Cynematik on IndieWIRE

Anne Bancroft died on Monday at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. She was 73 and had homes in Manhattan and Los Angeles. The cause was uterine cancer, said John Barlow, a spokesman for Ms. Bancroft's husband, Mel Brooks. She repeatedly won praise for her work, as well as an Academy Award and two Tonys. Broadway lights were scheduled to be dimmed tonight in her honor.

Arthur Penn directed her award-winning Broadway performances in TWO FOR THE SEESAW and THE MIRACLE WORKER, both by William Gibson. According to Robert Berkvist in the NY Times, by the time THE GRADUATE came along, she was more than ready to play the alpha female and she got her wish with the character of Mrs. Robinson, the bored predator whose sexual binges with young Benjamin Braddock, the son of her husband's law partner are mechanical but necessary props for her self-indulgent ego. Directed by Mike Nichols, with a melancholic soundtrack of songs by Simon and Garfunkel, THE GRADUATE was hailed as a winning social satire.

Anna Maria Louisa Italiano was born on Sept. 17, 1931, in the Bronx to Italian immigrant parents. Her father, Michael, was a patternmaker, and her mother, Mildred, a telephone operator. By the time she was 2 years old she was learning to sing and dance. Even so, by the time she left high school she had decided to become a laboratory technician. Instead, her mother insisted that she attend the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Several years ago, my friend Shirley Dion had come up with a film idea about the dating and companionship challenges faced by the aging female population. With females outnumber males three to one, Shirley thought women were going to have to consider relationship alternatives. The women she thought would be ideal for the film -- Anne Bancroft and Eva Marie Saint. Although we never finished the script, I am much saddened by the passing of Anne Bancroft because of the roles that she'll never inhabit. I personally loved her in THE MIRACLE WORKER, G.I. JANE, THE TURNING POINT, THE GRADUATE, 'NIGHT MOTHER, 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD and AGNES OF GOD.