Patty Duke

Anna Marie Duke (December 14, 1946 – March 29, 2016), known professionally as Patty Duke, was an American actress. Over the course of her acting career, Duke was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

At age 15, Duke portrayed Helen Keller in the film The Miracle Worker (1962), a role she had originated on Broadway. Duke won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The following year, she played the dual role of "identical cousins" Cathy and Patty Lane on her own network television series The Patty Duke Show (1963–1966). Duke progressed to more mature roles, such as Neely O'Hara in the film Valley of the Dolls (1967) and Natalie Miller in the film Me, Natalie (1969). The latter earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. From 1985 to 1988, Duke served as president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Duke was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982. Following her diagnosis, Duke devoted much of her time to advocating for and educating the public on mental health. Duke was also an occasional singer and author.

Early life Anna Marie Duke was born on December 14, 1946, to Frances Margaret (née McMahon) (1913–1993), a cashier, and John Patrick Duke (1913–1964), a handyman and cab driver, who was of Irish descent. She was the youngest of three children. Duke was raised Roman Catholic.

Duke spent her early life in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, They gave Duke alcohol and prescription drugs, took unreasonably high fees from her earnings, and made sexual advances to her. The Rosses also made Duke change her name. "Anna Marie is dead," they said. "You're Patty now."

Career Acting 1950s–1990s Duke in a publicity photo from December 1959One of Duke's early acting roles was in the late 1950s on the soap opera The Brighter Day. She was featured in the uncredited role of Augusta Davis in the 1958 black and white short "An American Girl". Duke also appeared in print ads and in television commercials. In 1959, at age 12, she was a contestant on The $64,000 Question and won $32,000; Duke's category of expertise, according to her autobiography Call Me Anna, was popular music. The game show was revealed to have been rigged, and Duke was called to testify before a panel of the United States Senate. She eventually testified before congressional investigators and broke into tears when she admitted she had been coached to speak falsely.

Also in 1959, Duke appeared in a television adaptation of Meet Me in St. Louis as Tootie Smith, the role that had originated in the film version by Margaret O'Brien. Duke's first major starring role was Helen Keller (with Anne Bancroft as Anne Sullivan), in the Broadway play The Miracle Worker, which ran from October 1959 to July 1961. Duke originated the role of Keller on Broadway, although Patty McCormack actually originated the role in its earlier original presentation as a live television drama on Playhouse 90. During the run, her name was elevated above the play's title on the theater's billboard, believed to be the first time this had been done for such a young star. Before the film started shooting, the actress and activist Helen Keller briefly met. At age 16, Duke was the youngest person at that time to have received an Academy Award in a competitive category. Duke portrayed both main characters: Patricia "Patty" Lane, a fun-loving American teenager who occasionally got into trouble at school and home, and her prim and proper "identical cousin" from Scotland, Catherine "Cathy" Lane. William Schallert portrayed Patty's father, Martin, and his twin brother, Kenneth, Cathy's father; Jean Byron played her mother, Natalie; Paul O'Keefe was her younger brother, Ross; and Eddie Applegate portrayed her boyfriend, Richard Harrison (though the actor was more than a decade older than Duke). —at the time, it almost ruined her career. In 1969, Duke starred in Me, Natalie, playing an "ugly duckling" Brooklyn teenager struggling to make a life for herself in the Bohemian world of Greenwich Village. Duke won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) for the role. Duke was also a co-host of AM Los Angeles on KABC-TV alongside Steve Edwards in 1987.

Duke's film roles in the 1980s included the Canadian film By Design (1981), which garnered her a Genie Award nomination for Best Foreign Actress, and the made-for-TV movie A Time to Triumph (1986), the true story of Concetta Hassan, a woman who struggles to support her family after her husband is injured, but who eventually becomes a United States Army helicopter pilot. In 1990, Duke's autobiography, Call Me Anna, was adapted for television; she played herself from her mid-30s onward. In 1992, Duke portrayed the mother of Meg Ryan's character in the film adaptation of the play Prelude to a Kiss. Seven years later, Duke received an Emmy nomination for her appearances in three episodes of Touched by an Angel.

In 1985, Duke became the second woman, after Kathleen Nolan, to be elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, a post she held until 1988. During her term, Duke led industrial actions and contract negotiations and oversaw the relocation of the guild's headquarters. and the reboot of Hawaii Five-0. In 2011, Duke joined the cast of the drama The Protector. She also returned to the stage on occasion—in 2002 as Aunt Eller in a revival of Oklahoma! on Broadway and in 2009 as Madame Morrible in the San Francisco production of the musical Wicked. In 2010, Duke hosted a PBS TV special When Irish Eyes Are Smiling: An Irish Parade Of Stars. The special was part of the My Music series and featured Irish and Irish-American folk music and sentimental standards. In May 2011, she directed the stage version of The Miracle Worker at the now defunct Interplayers Theater in Spokane, Washington.

In 2011, Duke appeared in public service announcements for the U.S. government, promoting the Social Security website. In several, she appeared as Patty and Cathy using split-screen effects. In others, Duke appeared with George Takei wearing a Star Trek-like costume. In 2015, she made her final TV appearance, guest-starring on Liv and Maddie as Grandma Janice and Great-aunt Hilary, a pair of identical twins.

Singing

Like many teen stars of the era, and bolstered somewhat by her appearance in the musical Billie, Duke had a successful singing career, including two top-40 hits in 1965, "Don't Just Stand There" (number eight) and "Say Something Funny" (number 22). She also performed on TV shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show.

Mental health advocacy In 1987, Duke revealed in her autobiography that she had been diagnosed with manic depression (now called bipolar disorder) five years prior, becoming one of the first public figures to speak out about her personal experience of mental illness. She also suffered from anorexia nervosa, and during her teenage years, weighed as little as .

Memoirs Duke wrote three books. Her autobiography, Call Me Anna was published in 1987, and Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness was published in 1992. The third, In The Presence of Greatness—My Sixty Year Journey as an Actress (with William J. Jankowski), published posthumously in February 2018, is a collection of essays about her experiences with other artists and celebrities.

Recognition Over the course of her career, Duke received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, three Emmy Awards in 10 nominations, and two Golden Globe Awards amongst four nominations. In 1963, when she won her Academy Award, Duke became the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award in a competitive category. On December 14, 2007, her 61st birthday, Duke was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters degree from the University of North Florida for her work in advancing awareness of mental health issues. On March 6, 2010, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters degree from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Personal life Duke was married four times and had three children. A Catholic, Duke had dreams of becoming a nun in her youth. In her later life, she studied a number of different religions, commenting in 1995: "To suggest that one must spout Moses or Jesus or Buddha or chant like Tibetan monks in order to be religious, I believe, is not to walk in the path of Christ... I have been a Christian Scientist. If there's a religious definition of 'dabbler', I guess that would be me. I have studied Buddhism. There was a time when I very seriously considered Judaism. And, yes, I do go to church now. I go to a Unity Church. I also go to Catholic church occasionally because the child in me desperately needs the bells and smells."

In early 1970, at age 23, Duke became involved with three men at the same time: 17-year-old Here's Lucy star Desi Arnaz Jr., The relationship with Arnaz was widely publicized, due in part to the vocal and public opposition of Arnaz's mother, actress and production company executive Lucille Ball. By late spring, Duke and Arnaz had broken off their relationship.

In June 1970, Duke learned that she was pregnant. Duke then married Michael Tell on June 26, 1970, to "give (her child) a name."

Duke married John Astin on August 5, 1972. Astin adopted Sean, and the couple had a son together, actor Mackenzie Astin. The couple divorced in 1985.

Duke married her fourth husband, drill sergeant Michael Pearce, in 1986, and remained married to him until her death thirty years later. Duke and Pearce had met during the production of A Time to Triumph, for which Pearce served as a consultant. The couple moved to Hayden, Idaho, and adopted a son, Kevin, who was born in 1988.

Duke had three granddaughters by her eldest son Sean: actresses Alexandra, Elizabeth, and Isabella.

Death Duke died on the morning of March 29, 2016, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, of sepsis from a ruptured intestine at age 69. Duke was cremated and her ashes were interred at Forest Cemetery in Coeur d'Alene.

Filmography

Films

Television

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1962 Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress The Miracle Worker 1984 Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Individual Achievement in Religious Programming – Performers Insight 1982 Genie Awards Best Performance by a Foreign Actress By Design 1962 Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture The Miracle Worker Most Promising Newcomer – Female 1965 Best Television Star – Female The Patty Duke Show 1969 Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Me, Natalie 1962 Laurel Awards Top Female Supporting Performance The Miracle Worker 1965 Top Female Musical Performance Billie 1969 Top Female Dramatic Performance Me, Natalie 2014 Online Film & Television Association Awards Television Hall of Fame: Actors 1982 People's Choice Awards Favorite Female Performer in a New TV Program 1964 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) The Patty Duke Show 1970 Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role My Sweet Charlie 1977 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series Captains and the Kings 1978 Outstanding Lead Actress for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series Having Babies III Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Special A Family Upside Down 1980 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special The Miracle Worker 1981 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special The Women's Room Outstanding Individual Achievement – Children's Programming The Girl on the Edge of Town 1984 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special George Washington 1999 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Touched by an Angel 2002 Temecula Valley International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award 1960 Theatre World Awards The Miracle Worker 2003 TV Land Awards Favorite Dual Role Character The Patty Duke Show 2004 1984 Western Heritage Awards Fictional Television Drama September Gun

Discography Albums Title & chart Label Year Notes Don't Just Stand There (No. 90 BB, No. 70 CB ) United Artists UAL 3452 (Mono)/UAS 6452 (Stereo) 1965 Patty United Artists UAL 3492 / UAS 6492 1966 Patty Duke's Greatest Hits United Artists UAL 3535 / UAS 6535 TV's Teen Star Unart M 20005 (Mono)/S 21005 (Stereo) 1967 Patty Duke Sings Songs from Valley of The Dolls and Other Selections United Artists UAL 3623 / UAS 6623 Patty Duke Sings Folk Songs: Time To Move On United Artists UAL 3650 / UAS 6650 (Unreleased ) 1968 Note: After years of remaining unreleased, Patty Duke Sings Folk Songs: Time to Move On was released by Real Gone Music (under Capitol records) on CD and digital download in 2013.

Singles (Unreleased) – ––Non-album tracks"Why Don't They Understand"b/w "Danke Schoen"United Artists 50073