Elizabeth Wilson, best known for her role as Dustin Hoffman’s mother in the 1967 film The Graduate, died on Thursday at a hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. She was 94.
According to a report from the Washington Post, Elizabeth Wilson starred in later years in the film Nine to Five, alongside actors Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman.
A family spokesperson confirmed Wilson’s passing.
Last July, during an interview with the Hartford Courant, Elizabeth Wilson summed up her many years as an actress.
"Graduate" actress Elizabeth Wilson dead at 94 http://t.co/9QupWw2ZY3 pic.twitter.com/YXKyG7YOMl
— HuffPostEnt (@HuffPostEnt) May 11, 2015
“I had no desire to be a star,” she said. “I wanted to be a character actress and be able to do all kinds of parts and work on a lot of things. That was my unconscious choice. I wanted to be an undercover actress.”
Wilson purchased a home in Branford, Connecticut back in 1988, while working at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven.
The Graduate's #ElizabethWilson dies at 94 http://t.co/g74QiLHJRx pic.twitter.com/St9Lxu2n3y
— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) May 11, 2015
Elizabeth Welter Wilson was born on April 4, 1921, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, and made her film debut in an uncredited appearance as part of a party scene in the Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious back in 1946.
She appeared in another of Alfred Hitchcock’s films–The Birds–in 1963, in which she played an innkeeper’s wife.
Did you see Elizabeth Wilson when she played Benjamin Braddock’s (Dustin Hoffman’s character) mother in The Graduate? She will likely be forever remembered for that role.