Anne Bancroft

Anne Bancroft makes a character's inner conflict physical, through gestures that can be subtle or emphatic. As Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker (1962), her physical commitment is central to the performance, alongside its emotional demands. She had played Sullivan on stage in 1959 before the film brought her breakthrough on screen. That performance is a useful starting point for her work: Bancroft takes the woman's feelings as seriously as the strength required to keep going.

Mrs Robinson in The Graduate (1967) requires a different sort of strength. Bancroft's seductiveness comes with self-awareness, which keeps the woman from becoming merely an object of fascination. The role came to dominate her public image, but it is a narrow basis on which to judge her work. Her maternal and authoritative characters deserve attention too; seduction was only one use she found for that force.

The film of hers we recommend most warmly here is The Elephant Man (1980). As Mrs Kendal, Bancroft has a supporting place in David Lynch's historical drama, whose performances make its compassion convincing. We were moved by John Hurt's Merrick, who has a life beyond the pity directed at him. There is a limitation in the film's faith in good manners, which can make treating another person decently seem too simple. It is worth watching Bancroft in that company, rather than expecting every appearance to provide another defining role.

We are less persuaded by the broader acting that sometimes appears in her later work. In some films of the 1980s and 1990s, the performance can be too large for the screen, however effective that scale might be on stage. Playing Helene Hanff in 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) gives her a quieter, character-led story and room for warmth. If Mrs Robinson is the only Bancroft you know, that is a sensible next stop.