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Anne Bancroft: Acting
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Anne Bancroft didn't quite fall into the category of a "classic" actress. She didn't break into films until 1952. She was still a very young 73 years old when she passed away on June 6, 2005.
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Initially, Bancroft found work on television in the early 1950s. She appeared on such shows as Studio One and used the stage name Anne Marno. In 1952, she got a film contract with 20th Century Fox and the head of the studio, Darryl F. Zanuck, renamed Anne Bancroft. She made her film debut opposite Marilyn Monroe in 1952’s Don’t Bother to Knock. Over the next few years, Bancroft appeared in several other, largely forgettable films, which failed to advance her career.
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Bancroft was a behind-the-scenes force in the 2001 hit Broadway musical "The Producers." She suggested the idea to her husband, who had made the original movie, and said she sent him to an analyst when he wouldn't comply. Bancroft credited the show with reigniting her own interest in live theater. She returned to the stage in Edward Albee's "The Occupant" in 2002 but developed pneumonia and had to withdraw after six performances.
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Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano on September 17, 1931, in the Bronx borough of New York City, to Italian immigrant parents. Her mother, Mildred, was a telephone operator and her father, Michael, a pattern maker. The urge to perform was apparent in her even as a toddler. Tom Vallance of the London Independent quoted Bancroft as saying, "When I was two, I could sing "Under a Blanket of Blue.' I was so willing, so wanting, nobody had to coax me." But encouragement, especially from her mother, she did get. Even the Great Depression and her father's unemployment in the late 1930s did not stop the family from finding a way to provide the aspiring entertainer with tap dancing lessons.
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It was a sly turn as the cold, manipulating Mrs. Robinson in 1967's "The Graduate," ... that allowed Bancroft to create one of the most enduring characters in cinematic history. Bored with her marriage and quietly distraught over a world marching on without her, the chain-smoking, hard-drinking housewife added the word "desperate" to the phrase long before Teri Hatcher and friends would similarly seek to recapture their own youth through that of another. Simon & Garfunkel composed a blockbuster ode to the character, the film received seven Oscar nominations, and the groundbreaking Mrs. Robinson stereotype continues to play itself out in relationships ranging from Finch and Stifler's mom to Ashton and Demi.
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The Ann Bancroft Foundation supports girls and women to realize their highest dreams and potential. The Foundation endeavors to live this mission by recognizing individual achievement and by promoting initiatives that inspire courage, risk-taking, integrity and individuality in girls and women.
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