In Memoriam: Anne Bancroft

In Mike Nichols' 1967 film The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman as Ben Braddock uttered the famous line 'Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?' to Anne Bancroft, who famously played Mrs. Robinson. Even without her intentionally provocative answer, it should have been patently obvious to everyone in the audience that Anne Bancroft had spent her entire career trying to seduce us - and succeeded at every attempt.

From her 1952 debut in the film Don't Bother to Knock (opposite such big guns as Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark, Jim Backus, and Lurene Tuttle) through The Miracle Worker, The Pumpkin Eater, The Turning Point, Agnes of God, and Torch Song Trilogy (with many stops along the way and since besides) it's clear that Anne Bancroft not only managed to seduce us onscreen but off it as well.

Born on this day in 1931, Anne Bancroft's death in June 2005 was met with all the usual lamentations that generally accompany a star's death, only with actual sincerity; it's at this time the Pop Culture Institute would like to once again extend its condolences to her widower, Mel Brooks.
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