Anne Bancroft

Anne Bancroft 1931-2005, American actress, b. New York City as Anna Maria Italiano. Her New York stage debut in Two for the Seesaw (1958) was a major triumph. She was acclaimed for her performance in The Miracle Worker (1959) and won an Academy Award for the 1962 film version. Her role as the predatorily seductive Mrs. Robinson in Mike Nichols ' The Graduate (1967) is a cinema classic. An extremely versatile and active performer, Bancroft starred in dozens of films, including The Pumpkin Eater (1964), Seven Women (1966), The Turning Point (1977), Agnes of God (1985), Torch Song Trilogy (1988), Great Expectations (1998), and Up at the Villa (2000). With husband Mel Brooks , she appeared in Silent Movie (1975) and To Be or Not To Be (1983). In 1980, she directed her first movie, Fatso, in which she also acted. After a 21-year absence from the stage, Bancroft starred as sculptor Louise Nevelson in Albee 's off-Broadway play Occupant (2002).

Two for the Seesaw (1958), a play by William Gibson. [Booth Theatre, 750 perf.] Having had a falling out with his wife in Omaha, lawyer Jerry Ryan ( Henry Fonda) finds himself lonely and adrift in New York. He calls a young girl for a date and she turns out to be a warmhearted but aggressively bohemian Jewish girl, Gittel Mosca ( Anne Bancroft). A romance ensues, but in the end different backgrounds and different interests send them on their separate ways. The romantic piece was one of the best of the many two‐character plays that inundated Broadway in this period. It later became the source for the musical SEESAW (1973) that director‐choreographer Michael Bennett adapted (using an early libretto by Michael Stewart) into a glitzy dance show. Ken Howard and Michele Lee were the unlikely couple with Tommy Tune stealing the show with a big production number that he also staged. The contemporary‐sounding music was by Cy Coleman, and Dorothy Fields, in her last Broadway outing, did the surprisingly modern lyrics. The troubled musical went through a trying preview period, then met with mixed notices, struggling on for an unprofitable 296 performances at the Uris Theatre. Notable songs: Nobody Does It Like Me; It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish; Welcome to Holiday Inn.