Versatile, but Forever 'Mrs. Robinson'

For the next five years she ground out such B-pictures as "Demetrius and the Gladiators," "Gorilla at Large" and "The Girl in Black Stockings."

The studio promoted her looks, not her acting, and she didn't argue.

"My goal was simply to be a movie star. I had no idea what to be an actress meant," she once told The Times. "It was just to be famous and popular and powerful and rich."

But she found no satisfaction in what she was doing until she returned to New York for the Broadway role as Gittel Mosca, a Jewish Bohemian dancer from the Bronx, opposite Henry Fonda in "Two for the Seesaw" in 1958. The performance earned Bancroft her first Tony.

"I began to know what I wanted," she said. "I really wanted to learn how to act."

At night, she threw herself into developing a strong Irish accent and rehearsing with Duke for "The Miracle Worker" and learned as much as she could from Penn, who had also directed "Two for the Seesaw."

Duke said Tuesday that it was Bancroft who helped her feel at ease in the play although she was still a child.

"The magic didn't start to happen until I stopped being in awe of her. She is the one who whittled that down for me. She was the one who made sure she was down to my level. I don't know if it was because we were two New York street kids, but from then on we just clicked."

When she wasn't working on the play, Bancroft studied at the Actors Studio.

She was dancing on the workshop's stage when she met the comedian, writer and director Mel Brooks.

"I said to myself, 'That guy looks like my father, and acts like my mother. He's for me!' " she told The Times in 2000. He followed her around and kept her laughing until she married him in 1964.

Bancroft, who had been married to Martin May during her Fox contract player days in Los Angeles, accommodated her schedule to her new marriage to Brooks, especially after the birth of their son.

Hoffman recalled the couple's close relationship while he and Bancroft were filming "The Graduate."

"Mel called her every day. She kept telling me 'Mel called again today. He wants to know if I've kissed you yet. He's so jealous.' And on Fridays, she'd be saying, 'Could you hurry up, could you get it right? I need to get on a plane. I want to see Mel.' They were like kids. It is one of the greatest marriages -- nothing showy, nothing fake but you knew they were real lovebirds."