Patty Duke
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (December 14, 1946[1] – March 29, 2016) was an American actress. Over the course of her acting career, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Patty Duke
December 14, 1946
March 29, 2016 (aged 69)
Forest Cemetery, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
- Patty Duke Astin
- Anna Duke-Pearce
Actress
1950–2015
-
Michael Tell(m. 1970; ann. 1971)
-
Michael Pearce(m. 1986)
3, including Sean and Mackenzie Astin
At age 15, Duke portrayed Helen Keller in the film The Miracle Worker (1962), a role she had originated on Broadway. She 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). She 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, she served as president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Duke was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982. Following her diagnosis, she devoted much of her time to advocating for and educating the public on mental health. She was also an occasional singer and author.
Early life[edit]
Duke was born at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.[2] the youngest of three children of Frances Margaret (née McMahon), a cashier, and John Patrick Duke, a handyman and cab driver[3] of Irish descent.[4] She was raised Roman Catholic.[5]
Duke spent her early life in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens,[2] where her brother Raymond, her sister Carol, and she experienced a difficult childhood. Their father was an alcoholic, and their mother suffered from clinical depression and was prone to violence. When Duke was six, her mother forced her father to leave the family home. When Duke was eight, her care was turned over to talent managers John and Ethel Ross, who after promoting Patty's brother, were looking for a girl to add to their stable of child actors.[6][7]
The Rosses' methods of managing Duke's career were often unscrupulous and exploitative. They consistently billed Duke as being two years younger than she actually was and padded her resume with false credits.[8] They gave her alcohol and prescription drugs, took unreasonably high fees from her earnings, and made sexual advances to her.[7] She never saw her father and saw her mother only when she visited to do the Rosses' laundry.[9] In addition, the Rosses made Duke change her name. "Anna Marie is dead," they said. "You're Patty now."[7] They hoped that Patty Duke would duplicate the success of Patty McCormack.[10]
Recognition[edit]
Over the course of her career, Duke received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, three Emmy Awards in 10 nominations,[15][1] and two Golden Globe Awards amongst four nominations.[36][21] In 1963, when she won her Academy Award, Duke became the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award in a competitive category.[37]
On August 17, 2004, Duke received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to the motion-picture industry.[38] 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.[39] On March 6, 2010, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters degree from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.[40]
Personal life[edit]
Duke was married four times and had three children. A Catholic, Duke had dreams of becoming a nun in her youth.[41][42] 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."[5]
In 1965, Duke married director Harry Falk, who was 13 years her senior. It led to the end of Duke's relationship with her childhood guardians, the Rosses.[9] During their marriage, she had repeated mood swings, drank heavily, became anorexic, and overdosed on pills a number of times.[6] The couple divorced in 1969.[6]
In early 1970, at the age of 23, Duke became involved with three men at the same time — 17-year-old Here's Lucy star Desi Arnaz Jr.,[6] actor John Astin, who was 16 years her senior, and rock music promoter Michael Tell.[43][44] 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; she then married Michael Tell on June 26, 1970, during a manic phase, to "give (her child) a name."[43] Their marriage lasted 13 days before ending in an annulment on July 9, 1970;[6] Her son, actor Sean Astin, was born on February 25, 1971. She later told Sean that Arnaz Jr. was Sean's biological father.[43] Duke said in her 1987 autobiography that the marriage to Tell was never consummated and that Astin was the actual biological father of Sean. Several chapters in her book emphasized these assertions about her relationship with Tell and the paternity of her son. It turned out that all three statements were incorrect: in 1994, when her son Sean underwent biological testing to determine his real paternity, the results showed that Tell was his biological father.[45][46][44]
Duke married John Astin on August 5, 1972. Astin adopted Sean and the couple had a son, actor Mackenzie Astin.[15] Duke and Astin worked together extensively during their marriage, and she took his name professionally, becoming "Patty Duke Astin". During this period, Duke underwent a hysterectomy.[9] Duke adopted Astin's three sons, and years later in 1998, Astin's sons reversed the adoption with Duke's approval.[47] The couple divorced in 1985.
Duke married her fourth husband, drill sergeant Michael Pearce, in 1986, and remained married to him until her death 30 years later. Duke and Pearce had met during the production of A Time to Triumph, for which Pearce served as a consultant.[16] The couple moved to Hayden, Idaho, and adopted a son, Kevin, who was born in 1988.[16] From her marriage to Pearce until her death in 2016, Duke occasionally used the name "Anna Duke-Pearce" in her writings and other professional work.[16]
Duke had three granddaughters by her eldest son Sean, actresses Alexandra, Elizabeth, and Isabella.[48]
Death[edit]
Duke died on the morning of March 29, 2016,[49] in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, of sepsis from a ruptured intestine at the age of 69.[50] Her son Sean Astin invited the public to contribute to a mental health foundation in his mother's name, the Patty Duke Mental Health Initiative.[51] She was cremated and her ashes were interred at Forest Cemetery in Coeur d'Alene.[52]