Anne Bancroft

 Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano) was an American actress and director.

She was born on September 17, 1931, and died on June 6, 2005.

She made 58 films between 1952 and 2008. Her first film was as Lyn Lesley in "Don't Bother to Knock." Her final film was as Empress Sedessa (voice) in "Delgo."

Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Cannes Film Festival Award.

Bancroft is one of ten actors to have won both an Academy Award and a Tony Award for the same role (as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker), and one of twenty-four entertainers to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony award. This rare achievement is also known as the Triple Crown of Acting.

In 1961, Bancroft met Mel Brooks at a rehearsal for Perry Como's variety show Kraft Music Hall. Bancroft and Brooks married on August 5, 1964, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau near New York City Hall, and were married until her death in 2005. Their son, Max Brooks, was born in 1972.

Bancroft worked with her husband three times on the screen: dancing a tango in Brooks's "Silent Movie" (1976), in his remake of "To Be or Not to Be" (1983) and in the episode titled "Opening Night" (2004) of the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm. The couple also appeared in" Dracula: Dead and Loving It" (1995. Brooks produced the film The Elephant Man (1980), in which Bancroft acted. He was executive producer for the film "84 Charing Cross Road"(1987) in which she starred. Both Brooks and Bancroft appeared in Season 6 of The Simpsons.

Bancroft died of uterine cancer at age 73 on June 6, 2005, at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Her death surprised many, including some of her friends, as the intensely private Bancroft had not disclosed any details of her illness. Her body was interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York near her father, Michael Italiano, and her mother, Mildred Italiano (who died five years after Anne in April 2010). Her final film, Delgo, was dedicated to her memory.

She was a great actress and will long be remembered as such!