Here's To You, Mrs. Robinson Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

She was married to Martin A. May, a building contractor from 1954-1957.

Answer: Two

She won Best Featured Actress in a Play for "Two For the Seesaw" (1958) and "The Miracle Worker" (1960). She was not signed for the film version of "Seesaw"; instead the part went to Shirley MacLaine, ironically her co-star and fellow Oscar nominee for "The Turning Point" (1977).

Answer: Patty Duke

Patty Duke's knockout performance (literally, considering the stage fight the recalcitrant Helen Keller has with her teacher, Annie Sullivan) made her the youngest winner in her category until Tatum O'Neal took the statuette at 10 for "Paper Moon." She also appeared on Broadway in the same part with Anne Bancroft.

Answer: 6 years

Yep, 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock was played by 30-year-old Hoffman, and forty-something Mrs. Robinson was really only 36. Unfortunately for Bancroft, she was pegged as an "older woman," which didn't help her career in films.

Answer: To Be or Not to Be

All are Brooks' films, of course, but "To Be or Not to Be" (1983) is the only time the Brooks/Bancroft couple starred together on screen. Bancroft had a cameo in "Silent Movie." She also is in "Dracula, Dead and Loving It" (1995).

Answer: True

Bancroft and Brooks' son, Maximillian, was born in 1972. Bancroft was ahead of her time in having a child at 40! Max Brooks has one son, so yes, she was a granny.

Answer: Doris Day

Odd as it sounds, Doris Day was offered the part. She was effectively retired from movies, though she did have a couple of tv series, at the time. However, the story is that she turned the part down because she didn't want to sully her image. The irony here is that she was a thrice-married woman who had been a teenaged mother, an abused wife, and is rumored to have had affairs with other men. Bancroft's real life image was squeaky clean.

When you think about Day's early work, especially "Love Me or Leave Me," she probably could have done the part, and was old enough to play it, as well.

Answer: The address of a London book shop

Most people haven't seen this movie, and everyone who loves books, Bancroft, Hopkins or any combination thereof should. Bancroft believably plays a woman who is obsessed with books from her twenties to her fifties. Hopkins is the manager of the bookshop with whom she develops an epistolary romance. Just as a matter of interest: Judi Dench has a small role as Hopkins' wife.

Answer: Sidney Poitier

Bancroft is a suicidal housewife who calls a hotline and reaches Poitier. Powerful performances from both. She didn't work with Tracy, appeared with Widmark in "Don't Bother to Knock", and Fonda was her leading man in the Broadway version of "Two for the Seesaw." (He didn't get the movie either. A terribly befuddled looking Robert Mitchum played the part.)

Answer: Harold Pinter

Bancroft plays another desperate housewife in this one, a real pattern in her career!

Answer: Anna Maria Louisa Italiano

Bancroft acted under the name "Anne Marno" early in her career, but when she went to Hollywood, it was still deemed "too ethnic." So, of a list of names she was given, she chose "Bancroft" because she thought it sounded classy. Anna Magnani was a famous Italian actress best known in this country for the film version of "The Rose Tattoo" (1955) and Anna Maria Alberghetti was a singer/actress who appeared in the '50s on Broadway in "Carnival." She become known to the baby boom generation for peddling Good Seasons salad dressings in tv commercials.

Answer: True

Well, at least they're both Italian! (Remember Nic Cage's real name is Nicola Coppola.)

Answer: True

Bancroft died at 73. In addition to her mother, she was also survived by two sisters, her son, her daughter-in-law, and a grandson.

Answer: American Academy of Dramatic Arts

Her parents scrimped to send her to AADA after high school, and her career was launched there when she was observed rehearsing which led to a role in the 1950s drama series "Studio One." That was her (excuse the pun) "Turning Point."

Answer: Ballet teacher

MacLaine's and Bancroft's characters become friends as young dancers, but only Bancroft's "Emma" had the career. "DeeDee" (MacLaine) quit to raise a family and run a ballet school with her husband played by Tom Skerritt. Young ballerina Leslie Brown played their daughter and was nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar but did not continue a film career and became an "Emma" herself--an acclaimed dancer, and now a teacher. Her lover was played by Mikhail Baryshnikov in his film debut.

Both MacLaine and Bancroft were nominated for Best Actress Oscars, but lost to Diane Keaton for "Annie Hall." (The other two nominees were Marsha Mason for "The Goodbye Girl" and Jane Fonda for "Julia.") That was a great year for women's roles!