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The Fabelmans.“Where’s the horizon?“ barks John Ford to Sam (Gabrielle Labelle), stand-in for a young Steven Spielberg in The Fabelmans, the director’s unsurprising but fascinatingly revealing semi-autobiographical story of his childhood discovering Super 8 movie-making as his parents’ marriage slowly falls apart. “When the horizon is at the top, it’s interesting,” continues Ford, talking about image composition, “when it’s on the bottom, it’s interesting. When it’s in the middle, it’s fucking boring!” This lesson is imparted to Sam at the finale of The Fabelmans, suggesting that the movie is intended to be understood as much as a guide for young filmmakers as it is the origin of one. The scenes of Sam variously agape over, furtively working on, and gradually understanding the power and meaning of the movies is as touching, if not more so, than the telling of his parents’ (Paul Dano...

What a great title to revisit — John Ford’s ‘Kabuki’ western is less about action and more about form and tradition — especially the way the truth gets plowed under in ‘the West,’ which is of course America reduced to a mythological keepsake. John Wayne, James Stewart and Lee Marvin’s characters seem to know they are playing roles that never change. We might question the values but there’s no denying that said values prevailed as the country’s consensus self-image. Paramount’s new 4K makes a great-looking movie look even better, Pilgrim — and we don’t tolerate no disloyal debates ’bout film grain North of the Picket Wire.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Paramount Presents

1962 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date May 17, 2022 / Available from Amazon

Starring: John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devine, Ken Murray, John Carradine, Jeanette Nolan,...

The whip-smart women of Potus: Or How Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive support, er enable, the unseen president of the United States on the big stage of Broadway’s Shubert Theatre. Potus, written by Selina Fellinger (The Morning Show) and directed by Susan Stroman, is a hilariously wicked sendup […]

The post Theater Review: Star-Studded ‘Potus’ Is A Raucous, Feminist Good Time appeared first on uInterview.

Like some strange brew blend of Veep, Noises Off and one of the late Charles Ludlam’s outrageously vulgar (and still sorely missed) Ridiculous Theatrical Company follies, Selina Fillinger’s all-female, star-packed political satire Potus: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is an occasionally glorious mess of a farce, sometimes chaotically funny and other times as what-were-they-thinking?? goofy as the last segment of a Saturday Night Live episode.

If Potus, directed by Susan Stroman and opening today at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre, never quite rises to the level of those three influences – not as darkly clever as Veep, as lightning quick as Noises Off nor as go-for-deliriously-broke as Ludlam – Potus barrels through its weaker stretches on the contagious enthusiasm and in-it-together vivacity of a crowd-pleasing cast.

With a mostly female creative team – Beowulf Boritt contributed the excellent rotating set of White House offices...

No two ways about it: April’s a great month for the Criterion Channel, which (among other things; more in a second) adds two recent favorites. We’re thrilled at the SVOD premiere of Hamaguchi’s entrancing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, our #3 of 2021, and Bruno Dumont’s lacerating France, featuring Léa Seydoux’s finest performance yet.

Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing runs the gamut from Eagle Pennell’s Last Night at the Alamo to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, while a 14-film John Ford retro (mostly) skips westerns altogether. And no notes on the Delphine Seyrig retro—multiple by Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, a smattering of Buñuel, and Seyrig’s own film Be Pretty and Shut Up! That of all things might be the crown jewl.

See the full list of April titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

—

3 Bad Men, John Ford, 1926

Aar paar, Guru Dutt,...

“While the events of this story are fictional…These. People. Existed.” Thus begins Jeymes Samuel’s western “The Harder They Fall,” currently streaming on Netflix. The period picture is populated with 19th century Black icons including Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), a former enslaved cowboy, Mary Fields (Zazie Beetz), the first Black star-route mail carrier in the U.S., and Rufus Black (Idris Elba), the head of the ruthless multi-racial gang of bank robbers.

“The Harder They Fall” is the first major Western led by a Black cast since Mario Van Peebles 1993 “Posse.” The director, though, told the L.A. Times that “The Harder They Fall” shouldn’t be described as simply a “Black” Western. “It’s just a story about these people in their own world, just like ‘Rio Bravo” is a story about John Wayne and Dean Martin in their own world,” Samuel said. “These aren’t white Westerns or white movies,...

Actress Sue Lyon, best known for her role in Stanley Kubrick‘s adaptation of Lolita, has died, The New York Times reported. She was 73.

Lyon died on Thursday in Los Angeles, according to the newspaper. A longtime friend of the actress told the Times that she had been experiencing declining health for a while.

Lyon’s film and television career spanned 1959 to 1980, with her breakout role being the titular character in 1962’s Lolita. Based on the controversial novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the story follows a middle-aged professor who becomes sexually obsessed with Dolores Haze, a 12-year-old girl, whom he nicknames “Lolita.

Sue Lyon, who was cast in Stanley Kubrick’s “Lolita” at the age of 14, died Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 73.

Lyon’s longtime friend Phil Syracopoulos told the New York Times she had been experiencing poor health for some time.

Lyon’s acting career lasted from 1959 to 1980, with her most significant role as the title character in the 1962 Kubrick film based on Vladimir Nabokov’s novel about a middle-aged man who becomes sexually obsessed with a young girl. Lyon earned the part over 800 girls that auditioned; Nabokov described her as “the perfect nymphet.”

While Nabokov’s 1955 novel was seen as scandalous, the film was less so due in part to the restrictive Motion Picture Production Code.

Lyon was born in Davenport, Iowa. Her mother moved the family to Dallas before relocating them to Los Angeles, where Lyon was able to pursue acting. She landed the role of Laurie in...

Sue Lyon, the actress who at age 14 starred as the title character in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of “Lolita,” died Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 73.

Lyon had been in failing health for some time, her friend Phil Syracopoulos told The New York Times.

Born Suellyn Lyon in 1946 in Iowa, Lyon’s family moved to Los Angeles when she was a small child. As a teenager, she began acting in small television roles, including an appearance on “The Loretta Young Show” that brought her to Kubrick’s attention. She was subsequently cast in “Lolita” at 14 in part because the filmmakers aged the character up from 12, as in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel. Upon release, Lyon was catapulted to stardom, and she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer — Female for her performance, which had her acting alongside James Mason, Shelley Winters, and Peter Sellers, some of the era’s biggest stars.

Remember those DVD collections organized by star, that combined favorite actors’ big movies with good titles you might not have seen? Shout Select has gone that route in honor of the great Anne Bancroft, collecting eight titles in one box. They span the years 1952 to 1989 … and are sourced from multiple studios and disc boutiques. Eight, count ’em 8 — no dog-eared transfers, and one is even a fully-appointed Criterion disc. We’re told that Mel Brooks applied some of the clout that made this happen.

The Anne Bancroft Collection

Blu-ray

Shout Select

1952 – 1987 / B&w + Color / Street Date December 10, 2019 / 79.97

Starring: Anne Bancroft, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark; Patty Duke; Peter Finch; Dustin Hoffman, Katherine Ross; Dom De Luise; Mel Brooks; Jane Fonda, Meg Tilly; Anthony Hopkins.

Directed by Roy Baker; Arthur Penn; Jack Clayton; Mike Nichols; Anne Bancroft; Alan Johnson; Norman Jewison; David Hugh Jones.

This Shout Select compilation disc was reportedly curated by Anne Bancroft’s husband,...

Things are about to go down!  These ladies may look like glam goddesses but don't get it twisted because they are not to be trifled with. Seven women means seven strong personalities ready to defend their honor and their men when s--t hits the fan.  Of course these ladies kept it classy but that doesn't mean they didn't have their fair share of arguments to work through. "You're gonna know what everyone's opinion is and where everyone stands," La'Myia Good shares. "We classy but verbal war is a lot more interesting." As for who may be the ones to look out for, there may be a few feuds to wrap your head around. "You are definitely going to see [drama] with...

by Nathaniel R

Are you biting your nails yet? No prediction for this year's Best Actress shortlist can come without some degree of "I could be getting this very wrong!" nerves. We've been Oscar watching for a long time and it's genuinely never looked this open this late in the game (with the possible exception of 2003 but for nearly the opposite reason). If Best Actress is not a five-way lock up by now (and it often is) it's usually at least settled but for a minor battle between two women for the "just happy to be nominated" fifth spot. This year is different. Seven women remain strong and precursor supported and virtually any combination of five names seems possible as long as you include both Emma Stone (with the reliable boost of leading a Best Picture frontrunner) and Natalie Portman (with the reliable boost of Oscar's deep-deep love for mimicry...

The Code. . Shelley Birse has taken out the top prize at this year.s Awgie Awards, winning the Major Award for the second season of ABC cyber-thriller The Code..

The first season of The Code also took out the Australian Writers. Guild Major Award in 2014. This year.s award makes it the only series to have been recognised by two Major Awards for both of its seasons. The Code also received the Awgie Award for the Television: Miniseries — Original category.

Overall, more than 25 Australian writers —.from radio, television, film, theatre and interactive media — were honoured at this year.s Awgie Awards, held in Sydney on Friday evening.

Andrew Knight and Osamah Sami.s Ali.s Wedding took out the award for most outstanding script for an original feature, while Shaun Grant and Craig Silvey received the award for most outstanding feature adaptation for Jasper Jones.

Samantha Strauss was honoured for her original telemovie,...

One person was killed and eight were hospitalized after a car crashed into a Los Angeles home Wednesday evening during a Bible study group before the driver allegedly fled on foot, People confirms. "All the way around, it's pretty bad," Capt. Leland Sands, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department tells People of the scene. "We are trying to locate the individual who did this, and we're really fortunate we didn't have more fatalities." Sands says police are not sure how fast the car was traveling when it lost control in the city's Harbor Gateway neighborhood, hopping a curb...

One person was killed and eight were hospitalized after a car crashed into a Los Angeles home Wednesday evening during a Bible study group before the driver allegedly fled on foot, People confirms. "All the way around, it's pretty bad," Capt. Leland Sands, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department tells People of the scene. "We are trying to locate the individual who did this, and were really fortunate we didn't have more fatalities." Sands says police are not sure how fast the car was traveling when it lost control in the city's Harbor Gateway neighborhood, hopping a curb...

From an overseas opportunity with Disneyland to a horror film shooting out of upstate New York, this week’s casting notices offer a variety of opportunities for Backstage actors. See which you want to audition for next! Hong Kong DISNEYLANDVocalists are being cast to play in the musical versions of “Mickey and the Wondrous Book,” “The Welcome Wagon Show,” and “Festival of the Lion King.” Seven women and two men will be playing various roles including Rapunzel, Simba, Nala, and Storyteller. These are six-month, Hong Kong–based contracts, which begin in the fall. Roundtrip airfare, housing with paid utilities, shuttle service to and from work, medical and dental coverage, a daily living allowance, and paid vacation and sick days will all be included in the hiring package. Creatives will be holding auditions in North Hollywood before May 10. “Terezin”Four lead and two supporting actors are needed for this play about...

Mvd Entertainment Group looks to please Emilio P. Miraglia fans with Arrow Video’s May Us Blu-ray releases, including the Killer Dames box set collecting The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times. Horror fans can also look forward to Arrow’s high-definition release of 1966’s Blood Bath that features all four versions of the Roger Corman-produced film.

Press Release: Mvd Entertainment Group furthers the distribution of Arrow Video in the Us with several new titles in May…

Hired To Kill (Director Approved Special Edition Blu-ray + DVD)

No man on earth could get him out of prison alive. Seven women will try.

Release Date: May 17th

List Price: $29.95

Starring legendary actors Oliver Reed (Gladiator, The Brood) and George Kennedy (The Delta Force and the Naked Gun series), Hired to Kill is a hugely entertaining action flick featuring guns, girls and a plethora...

The following text is an excerpt from an essay commissioned by the specialist publishing house Hatori Press (Japan) for a tribute to the great critic, scholar and teacher Shigehiko Hasumi on the occasion of his 80th birthday (29 April 2016). Other contributors to this book (slated to appear in both Japanese and English editions) include Pedro Costa, Chris Fujiwara and Richard I. Suchenski. Beyond Prof. Hasumi’s many achievements in criticism and education (he was President of the University of Tokyo between 1997 and 2001), his ‘method,’ his unique way of seeing and speaking about films, has served as an immense inspiration for a generation of directors in Japan including Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Shinji Aoyama. The online magazines Rouge (www.rouge.com.au) and Lola (www.lolajournal.com), co-edited by Martin, provide the best access to Hasumi’s work in English (see references in the notes below).Leos Carax and Shigehiko Hasumi. Photo by Michiko Yoshitake.

1. Selena the Movie Was in the Works Soon After Selena's Death: She died in March 1995, and on March 21, 1997, the movie was released. The film was announced in August, the same year as her death and was originally supposed to premiere in the fall of 1996. 2. The Casting Calls Were Insane: About 22,000 girls auditioned to play the role of Selena. In the end, Jennifer Lopez was casted along with Becky Lee Meza, who played young Selena. 3. It Came Down to Seven Women: J.Lo was one of seven (three from the open call, four professional actresses), who were selected to screen test. 4. There Was a Doppelgänger: Leticia Miller, a woman with an uncanny resemblance to Selena, was also in...

Seven women brutalized by former policeman Daniel Holtzclaw have filed a civil lawsuit against the disgraced cop. The women claim a top brass within the Oklahoma City Police Department shrugged off a sexual assault complaint filed against the officer in 2013, thereby allowing the patrolling predator to remain on the streets where he continued raping women while on the job. The March 4 federal lawsuit alleges Holtzclaw - who was convicted in December of 18 criminal counts, resulting in a 263-year prison term - attacked an African American woman during the fall of 2013. That victim claims she filed a complaint with police some...

Seven women brutalized by former policeman Daniel Holtzclaw have filed a civil lawsuit against the disgraced cop. The women claim a top brass within the Oklahoma City Police Department shrugged off a sexual assault complaint filed against the officer in 2013, thereby allowing the patrolling predator to remain on the streets where he continued raping women while on the job. The March 4 federal lawsuit alleges Holtzclaw - who was convicted in December of 18 criminal counts, resulting in a 263-year prison term - attacked an African American woman during the fall of 2013. That victim claims she filed a complaint with police some...

ABC has announced a premiere date for their retro series, The Astronaut Wives Club, for June 18th. It will lead in to the two-hour season three debut of Mistresses.

Based on the book by Lily Koppel, the show was picked up to series last summer but was later delayed due to creative changes.

Here's the press release:

“The Astronaut Wives Club” To Premiere On ABC Thursday, June 18

A Compelling New Drama Follows the Lives of Seven Women Who Were Key Players Behind Some of the Biggest Events in American History

(more…)...

Hi everyone! This is a feature we’ve been running in every issue of Deadly Horror & Sci-Fi Magazine and I thought this would also be a great resource for our readers here at Daily Dead as it can be often very difficult to keep up with everything arriving on VOD platforms each and every month.

Be sure to check back on the first week of each month to get all the details on what genre films you can look forward to on VOD!

The Voices (Lionsgate)- 2/6

Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is an affable singleton who works on the factory floor at a bathtub factory, ever eager to get along with his co-workers, especially Fiona, (Gemma Arterton) and Lisa (Anna Kendrick) from accounts. After work Jerry goes home to his pet cat, Mr. Whiskers, and loyal dog Bosco, where the three of them hang out, watch TV and discuss the day’s events.

News.

Canadian documentarian Peter Wintonick has passed away at the age of 60. Aaron Cutler has some words and links on the artist.

The Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma, also known as the Rome Film Festival, has announced its awards from a Jury chaired by James Gray. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Seventh Code was among the winners, picking up Best Director and Best Technical Contribution.

The Seventh Art's latest video mag is now online, featuring interviews with João Pedro Rodrigues and Corneliu Porumboiu, among others. What's next for Joe Dante? A horror-comedy starring Anton Yelchin titled Burying the Ex (it's the sort of cheesy title we'd only let him get away with!).

Finds.

Above: from our friend Adrian Curry's Tumblr, a French poster for The Big Sleep that auctioned off for $21,510. Check out this fun, totally bizarre interactive video for Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". For Film Comment, Max Nelson...

Jesse Draper, host and producer of The Valley Girl Show, is sitting down with some of the most influential women in her new series Rockin' Women. Rockin' Women showcases women who are leaders in business, startups, technology, non-profits and government. Now in its fourth season, The Valley Girl Show features interviews some of the biggest names in business and tech, from CNN's Ted Turner to Google's Eric Schmidt. "As the first female entrepreneur in my family, I wanted to interview women who are making a difference in this world and are lighting the path for the next generation of women," Draper said. "Our show has a strong female following compiled of both working and non-working women and my hope is that viewers will be inspired by these women to follow their own dreams and passions." During each episode, the female guests talk about their first jobs and how they ultimately broke into their respective industries,...

Chicago – Movies don’t get much more personally influential than Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Blue,” “White,” and “Red,” collectively known as the “Three Colors” trilogy, and recently released in one gorgeous box set from The Criterion Collection. As we all do, I was a bit concerned that perhaps my memory of these films had been enhanced with time, but I found the opposite — they’re even better with age and stand as one of the best film achievements of not just their era but of all time. I can’t say enough about Kieslowski’s talent as a director and, while some may point to the “Decalogue” films or “The Double Life of Veronique,” I’ve always considered “Three Colors” to be the greatest accomplishment of one of history’s greatest directors. And Criterion has done one of their most notable acquisitions justice with one of their best releases of the year.

Release Date: Nov. 15, 2011

Price: DVD $59.95, Blu-ray $79.95

Studio: Criterion

Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Blue, White and Red receive the Criterion treatment this November.

Legendary Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors trilogy, a boldly cinematic trio of stories about love and loss, was a defining event of the art house boom of the 1990s. The films — Blue (1993), White (1993) and Red (1994) — were named for the colors of the French flag and stand for the tenets of the French Revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity. But that only hints at the film’s beauty, richness and humanity.

Set in Paris, Warsaw and Geneva, Blue, White, and Red (Kieślowski’s final film) range from tragedy to drama to comedy. They follow a group of ambiguously interconnected people experiencing profound personal disruptions.

Marked by intoxicatingly lush cinematography and memorable performances by such actors as Juliette Binoche (Chocolat), Julie Delpy (Guilty Hearts), Irène Jacob (Beyond the Clouds) and...

Oscar-winning film star who displayed great courage in her return to the screen

Perhaps the most famous line spoken on screen by the actor Patricia Neal, who has died of lung cancer aged 84, was "Klaatu barada nikto!" in Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). These incomprehensible words, uttered to a robot which carries her into a spaceship, save the world from destruction. Neal won her Oscar for a more down-to-earth performance, as the cynical, world-weary housekeeper Alma Brown in Martin Ritt's contemporary western, Hud (1963). "It was a tough part to cast," Ritt remarked. "This woman had to be believable as a housekeeper and still be sexy. It called for a special combination of warmth and toughness, while still being very feminine. Pat Neal was it."

Perhaps the most telling indication of Neal's gifts was the fact that, although the role was quite a brief one, the...

Patricia Neal, the Oscar-winning actress whose life was as dramatic and inspirational as anything she did on stage and screen, died Sunday of lung cancer at her home in Edgartown, Mass. She was 84.

Most identifiable playing characters of strong will and resilience, Neal won her Academy Award for her portrayal of a demoralized housewife in "Hud" (1963), opposite Paul Newman, then earned another nomination for "The Subject Was Roses" (1968), playing the pitiful mother of a returning war victim (Martin Sheen).

In February 1965, after the first day of filming "Seven Women," Neal -- then 39 and three months pregnant -- suffered three strokes caused by a brain hemorrhage as she was bathing to her 8-year-old daughter, Tessa. She was in a coma for three weeks.

She emerged unable to speak, her memory erased and her right side paralyzed. Neal was confined to a wheelchair at first, but her husband, British writer Roald Dahl,...

Director John Ford, perhaps one of the greatest directors ever in films was also one of the most complex. He started in career in films during the silent era as an actor and a stuntman, even playing one of the horse riding Klansman in the climax of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of A Nation and directed some 125 movies in his career until his last film Seven Women in 1965. And among those films are many films still today established as genuine classics such as How Green Was My Valley, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and The Grapes of Wrath (The Searchers, considered by many as his masterpiece, is to me a boring, rambling, vastly overrated movie.)

But as with many directors of the period, his films definitely have their share of outrageous stereotypes, but during the last decade of his filmmaking career Ford began to make films to sort of atone for his past sins.

Yesterday, Kathryn Bigelow earned her first DGA nomination for directing The Hurt Locker. She's not the one who made history yesterday. Seven women -- Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties), Randa Haines (Children of a Lesser God), Barbra Streisand (The Prince of Tides), Jane Campion (The Piano), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) and Valerie Faris (who was nominated with Jonathan Dayton for Little Miss Sunshine -- came before her but keep in mind None have won. Lee Daniels was the surprise nominee for Precious making him the first black person to be nominated for a DGA honor. (Only John Singleton has been nominated for an Oscar.) Now we all know that everyone has written ad nauseum about how Kathryn Bigelow has made a career of directing so-called "non-female" films. Films with action, and stuff blowing up. There are...

Getty Images

Tiger Woods, maybe you should take down your statements about you and Elin being “kind of boring” and how “it’s difficult to leave Elin” when you’re on the road — from your website!

Tiger Woods, maybe you should take down your statements about you and Elin being “kind of boring” and how ” it’s difficult to leave Elin ” when you’re on the road — from your website! You’ve been allegedly linked to a whopping Seven women, crashed your Cadillac Escalade, and have been supposedly renegotiating your prenuptial agreement with your wife Elin Nordegren. But none of that seems to be on your mind right now! Your Web site is still full of quotes about how you love your wife!

Rupert from Houston asked Tiger on Oct. 4 “Do you enjoy playing so far away from home? I can imagine that, now that you have children, it’s...

Actress Anne Bancroft, who won an Oscar for The Miracle Worker and a place in pop culture history as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, died Monday of cancer; she was 73. The wife of comedian Mel Brooks, Bancroft died in New York at Mt. Sinai Hospital. One of the most popular actresses of the '60s, Bancroft's career started off dubiously in the '50s with a number of B movies for 20th Century Fox such as Gorilla at Large and Demetrius and the Gladiators. The studio also renamed the young actress, who was born Anna Maria Louise Italiano and originally went by Anne Marno; given a list of names, she chose the dignified Bancroft. However, fulfilling roles for the versatile TV and movie actress didn't follow, and Bancroft left both big and small screens for Broadway in the late 50s, winning two Tonys, for Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker. When Hollywood came calling to adapt both films, Bancroft lost the role in the former to Shirley MacLaine. However, when studio heads wanted a more glamorous actress for the role of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, director Arthur Penn put his foot down and refused to budge. Then faced with a minimal budget, Penn created a gripping black-and-white film which won Oscars in 1962 for both Bancroft and co-star Patty Duke (as Helen Keller). That role was followed by another Oscar-nominated performance in The Pumpkin Eater and the acclaimed The Slender Thread and 7 Women. In 1967, however, Bancroft did a total 180 from her saintly persona as Annie Sullivan and donned leopard-skin lingerie for her role as the wily Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, which nabbed her another Oscar nomination and permanent enshrinement in film history. By then, she had seduced not just Dustin Hoffman but the filmgoing public as well, and for the rest of her career she was pretty much able to call her own shots. She worked almost non-stop through the '70s and '80s in both comedic and dramatic films, including The Turning Point (another Oscar nomination), The Elephant Man, To Be or Not To Be (directed by her husband), Agnes of God (her last Oscar nomination), 84 Charing Cross Road, and Torch Song Trilogy. In the '90s Bancroft took a number of character roles, most notably as a mysterious old con woman in Malice, a menacing senator in G.I. Jane, a comedic matriarch in Home For the Holidays, an elegant trainer of a young assassin in Point of No Return, and an updated Mrs. Havisham in Great Expectations; she most recently appeared in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, for which she received an Emmy nomination. Bancroft is survived by her husband, whom she married in 1964, and their son, Max. --Prepared by IMDb staff...

Actress Anne Bancroft, who won an Oscar for The Miracle Worker and a place in pop culture history as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, died Monday of cancer; she was 73. The wife of comedian Mel Brooks, Bancroft died in New York at Mt. Sinai Hospital. One of the most popular actresses of the '60s, Bancroft's career started off dubiously in the '50s with a number of B movies for 20th Century Fox such as Gorilla at Large and Demetrius and the Gladiators. The studio also renamed the young actress, who was born Anna Maria Louise Italiano and originally went by Anne Marno; given a list of names, she chose the dignified Bancroft. However, fulfilling roles for the versatile TV and movie actress didn't follow, and Bancroft left both big and small screens for Broadway in the late 50s, winning two Tonys, for Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker. When Hollywood came calling to adapt both films, Bancroft lost the role in the former to Shirley MacLaine. However, when studio heads wanted a more glamorous actress for the role of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, director Arthur Penn put his foot down and refused to budge. Then faced with a minimal budget, Penn created a gripping black-and-white film which won Oscars in 1962 for both Bancroft and co-star Patty Duke (as Helen Keller). That role was followed by another Oscar-nominated performance in The Pumpkin Eater and the acclaimed The Slender Thread and 7 Women. In 1967, however, Bancroft did a total 180 from her saintly persona as Annie Sullivan and donned leopard-skin lingerie for her role as the wily Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, which nabbed her another Oscar nomination and permanent enshrinement in film history. By then, she had seduced not just Dustin Hoffman but the filmgoing public as well, and for the rest of her career she was pretty much able to call her own shots. She worked almost non-stop through the '70s and '80s in both comedic and dramatic films, including The Turning Point (another Oscar nomination), The Elephant Man, To Be or Not To Be (directed by her husband), Agnes of God (her last Oscar nomination), 84 Charing Cross Road, and Torch Song Trilogy. In the '90s Bancroft took a number of character roles, most notably as a mysterious old con woman in Malice, a menacing senator in G.I. Jane, a comedic matriarch in Home For the Holidays, an elegant trainer of a young assassin in Point of No Return, and an updated Mrs. Havisham in Great Expectations; she most recently appeared in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, for which she received an Emmy nomination. Bancroft is survived by her husband, whom she married in 1964, and their son, Max. --Prepared by IMDb staff...