Anne Bancroft passes away at 73

Posted Tuesday, June 7, 2005 at 9:08 PM Central

by John Couture

Seminal American actress Anne Bancroft died on Monday from uterine cancer. She was 73.

Bancroft began acting in 1952 and enjoyed a successful career in film and on broadway. She was nominated for three Academy Awards and won the Best Actress statuette for her role as Helen Keller's teacher Annie Sullivan in 1962's The Miracle Worker, a role that she created on Broadway.

While her career was long and lustrous, she will be remembered by most as the original desperate housewife Mrs. Robinson who seduced a young Dustin Hoffman in 1967's The Graduate. While being interviewed in 2003, Anne lamented that of all her roles, this is the one that people talk about.

"I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about The Miracle Worker. We're talking about Mrs. Robinson."

Anne Bancroft was married to Mel Brooks and they had one son, Max.