| Patty Duke |
| Born |
Anna Marie Duke
December 14, 1946 (1946-12-14) (age 62)
Elmhurst, Queens, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation |
Actress |
| Years active |
1958–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Harry Falk (1965-1969)
Michael Tell (1970)
John Astin (1972-1985)
Michael Pearce (1986-present) |
| Official website |
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (born December 14, 1946) is an American actress of stage and film.
Early life
Duke was born Anna Marie Duke in Elmhurst, Queens, New York, the daughter of Frances (née McMahon), a cashier, and John Patrick Duke, a handyman and cab driver.[1][2] Her father was Irish American and her maternal grandmother was German.[2]
Duke experienced a childhood of hard times. Her father was an alcoholic, and her mother suffered from clinical depression and was prone to violence. When Duke was 6, her mother threw her father out; when she was 8, her mother turned Duke's care over to John and Ethel Ross, who became her managers, recognized her talent and promoted her as a child actress.[3]
The Rosses' methods were unscrupulous. For instance, they consistently billed Duke as two years younger than she was, and padded her resume with some false credits.[4] It was Ethel Ross who gave the sweeping name-change order, "Anna Marie is dead, you are Patty now." This would have painful repercussions for Duke in the decades to come. (Her professional name was chosen because the Rosses wanted her to achieve the success of Patty McCormack).[5]
Acting career
One of Duke's first acting jobs was on the soap opera The Brighter Day, in the late 1950s. She also appeared in print ads and in television commercials. At the age of twelve, Duke appeared on The $64,000 Question and won $32,000. Three years later, it was revealed that the game show was rigged and she was called to testify before a congressional panel.[6]
Duke's first major role was playing Helen Keller (with Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan) in the Broadway play The Miracle Worker, which ran for nearly two years (October, 1959 - July, 1961). Midway through the production-run, her name was placed above the title on the marquee.
The play was subsequently made into a 1962 film, for which Duke received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. At 16, Duke was the youngest person at that time to receive an Academy Award in a competitive category. She won a Golden Globe for Me, Natalie in 1969, which also featured Al Pacino in his screen debut. In a 1979 television movie of "The Miracle Worker", Duke played Sullivan.
In 1963, Duke landed her own series The Patty Duke Show, in which she played both main characters: Patty Lane, an American teenager occasionally getting into minor trouble in school and at home; and her 'prim and proper' "identical cousin" from Scotland, Cathy Lane. The show featured co-stars William Schallert as Patty Lane's father, Jean Byron as her mother, Paul O'Keefe as her brother and Eddie Applegate as her boyfriend, Richard. The show had some guest stars such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Paul Lynde, Sal Mineo, and the show appeared on TV for three seasons and earned Duke one Emmy Award nomination. The Patty Duke Show can be seen every afternoon on World Harvest TV at 4pm ET on DirecTV channel 367.
In 1967, with The Patty Duke Show cancelled, Duke attempted to leave her chidhood success behind and begin her adult acting career by playing Neely O'Hara in Valley of the Dolls. The film was a box office success, but audiences had a difficult time accepting Duke as an alcoholic, drug-addicted singing star. While the film has since become a camp classic (due in large part to Duke's over-the-top performance), it almost ruined Duke's career at the time. She made a comeback in 1970 with her sensitive portrayal of a pregnant teenager on the run in My Sweet Charlie. Duke won her first Emmy Award for this performance, but her acceptance speech was rambling, angry, and disjointed, leading many in the industry to believe she was using drugs. In fact, Duke was suffering from mania, a part of bipolar disorder, which went undiagnosed until 1982. [2]
Despite the success of her career, Duke was deeply unhappy during her teenage years. Efforts were taken by the Rosses to portray her as a normal teenager, but Duke has indicated in her memoirs that she was a virtual prisoner of them and had little control over her own life and earnings. The Rosses kept control over Duke and her mother by allowing them only a small amount of money to survive on. The Rosses also began providing Duke with alcohol and prescription drugs when she was 13, which led to substance abuse problems later on (as an adult, Duke accused both John and Ethel Ross of sexual abuse).
Upon turning 18, Duke became free of the Rosses, only to find that they had squandered most of her earnings.
Singing career
Duke had a successful singing career, garnering several Top 40 hits such as "Don't Just Stand There" in 1965, and "Dona Dona" in 1968. She performed both songs on The Ed Sullivan Show. Also during 1968, she had appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, and after George Jessel's comic appearance, she was introduced and sang an old Irish song, "Danny Boy", with a passion that few could match. However, it was in the 1970 TV movie My Sweet Charlie in which she played opposite Black actor, Al Freeman Jr., in a movie involving a runaway pregnant teenager (Duke) and a civil rights activist on the run for his life (Freeman Jr.). The film depicted an interracial friendship that develops after intial animosity among the characters. Duke won her first Emmy Award and made her comeback as an actress in this film.
2000s
In 2002, Duke returned to New York to appear as Aunt Eller in a revival of Oklahoma!. She returned again in 2005 to attend a memorial service for her former co-star and actress from The Miracle Worker, Anne Bancroft, who had died of uterine cancer earlier in the year.
On November 2, 2004, it was announced that Duke would undergo single bypass surgery in Idaho, which was successful.
On October 4, 2007, Duke appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, talking about her bipolar disorder to an Oprah guest, advising the guest to seek out a support group.
On March 24, 2009 she took over the role of Madame Morrible from Carol Kane in the San Francisco production of Wicked.[7]
Other achievements
In 1985, Duke was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, the second woman to hold the position (Duke held the job until 1988). Coincidentally, in the same year she also played the first female President of the United States in the sitcom Hail to the Chief.
She authored two books, one her autobiography, Call Me Anna (ISBN 0-553-27205-5), and Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness (ISBN 0-553-56072-7)
On August 17, 2004, Duke received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her career accomplishments.
In December 2007, Duke was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of North Florida for her work in advancing awareness of mental health issues.[8]
Personal life
In 1970, Duke had an affair with 17-year old Desi Arnaz Jr.. The relationship became tabloid fodder, due in part to Lucille Ball's vocal opposition to Duke seeing her son. Most believed Duke's son, Sean Astin, was Arnaz's biological child, but it was later determined through parental testing that the father was Duke's second husband, Michael Tell.
In 1972, actor John Astin married Duke, adopted her son, Sean Astin who was not his own biological son, and fathered her second son, Mackenzie, who was born in 1973. Duke and Astin worked together extensively during their marriage. For a time, Patty Duke added 'Astin' to her professional name. The marriage and her children greatly improved her self confidence and her career.
In 1975 Duke (with Astin’s help), adopted Astin’s three sons, David, Allen, and Thomas Astin. This adoption was strongly contested by the boy’s biological mother, Suzanne Hahn, but Duke and Astin prevailed and the Astin boys legally became Duke’s sons. Duke, Astin, Sean, Mackenzie, and the three Astin boys all lived together in Los Angeles until roughly 1982 (the time Duke and Astin’s marriage began to dissolve). After Duke’s divorce from Astin, Duke distanced herself from the three Astin boys. In the late 1990’s all three of the Astin’s boys, regretting Duke’s adoption, reversed Duke's legal action and dissolved their relationship with Duke as their mother.
In 1985, Duke and Astin divorced, and in 1986 she married drill sergeant Michael Pearce, whom she met on the set of a TV movie, A Time for Triumph. The couple moved to Idaho and adopted a son together.
She received her second Emmy for the TV miniseries, Captains and the Kings in 1977, and her third in 1980 for a TV version of The Miracle Worker in which she played Annie Sullivan to Melissa Gilbert's Helen Keller.
Illness
Duke has suffered from mental health issues throughout her life. In 1982, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Its treatment, which included lithium as a medication, stabilized Duke's life and put her on the road to recovery.
Duke has since become an activist for numerous mental health causes.
Filmography
References
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Duke, Patty |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Duke, Anna Marie |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
December 14, 1946 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Elmhurst, Queens, New York |
| DATE OF DEATH |
|
| PLACE OF DEATH |
|
