Anne Bancroft(1931-2005)

Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in The Bronx, NY, the middle daughter of Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1907-2010), a telephone operator. She made her cinema debut in Troublez-moi ce soir (1952) in 1952, and over the next five years appeared in a lot of undistinguished movies such as Panique sur la ville (1954), Les gladiateurs (1954), New York confidentiel (1955), Poursuites dans la nuit (1956) and La fille aux bas noirs (1957). By 1957 she grew dissatisfied with the scripts she was getting, left the film business and spent the next five years doing plays on Broadway. She returned to screens in 1962 with her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in Miracle en Alabama (1962), for which she won an Oscar. Bancroft went on to give acclaimed performances in Le mangeur de citrouilles (1964), 30 minutes de sursis (1965), Les griffes du lion (1972), Le prisonnier de la deuxième avenue (1975), Elephant Man (1980), To Be or Not to Be (1983), Poste restante (1987) and other movies, but her most famous role would be as Mrs. Robinson in Le lauréat (1967). Her status as the "older woman" in the film is iconic, although in real life she was only eight years older than Katharine Ross and just six years older than Dustin Hoffman. Bancroft would later express her frustration over the fact that the film overshadowed her other work. Selective for much of her intermittent career, she appeared onscreen more frequently in the '90s and early '00s, playing a range of characters in such films as Miss Cobaye (1992), Nom de code: Nina (1993), Week-end en famille (1995), À armes égales (1997), De grandes espérances (1998), Au nom d'Anna (2000) and Il suffit d'une nuit (2000). She also started to make some TV films, including Deep in My Heart (1999) for which she won an Emmy. Sadly, on June 6, 2005, Bancroft passed away at the age of 73 from uterine cancer. Her death surprised many, as she had not disclosed her illness to the public. Among her survivors was her husband of 41 years, Mel Brooks, and their son Max Brooks, who was born in 1972. Her final film, the animated feature Delgo (2008), was released posthumously in 2008 and dedicated to her memory.