Oh, God... Dancers Have Such Ugly Feet.

Anne Bancroft once said of her legendary role in The Graduate: "I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about The Miracle Worker. We're talking about Mrs. Robinson. I understand the world.... I'm just a little dismayed that people aren't beyond it yet."

She was it. Talented and dignified, obviously. Larger than life and down to Earth, absolutely. She won a Tony (opposite Henry Fonda in Two for the Seesaw); she won an Oscar (for her 1962 portrayal of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker). Her other Academy Award nominations included: The Pumpkin Eater (1964); The Graduate (1967); The Turning Point (1977) and Agnes of God (1985). She convinced Mel Brooks that he should make The Producers into a musical.

I first saw her in New York Confidential... by that time the film was 20 years old... I was 10. Nothing about that film sucks (Three words: "Broderick fuckin' Crawford," alright?), but man oh man... she was a goddess. I made it a point to see her in everything she made... yes she was the reason I wanted to see Antz. I just... dug her.

She had it all: beauty, brains, talent, drive, disarming humor... at 10-years old I knew that she was the perfect woman.

Okay... I had a huge crush on her... but then? Then I heard that she was already married... to Mel Brooks.

My mind reeled! Mel Brooks. How was that possible? The fart joke guy?

She said in an '84 interview that the day after she first met the infamous Mel Brooks that she told her psychiatrist the next day: "Let's speed this process up — I've met the right man. See, I'd never had so much pleasure being with another human being. I wanted him to enjoy me too. It was that simple."

Of her, Mel once said: "We're so close we interchange roles; I can become the wonderfully statuesque, feminine Anne Bancroft, she becomes the Yiddish Mel. Well, have you ever seen me in eyelashes and Dior, or her in a yarmulke?"

I tell you, those two taught me that anything's possible.

So... I watched her movies for years; and yeah... in a way, I spent years looking for my "Anne Bancroft..." and I finally found her.

I'm sad tonight; I'm sad for our loss... but Mel? I'm so, so sorry for yours.

God rest you please, Miss Bancroft.