An Oscar-winning actor, passionate advocate for mental health issues and stalwart supporter of acting unions, Patty Duke has died at the age of 69.
Born Anna Marie Duke in Queens, New York, her early life was not an easy one, plagued by her parents struggles with alcoholism, depression and violence. At the age of eight, she was essentially handed over to talent managers John and Ethel Ross, who changed her name to Patty and began to ruthlessly exploit her.
Her career took off on TV and the stage, where she garnered several credits, including roles on soap opera The Brightest Day and a TV movie version of Meet Me In St. Louis. One of her earliest successes was in the Broadway production The Miracle Worker, in which she played Helen Keller opposite Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan. It ran for two years, and became a film in 1962. Duke won an Oscar for her role, and at the time was the youngest Academy Award winner in history. Her life as a teenager, however, was not an easy one as the Rosses controlled her income and got her addicted to drugs and alcohol at the age of 13. She eventually learned that they had squandered most of her earnings, and accused them of sexually abusing her. She managed to become legally free of them at 18.
In 1963, she was the star of her own TV series, The Patty Duke Show, where Duke's real-life bipolar personality disorder became the source of stories about identical cousins with very different personalities. She played dual roles on the series and earned an Emmy nomination for her work.
Her other work included appearances in Me, Natalie (alongside Al Pacino in his first film role), Valley Of The Dolls, The Swarm, Prelude To A Kiss and Bigger Than The Sky. And she continued to find success on TV with a mixture of TV movies and guest appearances. Duke won Emmys for the likes of My Sweet Charlie, Captains And Kings and a revival of The Miracle Worker.
In her adult life, despite more challenges with health and addiction, she found the stability she was looking for becoming a strong spokesperson for mental health awareness and serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild between 1985 and 1988.
She was married four times, to Harry Falk, Michael Tell (though the brief marriage was annulled), actor John Astin and Michael Pearce. She's survived by Pearce, her actor sons Sean Astin and Mackenzie Astin, adopted son Kevin Pearce and three grandchildren.