Anne Bancroft dies at 73

Jun 07, 2005 by Ian Evans

Anne Bancroft, the Academy Award-winning actress and wife of comedy legend Mel Brooks, has died at the age of 73. She had been fighting uterine cancer.

The talented actress won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1962 for her role as Helen Keller’s teacher in The Miracle Worker. She sometimes lamented that the acheivement was overshadowed by her role as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Besides the Oscar, she had previously won a Tony for the stage version of The Miracle Worker. Her first Tony came opposite Henry Fonda in Two for the Seesaw. Her peers also nominated her for four other Oscars: The Pumpkin Eater, The Graduate; The Turning Point and Agnes of God.

Bancroft married Mel Brooks in 1956 after a three-year marriage to Martin May. She appeared in three of his films: Silent Movie, To Be or Not to Be and Dracula: Dead and Loving It.