“There are always good parts. They may not pay what you want … they may not have the billing that you want, they may not have a lot of things, but [when it comes to] the content of the role itself, I find there are many [good] roles.” —Bancroft*

Best known for the sex symbol that is Mrs. Robinson (“The Graduate,” 1967), New York native Anne Bancroft (born in 1931) has seduced Dustin Hoffman, the Academy, long-time husband Mel Brooks, and viewers alike for over a half a century.

Since her debut in 1952 (“Don’t Bother to Knock”), Bancroft has played an array of supporting roles until her big break, “The Miracle Worker” (1962), where her portrayal of Anne Sullivan — the woman who teaches the blind and deaf Helen Keller to communicate — won an Oscar. She was well familiar with the role prior to the film, as in 1959, she played Sullivan on stage, winning both a Tony and a New York Drama Critics Award. In 1964, Bancroft received another Oscar nomination for the British “The Pumpkin Eater,” a thoroughly depressing marital saga.

Today, she is best known for scene-stealing cameos and supporting roles which add character to films such as “Point of No Return” (1993), an adaptation of the French “La Femme Nikita” (1990). As Amanda, Bancroft expertly balanced socially acceptable behavior with the carefully hidden authority and ruthlessness of a [presumed] long-time assassin who now instructs criminals-turned-agents in a secret government facility. Other notable recent characters include an alcoholic mother of a femme fatale played by Nicole Kidman in “Malice” (1993), a shrewd princess who takes an impoverished widow (Kristin Scott Thomas) under her wing in the star-studded period drama “Up at the Villa” (2000), and an aging but still rocking con artist who teaches Sigourney Weaver everything she knows in “Heartbreakers” (2001).