Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Italian-American parents Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1908-2010), 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 as a supporting actress (like, for example, Panique sur la ville (1954) and The Girl in Black Stockings (1957)). By 1957, she had grown dissatisfied with the state of her career, left Hollywood and spent the next five years on Broadway. She returned to the screen in 1962 with her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in Miracle en Alabama (1962), for which she won an Oscar. Over the course of her intermittent screen career, Bancroft went on to give acclaimed performances in Le mangeur de citrouilles (1964), Trente minutes de sursis (1965), Les griffes du lion (1972), Le prisonnier de la seconde avenue (1975), Elephant Man (1980), Etre ou ne pas être (1983), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) and other movies, but her most famous role would be as Mrs. Robinson in Le lauréat (1967). Her status as the predatory "older woman" in the film is iconic, although in real life Bancroft was just 36 and less than six years older than co-star Dustin Hoffman - who, in the film, is said to be half her age. Bancroft would later express her frustration over the fact that the film overshadowed her other work. In the 1990s, the usually selective actress increased her output with a lot of character parts in films such as Miss Cobaye (1992), Nom de code: Nina (1993), Week-end en famille (1995), À armes égales (1997), De grandes espérances (1998) and Au nom d'Anna (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 revealed any information of her illness to the public. Among her survivors was her husband of 41 years (Mel Brooks), and her only child (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.
