Patty Duke

Biography

Anna Marie “Patty” Duke was an American actress and health advocate. 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 was born Anna Marie Duke in Elmhurst, New York, to Frances Margaret (McMahon), a cashier, and John Patrick Duke, a cab driver and handyman. She is of Irish, and one eighth German, descent.

Her acting career began when she was introduced to her brother Ray Duke’s managers, John and Ethel Ross. Soon after, Anna Marie became Patty, the actress. Patty started off in commercials, a few movies and some bit parts. Her first big, memorable role came when she was chosen to portray the blind and deaf Helen Keller in the Broadway version of “The Miracle Worker”. The play lasted almost two years, from October 19, 1959-July 1, 1961 (Patty left in May, 1961). In 1962, The Miracle Worker (1962) became a movie and Patty won an Academy Award for best supporting actress. She was 16 years old, making her the youngest person ever to win an Oscar.

She then starred in her own sitcom titled The Patty Duke Show (1963). It lasted for three seasons, and Patty was nominated for an Emmy. In 1976, she won her second Emmy award for the highly successful mini-series, Captains and the Kings (1976). Other successful TV films followed. She received two Emmy nominations in 1978 for A Family Upside Down (1978) and Having Babies III (1978). She then won her third Emmy in the 1979 TV movie version of The Miracle Worker (1979), this time portraying “Annie Sullivan”.

In 1986, she married Michael Pierce, a drill sergeant whom she met while preparing for a role in the TV movie, A Time to Triumph (1986).

Anna Marie Duke had a long and successful career, winning three Emmys. She was a mother and a political advocate for issues such as the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), AIDS and nuclear disarmament.

She died on March 29, 2016, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, of sepsis from a ruptured intestine.