On This Day

The Graduate released

December 21st 1967

10:24 21 December 2023

'The Graduate' opened in theaters across the US on this day in 1967. Mike Nichol's romantic comedy-drama, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, made a star of Dustin Hoffman and became the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide.

Hoffman was nearly 30 when he auditioned for the role of 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock, while Anne Bancroft playing the older Mrs Robinson who seduces him was only six years his senior. The movie went on to receive seven Academy Award nominations, winning Best Director for Nichols. A 1960s classic and one of the all-time-great American films.