Anne Bancroft Biography

Anne Bancroft: Biography

Anna Maria Louisa Italiano was born on September 17, 1931 in the Bronx, New York. She made her professional debut on television in an adaptation of Turgenev's Torrents of Spring. She had a supporting role in "Don't Bother To Knock" , starring Marilyn Monroe. In search of better roles, she headed back to New York and the stage, and there met with great success opposite Henry Fonda in the 1958 production of Two for the Seesaw (for which she won a Tony) and with what was to become the first of her signature roles as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker which in 1959 brought her another Tony as well as a New York Drama Critics Award. She returned to Hollywood in 1962, to reprise her role as Annie Sullivan in the film version of "The Miracle Worker", with Patty Duke. Her outstanding performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

She followed with an Oscar-nominated performance in the British-made "The Pumpkin Eater" (1964), a bleak tale of marital strife scripted by celebrated playwright Harold Pinter. She also appeared in John Ford's final feature, "7 Women" (1966). The second of her signature roles was as Mrs. Robinson, the sexually frustrated upper-middle-class wife who icily seduces Dustin Hoffman in 1967's "The Graduate" (The role brought her another Oscar nomination).

She appeared in roles both comic and dramatic throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including an unbilled cameo in her husband Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976) and a full lead opposite him in a 1983 remake of Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be She also appeared in several pictures made by Brooks' production company Brooksfilms, including David Lynch's "The Elephant Man" (1980) and the 1987 sleeper "84 Charing Cross Road" Her directing and screenwriting debut, 1979's Fatso received mixed notices. Along the way she earned yet another Best Actress nomination, for her role opposite Shirley MacLaine in the battle-of-the-bitchy-exballet-dancers melodrama "The Turning Point" (1977), and one more as the Mother Superior, opposite Jane Fonda, in "Agnes of God" (1985). In 1985, she starred in "Garbo Talks" (1985) a film about a dying Mother whose last wish is to meet Great Garbo.

In recent years, Anne has made many cameo appearances in such films as "Love Potion No. 9" (1992), "Honeymoon in Vegas" (1992),as Nicolas Cage's dying mother, "Point of No Return" (1993), "Malice" (1993), playing Nicole Kidman's "dead" mother, and "Mr. Jones" (1993).

In 1998, Anne appeared as 'funding generously provided by' in the credits of the film The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.(edit)
Anne was only six years older than Dustin Hoffman when she played his girlfriend's mother in The Graduate.(edit)
Premiere Magazine ranked Anne's performance as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate as #47 in their '100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time' list.(edit)
In 1958, Anne won the Tony Award in the category of Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in the play Two for the Seesaw.(edit)
Anne was the godmother of Alan Yentob's children.(edit)
In 1973, Anne was offered the role of Chris MacNeil in The Exorcist, but had to turn it down because she was pregnant. In 1983, Anne was a leading choice to play the mother in Terms of Endearment.(edit)
Anne's greatest impact on her career was director Arthur Penn.(edit)
In 1996, Anne was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy at the American Comedy Awards, USA.(edit)
In 1977, Anne won the NBR Award at the National Board of Review, USA in the category of Best Actress for her role in the 1977 movie The Turning Point.(edit)
In 2003, Anne appeared in a television commercial for Celebrex.(edit)
In 2004, Anne was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award at the Satellite Awards in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her role in the 2003 television movie The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.(edit)
Anne's salary on the television series Freddie and Max was �250,000.(edit)
Anne stood at 5'8" or 1.73 m.(edit)
Just before Anne died she became a grandmother to Henry Michael Brooks born April 2005. (edit)
In 1967 Anne accepted the Best Supporting Oscar on behalf of Elizabeth Taylor.(edit)
Anne and her husband Mel Brooks had a child in 1972 called Max Brooks.(edit)
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6368 Hollywood Blvd.(edit)
She and Mel Brooks married at New York City Hall, where a passerby served as their witness.(edit)

Anne: Life is here only to be lived so that we can, through life, earn the right to death, which to me is paradise. Whatever it is that will bring me the reward of paradise, I'll do the best I can.(edit)
Anne: I was at a point where I was ready to say I am what I am because of what I am and if you like me I'm grateful, and if you don't, what am I going to do about it?(edit)
Anne: The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it.(edit)
Anne: When Mel told his Jewish mother he was marrying an Italian girl, she said: 'Bring her over. I'll be in the kitchen - with my head in the oven'.(edit)