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Anne Bancroft

Anne Bancroft built a career that moved confidently between stage, film and television, with performances that could be commanding, guarded, funny or sharply vulnerable. Born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano in the Bronx on September 17, 1931, she trained at institutions including the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Actors Studio before appearing in live television dramas under the name Anne Marno. Her film debut came in the Marilyn Monroe-led psychological thriller Don't Bother to Knock in 1952. After a run of screen roles throughout the decade, Bancroft found a major breakthrough on Broadway. She won a Tony Award for Two for the Seesaw, then another for playing teacher Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker. Reprising Sullivan in the 1962 film brought her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her one of the few performers to win a Tony and an Oscar for the same role. For many viewers, Bancroft remains closely associated with Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Her controlled, dryly funny performance turned the unhappily married seductress into a defining screen character and earned Bancroft another Academy Award nomination. She was only 36 when the film was released, a detail that complicates the “older woman” label that followed the role and sometimes overshadowed the rest of her work. That work was unusually varied. Bancroft earned further Best Actress nominations for The Turning Point and Agnes of God, played Harvey Fierstein's mother in Torch Song Trilogy and took supporting roles in films including Home for the Holidays, How to Make an American Quilt, G.I. Jane, Great Expectations and Heartbreakers. She also lent her voice to Antz. Bancroft expanded beyond acting with Fatso, her 1980 debut as a screenwriter and director, in which she starred alongside Dom DeLuise. Across her stage, television and film work, she won an Oscar, Emmy and Tony—the Triple Crown of Acting. Yet the awards tell only part of the story: Bancroft's range came from her ability to make strength and uncertainty occupy the same frame.