Anne Bancroft, the woman famed for playing seductress Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, has died at the age of 73.

The star, who won the 1962 Best Actress Oscar for her role as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, died of uterine cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital yesterday (Monday).

In a 2003 interview, Bancroft complained that her part in The Graduate overshadowed her other work. "I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about The Miracle Worker," she said.

"We're talking about Mrs Robinson. I understand the world... I'm just a little dismayed that people aren't beyond it yet."