Richard Widmark. After a few years
during which she wasn't getting the kinds of roles she wanted, she returned
to New York and the stage, finding success (and a Tony award) opposite
Henry Fonda in Two For the Seesaw (1958). The following year she appeared
in the stage version of The Miracle Worker, and eventually returned to
Hollywood in 1962, starring with Patty Duke in the film adaptation of the
play, and winning a Best Actress Oscar with her first nomination.
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 She was on a roll throughout
the sixties, including a second Best Actress Oscar nomination for The Pumpkin
Eater (1964), a role in John Ford's last film, 7 Women (1966), and finally
her famous role as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967), resulting in another
Oscar nomination and a lifetime association with the part. In retrospect,
some reviewers now look back on her role as the high point of what is now
a somewhat dated film, a relic of its times.
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- Since then Bancroft (married to the great comedy director
Mel Brooks since 1964) has been successful in both comedy and drama, bringing
humor and strength to a variety of mature roles (though often cast as the
mother). She has worked with Mel on several occasions.
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 She tried her hand at directing
in 1979, but Fatso, starring Dom DeLuise, was not a success. She received
her fourth and fifth Oscar nominations for The Turning Point (1977), with
Shirley MacLaine, and Agnes of God (1985), with Jane Fonda. She appeared
in a number of TV-movies, most notably Deep in My Heart (1999), for which
she received a Best Supporting Actress Emmy. Recently she has lent her
talents to several pleasant but otherwise forgettable films such as Great
Expectations (1998), Keeping the Faith (2000), and Heartbreakers (2001).
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- http://www.classicmovies.org/articles/aa092301a.htm
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- A Little Work Of Lost Art Along The Way
By James Neff
6-7-5
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- Among the many credits to Anne Bancroft, one should not
overlook a little picture panned by audiences and critics alike, but which
is in fact not only a marvelous film, but reveals Bancrofts' continually
overlooked genius. The movie is 'Fatso,' written and directed by Bancroft,
starring Dom DeLuise.
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- Is it a perfect movie? By no means. It's held up entirely
by the acting and writing, the rest is clearly a shambles and it shows.
But that's what makes 'Fatso' endearing and unique and even adds to the
humor. It's one of those movies where you just forgive and move on, the
way you suspend disbelief when watching 99% of the sci-fi-wham-bam crap
that hits the screen nowdays.
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- This is not bust-a-gut laugh riot by any means. This
is painful humor. Very painful. You laugh and cry at the same time, right
along with the characters doing the same. It is evident that Bancroft took
the real life agony of overweight comedian and actor, Dom DeLuise and cold
pressed it into a little drama that covers birth to death in the life of
a compulsive over eater and the people in his life. She doesn't want us
to pity him, but we do. She doesn't want us to make excuses for him, but
DeLuise just sucks it right out of you, it's a hopeless case in that department.
You find yourself feeling guilty for laughing at his self-destructive behavior,
but DeLuise is the perfect tragic clown.
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- Bancroft even plays a small part in the film and lends
a magnificent character edge to her part of Antoinette, the older sister.
This is high level, over-the-top New York inner city Roman Catholic Italian
culture, here, which is in itself amusing. Antoinette even punishes him
for us all, viciously, so there can be no hint of her producing a film
as an excuse for his compulsive over-eating and self-abuse, though many
probably feel the movie copped out in that department. Personally, I found
it far more realistic left to the worst outcome. Bancroft so interwove
herself into every element of this film that I imagine she could have performed
it as nothing more than a dramatized narrative on stage. It's about her,
not Dom. It's about being an enabler or a disabler, of dealing with someone
who is truly sick; about loving and supporting the broken people in our
lives and eventually learning to love them as they are if they can't or
won't conform to our expectations. 'Fatso' isn't a complex story, but its
issue is very complex and troubling. The humor is all there is to relieve
the viewer step by step from the pain and pity.
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- Bancroft's writing and directing is simply superb. There
are wonderful subtleties of culture and character throughout the film that
you can feel are coming right out of her own remarkable instincts and understanding
of human nature. Rent it... watch it... it's worth it.
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