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Magazine: St. Louis Post-Dispatch TV Magazine
Date: Nov.27-Dec.3, 1960
Article: Anne Bancroft, Actress
By: Margaret McManus
New York, Nov. 26
Anne Bancroft looks like the typical product of Actors Studio. She is of vivid coloring, dark-haired, dark-eyed, olive-skinned, and she wears no make-up exept the palest orange lipstick. She dresses for a calculated starkness--a sleeveless wool dress, black silk stockings, black suede pumps, a bulky, short coat. She talks with a disarming honesty that is most impressive.
Her brief, startlingly successful career on Broadway is equally impressive. She made her Broadway debut in 1958 in "Two For the See-saw," starring Henry Fonda, and for this she won the Tony Award for best "featured" performance of the season.
She is currently starring in her second Broadway show, "The Miracle Worker," in which she plays the part of Helen Keller. This has won her the Tony Award for the best "starring" perfomance of 1960.
Miss Bancroft, who is a frequent guest on the JAck Paar Show, will make an appearance on the Perry Como show on Wednesday (KSD-TV, 8 p.m.) She will not act. She will sing.
Born Anna Maria Italiano, she grew up in the Bronx, and as a child she had every intention of becomeing a singer.
"I didn't want to be an opera singer," she said, "I had no gigantic ambitions. I wanted to be a pop singer. When I was a kid all I needed was a crowd of two people and I'd be on my feet, snapping my fingers, going into my song. I understand now. It was my way of saying 'Look at me.' I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts because I thought I'd be a better singer if I learned how to talk and walk."
One of the teachers at the drama school, the wife of Worthington Minor who was then producing "Studio One," saw Miss Bancroft act in a school play and suggested she audition for a part on one of the television shows.
"I didn't care much one way or the other," said Miss Bancroft, shruggin her shoulders, "but the lady said 'Go down and try' so I went. I got the part."
From that part, she got a number of television offers and she spent the next year and a half on most of the dramatic shows on television. This, of course, was when there were many fine "live" dramatic shows on television in New York.
"Then I made a big mistake," she said. "I went out to Hollywood and stayed six years. A lot of lousy B pictures. I didn't like Hollywood, but then I didn't like myself very much while I was out there, so maybe that's why. I got married while I was there. It wasn't good. I'm divorced, but you know I even learned something from that. Miserable as my marriage was, it's better to be married than to be alone."
As to whether she would marry again she says:
"Are you kidding? You bet your life I would. I'm looking."
But on the other hand, Anne Bancroft is very obviously an actress utterly and completely absorbed in her work and in herself. She seems to have no other interests. It is difficult to imagine how she would have either the time or the energy to become deeply involved with another person, at least right now.
However, she is trying to learn not the demand so much of herself.
"I have learned that it isn't always possible to give the greatest performance every night of the show," she said. "Some nights you are equal to it and some nights you are not. I used to get furious with myself if I didn't do as well as I thought I should. I try to accept my limitations and not beat myself to death."
Anne Bancroft, in her late 20's, is a highly emotional, volatile, supercharged woman, who is learning many things, among them how to harness her talents and discipline her energy so that it works for her and not the reverse. He professional goal is simply to keep improving as an actress.
She will leave the cast of "The Miracle Worker" in January to take time off before starring in the movie version of the show.
Miss Bancroft lives in an apartment in Greenwich Village; her relaxation is studying at the Actors Studio and acting in plays there, even while starring every night in a Broadway play, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
She still wants to be a singer and hopes one day to do a musical play. She frequently practices in her apartment and fears for the neighbors above and below.
"Maybe that's why I want to buy a town house," she said. "No, that isn't the reason. I just want to own a house and pretty soon I'll have enough money to do this without any strain.
"I'm grubby about money. I'd rather live in a one-room hole-in-the-wall than spend more money than I feel I can afford. I guess money represents security to me, I think when I feel more secure inside myself, I won't be so anxious about money."
With two long-run Broadway shows on the credit side, a movie coming up, and television appearances sprinkled nicely about, there should be a reasonable amount of security in the bank.
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