RIP Anne Bancroft 1931 – 2005

The legendary actress has passed away, stars of movies such as “The Miracle Worker” and “The Graduate” passed away yesterday at the age of 73.

From the New York Times

Anne Bancroft, the stage and film star whose signature triumphs in a 50-year career ranged from the courageous Annie Sullivan in “The Miracle Worker” to the hungrily seductive Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate,” 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.

Graced with a sultry voice and expressive mouth, Ms. Bancroft could appear both tough and vulnerable, and she eagerly sought out nearly every kind of role, maturing effortlessly over the decades. She lent a singular potency to parts as varied as Brecht’s “Mother Courage” and the mother superior of a convent, and from an aging ballerina to Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel. She repeatedly won praise for her work, as well as an Academy Award and two Tonys.

I was fortunate to meet her as a young man as she and her husband Mel Brooks would take the ferry out to their home on Fire Island. I was a young man working on the ferries at the time, and she was always as gracious as her husband was witty.