Claim: Anne Bancroft worked with an American.

Anna Maria Louisa Italiano -LRB- September 17 , 1931 -- June 6 , 2005 -RRB- , known professionally as Anne Bancroft , was an American actress associated with the method acting school , having studied under Lee Strasberg . Respected for her acting prowess and versatility , Bancroft was acknowledged for her work in film , theatre and television . She won one Academy Award , three BAFTA Awards , two Golden Globes , two Tony Awards and two Emmy Awards , and several other awards and nominations .   After her film debut in Do n't Bother to Knock -LRB- 1952 -RRB- and a string of supporting film roles during the 1950s , she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her lead role in The Miracle Worker -LRB- 1962 -RRB- as the teacher of teenage Helen Keller , reprising her role in the Broadway stage play . She won both an Oscar for her work in the film , and a Tony for the same role in the play . On Broadway in 1965 , she played a medieval nun obsessed with a priest -LRB- Jason Robards -RRB- in John Whiting 's play The Devils , based on the Aldous Huxley novel The Devils of Loudun . She was perhaps best known as the seductress , Mrs. Robinson , in The Graduate -LRB- 1967 -RRB- , a role that she later stated had come to overshadow her other work .   Bancroft received several other Oscar nominations and continued in lead roles until the late 1980s .  She played a ballet dancer in The Turning Point -LRB- 1977 -RRB- , and in Agnes of God -LRB- 1985 -RRB- , she played the mother superior of a convent who clashes with a psychiatrist played by Jane Fonda over dealings with a troubled young novice nun played by Meg Tilly . In 1987 , she starred with Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road . She appeared in several movies directed or produced by her second husband , comedian Mel Brooks , including the award-winning drama The Elephant Man as well as comedies To Be or Not to Be and Dracula : Dead and Loving It .   In the 1990s she returned to supporting roles in films , but continued to play lead roles in television films . She received Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations , for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone -LRB- 2003 -RRB- , as well as an Emmy nomination for 2001 's Haven .