Peter Shelley - Anne Bancroft: The Life and Work

Also by PETER SHELLEY
AND FROM MCFARLAND

Philip Seymour Hoffman: The Life and Work (2017)

Neil Simon on Screen: Adaptations and Original Scripts for Film and Television (2015)

Gwen Verdon: A Life on Stage and Screen (2015)

Sandy Dennis: The Life and Films (2014)

Australian Horror Films, 19732010 (2012)

Jules Dassin: The Life and Films (2011)

Frances Farmer: The Life and Films of a Troubled Star (2011)

Grande Dame Guignol Cinema: A History of Hag Horror from Baby Jane to Mother (2009)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

Acknowledgments: Thanks are offered to Barry Lowe and Kath Perry for their continued support.

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e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2858-5

2017 Peter Shelley. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (authors collection)

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I first saw Anne Bancroft in the film night, Mother (1986). This had significance for me since I had seen the original stage production in New York when I was there on vacation in 1983, and it had a profound impact on me. As a young man in my twenties, the pain and depression of Bancrofts Thelma spoke to me, since I had my own feelings of depression. While the film was undoubtedly stagey, I felt it had retained the plays power. Bancrofts performance was criticized but I enjoyed it.

Bette Davis once commented that she thought that acting on film should have a heightened quality and be more than naturalistic, and it appeared that Bancroft had the same notion. But she didnt start off that way. When she first came to Hollywood in the 1950s, she delivered what can be seen as naturalistic performances. Bancroft could be intense; but it was her soft voice that clued you in to how she acted. Broadway changed that. Her runs in Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker seemed to stretch her thespian muscles and she returned to films with a stronger voice and a theatricality that never left her performances. She was now a different and a better actress. Bancroft had transitioned from being one of the West Coast movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor into what Molly Haskell defined (in her book From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies) one of the East Coast Theatah serious-artist actresses like Julie Harris, Kim Stanley and Joanne Woodward. She was overlooked for the film of Two for the Seesaw but was fortunate to be cast in the 1962 film of The Miracle Worker and she won the Best Actress Academy Award. But this led to few leading film roles.

Bancroft achieved box office power with a supporting role in The Graduate (1967), for which she was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award. But again, additional leading roles did not come. She had more starring roles in the theater than in movies. On stage, Bancroft played the protagonist in The Miracle Worker, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Devils, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Little Foxes, Golda, Duet for One, Mystery of the Rose Bouquet and The Occupant. In movies, she had only played supporting roles until The Miracle Worker and then, after it, only the lead in The Pumpkin Eater (1964), 7 Women (1966), The Slender Thread (1965) and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987).

Part of the problem was that Bancroft didnt want to work so much. Married to Mel Brooks in 1964, she came to appreciate her private life and decided that she would only work when she found something special. Then she decided to have a child and she devoted her time to raising him. Bancroft had a comeback of sorts with The Turning Point (1977), for which she was again Oscar-nominated as Best Actress although she played a supporting role. She also directed a film, Fatso (1980)then decided that she didnt want to direct again. After Bancroft received another Best Actress Academy Award nomination for a supporting role in Agnes of God (1985), her film appearances became supporting or cameos. Television, perhaps the refuge for aging stars, provided her with her last leading roles: Mrs. Cage (1992) in Neil SimonsBroadway Bound (1992) and the title role in The Mother (1994).

Whether she was enacting a leading role or a supporting one, Bancroft was always good. She had the range to play drama and comedy. Bancroft was assisted in her career by the marriage to Brooks: His company produced Fatso, The Elephant Man and 84 Charing Cross Road. He also gave her small parts in his films and a co-starring role in his To Be or Not to Be. But she was a star before she met him and she also worked independently after they married. One wonders whether Bancroft would have worked more if she had not met and married Brooks, but that was the life she chose. In her New York Times obituary, Robert Berkvist wrote that she had a sultry voice and expressive mouth, that she could appear both tough and vulnerable, and that she eagerly sought out nearly every kind of role, maturing effortlessly over the decades.

This book is the first solo and in-depth study of the life and career of the actress. Seesaw by William Holtzman, published in 1979, was a dual biography of Bancroft and Mel Brooks. Its Good to Be the King was a biography of Brooks by James Robert Parish published in 2007 and while it mentioned the actress, the focus was on her husband.

Regrettably, this book cannot be viewed as the definitive study of Bancroft, since I could not track down all of her film and television work. Accessing a wide variety of sources allowed me to consider differing views of some of the events in her life and to highlight any apparent inaccuracies. I also reviewed newspapers and magazines interviews that the actress gave, with the archives of the New York Times, the Internet Movie Databases Related News and the website Fannetastic.com being particularly helpful. YouTube.com was also invaluable in sourcing interviews with the actress.

The book examines Bancrofts career, presented in the context of her life. Her work is listed in the order that they were made as opposed to when they were first publicly seen. A B movie, for the purposes of this study, is defined as a feature with a running time of less than 90 minutes, although an apparent low-budget and lack of stars are other contributing factors. I have not made new chapters for each of her film and TV appearances and stage shows. Rather, they are mixed into the text, where I have given an analysis of the work when possible. For what I have viewed, I have positioned Bancrofts place in the project, commented on her look and performance, provided notes on the characters importance to the narrative, and any comments I have found by the actress as well as comments on her by her director and co-stars. I have also given the critical reaction that the work received and information about any awards it earned.