Patty Duke
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"For 25 years, I was embarrassed and mortified" about doing the movie, she told me in regards to the 1967 camp classic. "Every time I tried to forget about the movie, someone would bring it up again. I mistakenly felt it had injured my career. A year after the film, I was pregnant and lost that baby. I got divorced. So I had a lot of negative memories attached to the film that in reality had nothing to do with the film." --Patty Duke to columist Mitchell Fink, quoted in Daily News, February 21, 2000
Biography
This petite, gifted former child performer had appeared in more than 50 television shows by the time she won Broadway fame at age 12 in "The Miracle Worker." Patty Duke won an Oscar for reprising her role as the young Helen Keller in the 1962 screen adaptation. In 1979, she won an Emmy for playing Keller's teacher--the role originally played on Broadway by Anne Bancroft--in a TV version of the same play.
Duke made a successful transition to teen star playing vivacious twins on the cutesy, popular TV series "The Patty Duke Show" (ABC, 1963-66). But since her disastrous feature appearance in the dreadful cult classic "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) and the commercial failure of "Me, Natalie" (1969), she has mostly concentrated on TV roles, to which she seems more suited. Over her career, Duke has won two other Emmy Awards, as a runaway pregnant Southerner befriended by a black lawyer in the TV-movie "My Sweet Charlie" (NBC, 1970) and as the mentally unstable wife of Richard Jordan in the NBC miniseries "Captains and the Kings" (1976). She played a rather sensuous Martha Washington in both "George Washington" (CBS, 1984) and "George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation" (CBS, 1986). Duke brought her warm maternal presence to "Always Remember I Love You" (CBS, 1990) and garnered praise as real-life journalist Betty Rollin who struggled to assist her mother (played by Maureen Stapleton) to die with dignity in "Last Wish" (ABC, 1992). More recently, she was the mother of a Marine murdered by his trollop wife in "A Matter of Justice" (NBC, 1993) and an Amish woman who helps a detective find an arsonist in "Harvest of Fire" (CBS, 1996). In 1990, Duke co-produced and played herself in the small screen adaptation of her memoirs, "Call Me Anna" (ABC).
After her initial success with her own sitcom, Duke failed to find an appropriate follow-up. She was wife to Richard Crenna and mother of Helen Hunt and Anthony Edwards in "It Takes Two" (ABC, 1982-83) and the first female President of the United States in the short-lived "Hail to the Chief" (ABC, 1985). Duke also was a woman involved with a younger man in the summer sitcom "Karen's Song" (Fox, 1987) and was a woman who becomes a minister and moves to Idaho in "Amazing Grace" (NBC, 1995), which she also co-executive produced.
An unglamorous, earnest performer, Duke has most often played sensitive but troubled types who sometimes display an inner reserve of considerable strength but never lose their essential ordinariness. In her autobiography, she revealed details of her turbulent childhood and her victory over manic depression which she further chronicled in "A Brilliant Madness: Living With Manic-Depressive Illness." Considered one of the best female actors working in TV, Duke became only the second woman to be elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1985. (She resigned from the post in 1988.) During her 1973-82 marriage to actor John Astin, she was billed as Patty Duke Astin. Their two sons, Sean and Mackenzie, are both actors. As a producer on more recent projects, she has been variously billed as Anna Duke-Pearce and Anna Pearce.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1955
Made film debut (as an extra) in "I'll Cry Tomorrow"
1957
Made TV debut on "Kraft Theatre" (ABC, NBC)
1958
Appeared on the CBS daytime drama "The Brighter Day"
1958
Appeared briefly on the NBC TV daytime serial "Kitty Foyle"
1959
Made Broadway debut as Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker"
1962
Won Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress reprising her stage role in "The Miracle Worker"
1963
Starred on the ABC sitcom "The Patty Duke Show"; played identical cousins
1967
Starred in camp cult classic "Valley of the Dolls"
1970
Made TV-movie debut in "My Sweet Charlie" (NBC), won first Emmy
1976
Co-starred in NBC miniseries "Captains and the Kings"; won second Emmy
1978
Featured with Fred Astaire and Helen Hayes in the NBC TV-movie "A Family Upside Down"
1979
Played Annie Sullivan role in TV version of "The Miracle Worker" (NBC), won third Emmy
1981
Portrayed a lesbian in the Canadian-produced feature "By Design"
1981
Acted opposite son Sean Astin in the ABC TV-movie "Please Don't Hit Me, Mom"
1982
Co-starred opposite Richard Crenna on the ABC sitcom "It Takes Two"
1984
Played Martha Washington in the CBS miniseries "George Washington"
1985
Returned to sitcoms as the first female U.S. President in "Hail to the Chief" (ABC)
1985
Elected president of the Screen Actors Guild (resigned 1988), second female to hold post
1986
Reprised Martha Washington in "George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation" (CBS)
1986
Had featured role in the movie "I Was a Teenage Boy"
1987
Starred in short-lived summer sitcom "Karen's Song" (Fox)
1990
Billed as Anna Duke-Pearce, co-produced TV adaptation of her memoirs titled "Call Me Anna" (ABC), also played herself
1992
Co-starred in romantic comedy-drama "Prelude to a Kiss"
1993
Starred in the NBC miniseries "A Matter of Justice"
1995
Executive produced (as Anna Pearce) and starred in short-lived TV series "Amazing Grace" (NBC)
1996
Starred as an Amish woman in the CBS "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation "Harvest of Fire"
1997
Starred as Sook in the CBS remake of the TV classic "A Christmas Memory"; undertook role based on Truman Capote's aunt originated by Geraldine Page
1999
Executive produced and starred in the reunion telefilm "The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' in Brooklyn Heights" (CBS)
2000
Starred in the CBS TV-movie "Love Lessons"
2005
Cast opposite real life son Sean Astin in the comedy "Bigger Than the Sky"
2008
Acted opposite son Mackenzie Astin in "The Four Children of Tander Welch"
2011
Guest starred as a woman with Alzheimer's on CBS' remake of "Hawaii Five-O"
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"For 25 years, I was embarrassed and mortified" about doing the movie, she told me in regards to the 1967 camp classic. "Every time I tried to forget about the movie, someone would bring it up again. I mistakenly felt it had injured my career. A year after the film, I was pregnant and lost that baby. I got divorced. So I had a lot of negative memories attached to the film that in reality had nothing to do with the film." --Patty Duke to columist Mitchell Fink, quoted in Daily News, February 21, 2000
