Anna Maria Louisa Italiano first drew a breath in the fall of 1931 in the Bronx to a telephone operator mother and a dressmaker father. It appears to have been a happy Italian family with lots of lively drama. She paid good attention to the behavior (her own included). After she appeared in a school play, all she could talk about was becoming an actress and her confidence was high.
She studied at the Actors Studio and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) and one of her teachers at the latter arranged for her to get a TV audition. She worked in the medium for awhile under the name Anne Marno. She also worked some on radio but it was the TV work that led to her signing a contract with 20th Century Fox. The New Yorker was not particularly thrilled about moving to California.
She found steady but unrewarding work at Fox. Despite their casting her in one ethnic part after another, they didn't like her name because it was too ethnic-sounding. She herself chose Bancroft because she thought it sounded classy which is what she also thought about Anne with that E. The movie career began with a small role as Richard Widmark's singer-girlfriend in the tidy little film noir Don't Bother to Knock (1952) although the leading lady, Marilyn Monroe, got all the attention.
Fox put her in all sorts of films that got little notice from critics or the public. Because science fiction was the rage in the 50's, especially if large animals or other creatures were featured, then Gorilla at Large (1954) made some noise. More of it came from Demetrius and the Gladiators the same year. Most attention went to Victor Mature and the two leading ladies, Susan Hayward and Debra Paget, and the fact that it is a sequel to The Robe released the year before.
It was inevitable she would show up in westerns. Playing Audie Murphy's second leading lady was forgettable but The Raid (1954) is a good one. Based on a true incident, it concerns a group of escaped Confederate prisoners who plan to rob a bank in St. Albans, Vermont, and set fire to the town. But when its leader visits early to get a lay of the land, he falls for a widow (guess who?) and has second thoughts. A most able cast, headed by Van Heflin, Richard Boone and Lee Marvin and Lassie's TV master, Tommy Rettig, help sell it.
The one about the guy falsely accused of a crime who is pursued by both the real thugs and the cops as he sets out to prove his innocence has been done often but Bancroft, Aldo Ray and Brian Keith bring it alive in Nightfall (1956). An effective noir, it is directed by Jacques Tourneur who earlier gave us Out of the Past, one of the top entries in the genre.
She had a good role as a murderess at a busy motel in The Girl in the Black Stockings (1957) with B actors Lex Barker, Mamie Van Doren and Marie Windsor. It was not among the year's Oscar nominees but it was a hoot, I tell you, a hoot.
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| The cast of The Girl with the Black Stockings |
Not satisfied with how her screen career was going, she decided to give Broadway a try in 1958 with Two for the Seesaw opposite Henry Fonda and won a Tony. Away from Hollywood for five years, she won another Tony for playing Helen Keller's gifted teacher, Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker and then repeated the role in the not perfect but very moving 1962 film. When Bancroft won an Oscar she never looked back. Someone said she was the Hollywood failure who went away and came back a star.
The Pumpkin Eater (1964) stars Bancroft as a woman with scads of children and a third marriage to a man who is cheating on her. It is a somber but illuminating study of that union. The character has a spectacular breakdown in Harrod's food hall. I also remember a great fight scene between her and husband Peter Finch. James Mason and Maggie Smith co-star. Bancroft received another well-deserved Oscar nomination.
In 1964 she married Mel Brooks whom she met on a talk show. (She had a brief three-year marriage in the early 50's.) They seemed like the odd couple to me but they were nutty about one another. She loved to laugh and he loved to contribute to that. Their marriage would last just two months shy of 41 years and produce a son, actor-writer-lecturer Max Brooks.
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| Mr. and Mrs. Brooks |
Playing a disturbed woman on the verge of committing suicide, Bancroft ventured into the dark side for The Slender Thread (1965). Sidney Poitier plays a volunteer at a crisis center who tries to help her over the phone. The two actors share no scenes together. I always found it to be a fine film with some very important things to say.
7 Women (1966) is a war film about independent women at a missionary in China during WWI who steel themselves against the advances of a warlord and his barbaric followers. The other drama concerns Bancroft as a newly-arrived doctor, cocky and not so religious, at odds with the imperious head of the group, Margaret Leighton. The others are Sue Lyon, Flora Robson, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field and Anna Lee. Woody Strode is most impressive as the warlord. After shooting had begun, Bancroft came on to replace Patricia Neal who fell ill with a series of strokes. Since I get pretty engaged with casts of women, I quite liked this one. It was not a great success probably because as directed by John Ford, his followers expected more and expressed their sour opinions.
With the words Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me, aren't you? came the other famous role for the acclaimed actress. Director Mike Nichols' groundbreaking film The Graduate (1967) would confirm her status as a movie icon. She took note of a critic who referred to the character as sullen, contemptuous and voracious. She was forever bewildered that this would be the role for which she was most identified.
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| With her prey, Dustin Hoffman, in The Graduate |
Jeanne Moreau was the director's first choice. Every actress of a certain age made it known she wanted the part but the one who garnered the most attention was Doris Day who didn't want it. Can you imagine? Well, I can and I think she not only would have been sensational but it would have re-vitalized her career as nothing ever could. But she turned it down, foolishly saying her fans wouldn't approve. While I would have given anything to see Day as Mrs. Robinson, I cannot deny that Bancroft wasted nary a moment as the smoky-voiced femme fatale.
After playing a cameo role as herself in her husband's Silent Movie (1976), she starred as an aging ballerina opposite Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point (1977). I loved the film that got 11 Oscar nominations and won none. While all acted their little hearts out, I found it preposterous that Bancroft's dancing was nothing more than silly posing and it diminished the film.
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| With Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point |
Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn were both offered the lead roles in The Turning Point and omg, how magical that pairing would have been. Prince Rainier told Kelly to get over it and Hepburn said getting over it was the biggest professional mistake she ever made.
Also in 1977 Bancroft had a triumphant run as Golda (Meir) on Broadway.
She acquired a smaller role as an actress in the highly-praised The Elephant Man (1980). Brooks was one of the producers but his name was intentionally left off the credits lest someone thought it could have been one of his outrageous comedies. However, To Be or Not to Be (1983) finds Brooks and Bancroft playing a famous Polish acting couple who, along with their troupe, try everything they can to get away from the dread of Hitler. A very funny film, oddly enough, not directed by Brooks.
Also in 1980 she directed and wrote her first and only movie... Fatso starring Brooks family friend, Dom DeLuise. It's a sad, enlightening, touching tale of a big man and his addiction with food. Those who know the problem will find the film done especially well, I should think, but there's some life lessons here for everyone. Bancroft has written a nice role for herself as the character's tough-love sister. I wonder why she never wrote or directed another film. I hope she was proud of her work here.
Garbo Talks (1984) had mixed reviews from critics and the public. I know a couple where one hated it and another loved it. I thought it was cute and had something to say about idolizing celebrities. Bancroft plays a crusty, terminally ill New York mother whose son wants to give her a last treat... meeting her favorite movie star of all time, the reclusive Greta Garbo. Sidney Lumet directed and costars Ron Silver, Carrie Fisher, Harvey Fierstein, Dorothy Loudon and Steven Hill fit in nicely.
In Bancroft's third pairing with Anthony Hopkins comes 84 Charing Cross Road (1987). Oddly, like Slender Thread, it's another film where she and her male costar have no scenes together. It's based on a true story and oozes with charm as a New York scriptwriter and London bookseller begin a correspondence over books that turns into a long-distance friendship.
When Estelle Getty couldn't get free of filming The Golden Girls, she was not able to repeat her Broadway role in the movie version of Torch Song Trilogy (1988). Lucky break for Bancroft. She and the author and star, Harvey Fierstein, hit it off while making Garbo Talks and here they are mother and son with much rancor in their relationship. She is crabby, opinionated and annoying and he is a drag queen with an image problem. Bancroft allowed herself to let it all hang out in this role and is most effective. It is a good film.
The lady's star began to dim around this time principally, I should expect, due to her reaching her mid-50's. For most actresses, it's not a good time for the choice roles so she began appearing in a number of films, some of them quite good and/or popular, in smaller parts. She also worked a bit more on television. It would remain this way for the rest of her career. It was a good time for her to reflect on how fulfilling life was at home.
In 1995, she was fortunate to have a large, supporting role in a very popular film, particularly with women, when she joined the all-star cast of How to Make an American Quilt (1995). Bancroft plays the great aunt of Winona Ryder's main character and the sister of Ellen Burstyn with whom she is always feuding. Quilting get-togethers allow for us to learn about the lives (mainly love lives) of the numerous characters. We'll delve into this film in more detail next month. It was nice to have Bancroft back in a starrier role.
Another large cast showed up for Home for the Holidays (1995), one of those comedy-dramas about a family gathering for a holiday with all kinds of expected and unexpected results. Bancroft was the matriarch in a cast headed by two of her screen children, Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr. I can't stay away from this type of movie. Mmmm.
These are by no means all the films she did. It was difficult cutting some out and some of you may wonder why I did but we won't make this any longer than it is. I do think her best work is included here although all of these films don't qualify in that regard. Some of them are just too big and famous to not include. In a number of her films not highlighted here, she lifted them beyond their merits.
Here are four she turned down or was at least considered for. She nixed the Suzanne Pleshette role in The Birds (1963). She wisely turned down the Raquel Welch part in Myra Breckenridge (1970). She was in consideration for the title role in Mommie Dearest (1981) but wisely Faye Dunaway got it. She almost played the mother in Terms of Endearment (1983) but the part went to MacLaine.
As an actress and a very accomplished one, she dug deep. She wanted to understand everything about her characters, sometimes far more than she would ever use. She wanted to right that character in her brain. She could be tough and she could be vulnerable. Her face was made for film because it was so very expressive. Her favorite director, Arthur Penn, who oversaw her work on the stage in Two for the Seesaw and both the stage and film versions of The Miracle Worker, said more happens in her face in 10 seconds than happens in most women's faces in 10 years. He may have gone a little over the top but I recognize and concur with his point.
In watching her work and seeing her in a few interviews, she always impressed me as someone who was in on something that I or others were not. I never detected an arrogance but rather something that just was. She was a smart cookie... and I expect a great deal of that is a New York thing. She was born there and would die there. With all her seriousness, she was a lady who loved to laugh and her large, equally expressive mouth gave rise to a woman who loved to lighten up. I once wondered what in the hell she saw in Mel Brooks (whom I like, by the way). They just didn't seem like there would be a connection, at least to me. But there certainly was. I suspect they were very good for one another.
Broadway clearly recognized her talents before Hollywood did but Hollywood came around. I consider her one of the premier actresses of her time and we're very lucky to be able to visit with her again in so many films.
Anne Bancroft died from uterine cancer at age 73 in 2005.
Next posting:
Let's go Disney
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