People Magazine
50 Most Beautiful People
Anne Bancroft
According to Mel Brooks, his 33-year marriage to Anne Bancroft is wonderful, but her fans
are a bit of a handful. "I have to carry a cane and beat off some of the men," says the
71-year-old director and comedy writer. "They have never grown up. They were teenagers
in The Graduate, and they have been in an erotic state ever since."
The man whom "Mrs. Robinson" seduced knows why. "She would stop you from breathing,
because there was something stunning about her," says Dustin Hoffman. And with her deep-set
brown eyes and salt-and-pepper hair, Bancroft, 66, has a mistique that only increases with
time. "Her beauty has grown," says Arthur Penn, who directed her Oscar-winning turn in
1962's The Miracle Worker.
Yet the actress, whose most recent work includes G.I. Jane and Great Expectations,
is nonchalant about her image. "I do not think about being beautiful," she says. "What I
devote most of my time to is being healthy." Bancroft puts in 40 minutes a day on the the
treadmill and adhears to the Pritikin diet of fish and steamed or water-sauteed vegetables
(organically grown), cheating occasionally on "somthing like osso buco or a great Chinese
meal." And the medicine cabinet in the Brooks house in Santa Monica is stocked with
holistic products. "I have embraced everything," she says. "Astragalus, CoQ-10, all the
vitamins. They really build up my immune system." For peace of mind she meditates and
takes naps to rejuvenate. "To me it is the most exiting, the most rebellious thing, to
go to sleep," she says.
To keep her luster, 5'6" Bancroft gets collagen injections ("a great find") around
her mouth about three times a year. Otherwise, she's a do-it-yourself woman. For her
recent appearance at the Oscars, Bancroft took charge of her own hair and makeup. "I'm
very old," she says. "I've learned how to do this stuff. I thought I never looked better."
Smiling she adds, "I'm growing up."
When will she be done? "I think God will tell me."
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