Anne Bancroft, the versatile, husky-voiced actress who won a 1962 Academy Award for portraying Helen Keller’s teacher in “The Miracle Worker” but will forever be remembered as the coldly seductive Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate,” has died. She was 73.
Bancroft died Monday night of uterine cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, John Barlow, spokesman for Bancroft’s husband, entertainer Mel Brooks, announced Tuesday.
An actress of uncommon versatility, Bancroft collected one Oscar, two Tonys, two Golden Globes, an Emmy and in 1996 a lifetime-achievement comedy award in a career spanning more than half a century.
Bancroft earned a Tony and an Academy Award for best actress in “The Miracle Worker” as Annie Sullivan, the willful and determined half-blind teacher of Patty Duke’s blind and deaf Keller.
The Broadway and motion-picture versions of William Gibson’s play established Bancroft as a multifaceted actress with deep talent.
Arthur Penn, director of the stage and screen versions of “The Miracle Worker,” called Bancroft “a magnificent actress, a woman of rich, rich emotion and great humor.”
Mike Nichols, who directed “The Graduate,” called Bancroft a masterful performer and said in a statement Tuesday, “Her combination of brains, humor, frankness and sense were unlike any other artist. Her beauty was constantly shifting with her roles, and because she was a consummate actress, she changed radically for every part.”
Bancroft was nominated for Academy Awards for four more films: “The Pumpkin Eater” in 1964; “The Turning Point” in 1977; “Agnes of God” in 1985; and her most popular, “The Graduate,” in 1967. She collected Golden Globes for “The Pumpkin Eater” and “The Graduate.” There were also many nominations for other awards.
Recognized forever after as Mrs. Robinson – the fantasy older woman willing to teach nervous young men about sex – Bancroft resented the film’s domination over other career accomplishments that she considered more important.
“I’m still trying to get away from it,” she said in a 1997 interview.
She was born in the Bronx borough of New York as Anna Maria Louisa Italiano on Sept. 17, 1931. After studying at New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1948, then credited as Anne Marno, she began acting in live television in 1950 on such programs as the drama anthology “Studio One.”
Signed to a contract by 20th Century-Fox, she moved to Hollywood in 1952 and chose her stage name – Bancroft, because it sounded dignified – from a list handed to her by studio head Darryl F. Zanuck.
She is survived by Brooks, her husband of 41 years; their son, Max; her mother, Mildred Italiano; two sisters, Phyllis and Joanne; and a grandson, Henry.
Funeral services will be private.
