Dear Joan

Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point (20th Century Fox, 1977)

"Producer Irwin Yablans is planning a film based on Mommie Dearest, the title of Christina Crawford's controversial recounting of life with her adoptive mother. Word is that the search is already on for the actress to play Joan Crawford, and that Anne Bancroft is the producer's first choice." -- Robin Sloan Adam's column, August 30, 1978

Joan Crawford by John Engstead, 1963

"As far as Mommie Dearest is concerned, Anne plans to start production this summer. She considers the Joan part a real challenge despite the feelings of some in show business that Christina Crawford's book about her mother was the height of poor taste." -- Robin Adams Sloan's column, January 25, 1979

"Anne Bancroft's perception of the Joan Crawford role in the film version of the best-seller Mommie Dearest would make it a better film. That's the word from insiders. Anne is convinced that the dynamics of Miss Crawford's personality are far more dramatic and compelling than a chronicling of assorted child abuses. Thus the film would present Miss Crawford in a more favorable light..." -- Robin Adams Sloan's column, February 25, 1980

Joan Crawford in Harriet Craig (Columbia, 1950)

"Anne Bancroft is not giving second thoughts to [Mommie Dearest] because she is out of it. Disagreement was reached with producer Frank Yablans and director Frank Perry, who weren't calling Anne 'dearest' when they finally had enough of her demands for script and production changes..." -- Robin Adams Sloan's column, December 16, 1980

Anne Bancroft in 7 Women (MGM, 1966)

"The big screen translation of Christina Crawford's tale of childhood horror gets under way January 19, after countless script revisions and with Faye Dunaway replacing Anne Bancroft in the lead...Director Frank Perry explains the way the story line has finally evolved, what we'll see is 'a very sympathetic view of Joan...it would hardly be respectful to be less than respectful of her memory.'" -- Noreen Marcus' column, January 14, 1981

"The movie industry is still buzzing about the replacement of Anne Bancroft by Faye Dunaway to play the Joan Crawford role in Mommie Dearest. While Miss Bancroft may have been difficult and demanding, many Hollywood insiders still feel she was by far the better choice...Dunaway is considered by some as too bland and non defined a personality..." -- Robin Adams Sloan's column, January 22, 1981

Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest (Paramount, 1981)

It's Monkey Time!

But not for long, because as Thombeau taught us: a girl and her monkey will soon be parted.

An Actor Prepares

Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore

And we miss her.



MISS ANNE BANCROFT
(September 17, 1931 - June 6, 2005)

It's worth noting that, before Broadway recognized Bancroft for the talent that she was, Hollywood didn't. Before Annie Sullivan, before Mrs. Robinson, the former Anna Maria Louisa Italiano was shoehorned into typical starlet parts in such tawdry affairs as Gorilla at Large (1954), which, we hate to admit, we actually kinda liked as young gaylings. She also holds the distinction of playing opposite both Marilyn Monroe (in Bancroft's 1952 film debut, Don't Bother to Knock) and, further down the food chain, Mamie Van Doren, in 1957's The Girl in Black Stockings.


AN OVERHEATED STEVE COCHRAN & ANNE BANCROFT IN AN EPISODE OF CLIMAX! (1956)

Frustrated by the roles she was receiving in Hollywood, Bancroft turned to Broadway, and the rest is history. She won Tony Awards in 1958 and 1962, for Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker, respectively; even more miraculously, Bancroft was chosen over more established movie "names" to appear in the film version of the latter, and won an Oscar (famously accepted on her behalf by Miss Joan Crawford; Bancroft was appearing on Broadway in Mother Courage at the time of the ceremony).


JOAN CRAWFORD PRESENTS BANCROFT WITH HER OSCAR ONSTAGE, FOLLOWING BANCROFT'S PERFORMANCE IN MOTHER COURAGE, 1963

In 1967, Bancroft achieved film immortality as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, demonstrating that her leg art had graduated from this...



...to this:



One of the select few entertainers to claim an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy (for her acclaimed TV special, Annie: The Women in the Life of a Man), Bancroft, a.k.a. Mrs. Mel Brooks, passed away from uterine cancer in 2005. Here's to you, Anne Bancroft!