Patty Duke Dies at Age 69

The actress won an Oscar for 'The Miracle Worker' and starred in 'The Patty Duke Show'

Michael Calia

The Wall Street Journal

CANCEL

Biography Michael Calia
@michael_calia
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Mar 29, 2016 1:24 pm ET

Patty Duke, a child star whose multi-decade career included an Academy award, a high-profile TV sitcom and advocacy for mental health care, has died.

She was 69 years old. The cause of death was sepsis from a ruptured intestine, the Associated Press reported, citing the actress’s agent.

Before she turned 20, the actress, who was born Anna Marie Duke, had already won an Academy Award and starred in her own sitcom. She started acting on screen when she was a child in the mid-1950s, and then appeared in dozens of television movies, series and films over the years.

“Though I was a professional actress from the age of seven or eight, acting was never a dream of mine,” she wrote in the first chapter of “Call Me Anna,” her revealing 1987 autobiography. “Yet when I think back to my earliest memory, it was of performing.”

Duke’s breakthrough role came in 1959 when she played the blind and deaf Helen Keller alongside Anne Bancroft‘s Anne Sullivan in the Broadway production of “The Miracle Worker,” which was based on Keller’s autobiography. She went on to reprise her role for the classic 1962 film version, winning an Oscar for best supporting actress at age 16.

She also starred in the popular sitcom “The Patty Duke Show” for three seasons. She played a dual role of identical cousins Patty and Cathy Lane. The series was as famous for its theme song as it was for Duke’s performances.

“Our Patty loves to rock and roll,” it goes. “A hot dog makes her lose control …”

Duke’s autobiography, “Call Me Anna,” shed light on the painful developments going on behind-the-scenes of her rise to fame, including struggles with mental illness and substance abuse. She became an advocate for mental health care after she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982.

According to the Screen Actors Guild website, Duke resigned as president of the union in 1988 so she could pursue a television adaptation of her autobiography. Duke played herself in the movie, also titled “Call Me Anna,” which aired in 1990.

The actress was known for starring in several television movies, including a 1979 version of “The Miracle Worker.” This time she played Anne Sullivan, and the turn earned her an Emmy.

Duke was nominated for eight Primetime Emmys in total, her most recent coming in 1999 for a guest role in the inspirational CBS drama “Touched by an Angel.”

Her son Sean Astin issued the family’s statement on her death:

I love you mom.OUR FAMILY STATEMENT ON THE PASSING OF PATTY DUKEThis morning, our beloved wife, mother, grandmother,...
Posted by Sean Astin on Tuesday, March 29, 2016

This article has been updated from its original version.

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23 comments

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GENIE BAKALE-ALDRICH subscriber

A classy lady gone to soon. Part of my biography/childhood memories are meeting their mortality. She was a small but important part of my T.V. watching years. Thank You.

Christopher Porter subscriber

Another angel on Earth heading to Heaven.

I'm reminded of a an old English saying:

Earth hath no pain;

Heaven can't cure.

Rest in peace "Patty"

David Soto subscriber

I always liked Patty Duke. Loved her TV show as a kid.

RIP and condolences to family and friends.

David Oetting subscriber

Sorry to hear this. She was great and 69 is getting a bit close to home.

Nate Smith subscriber

It would seem modern medicine might have handled that one right ?

Greg Sutton subscriber

@Nate Smith There probably was something else going on to cause the ruptured investing that was quite serious and may have not been responding to treatment, or conventional treatment was refused. There is a lot more to this than is being reported.

Kevin Micucci subscriber

@Nate Smith My dad passed away from the same thing at age 83 over 11 years ago. It is believed that the rupture may have been caused as one of the side effects of his taking Aricept, a drug that helps with mild dementia. The gastrointestinal system is the most fragile in the human body and very susceptible to infection when compromised.

Rest in peace Patty.

CHARLES PLUSHNICK subscriber

Another member of our child hood TV family passes

On TV they remain ageless

69, way to young to go

May her family know of no other sorrow

STEVEN JENKINS subscriber

Patty Duke is one more person that reminds us of a time that we loved that has passed away. It comes as no surprise that she has followed the flow of time. And those too young to know what I mean have nothing that good to mourn.

David Cohen subscriber

Patty Duke's death is just another reminder that those of us who grew up in the same age as she are getting older. While not quite in the autumn of my years, the leaves on the tree are beginning to turn.

don holton subscriber

@David Cohen It also reminds me that we should make time to spend with those we love, while we still all have time to do so.

Chris Staples states it best in his song Dark Side of the Moon:

I want to tell you a story
The only way that I can
I'm just replacing a man that came before me
One day the world is going to see
Another man replacing me
That's just the way it's got to be
It's always been that way

Chorus ...

I want to love you
I want to pass it on
I want to give and give until it's all gone
I want to know you
While we have the time
Because that's all I got to leave behind

William Glasheen subscriber

Rest in peace, Patty. Too young to go. :-(

David Vornholt subscriber

A good person and had a good life. RIP.

Dick Cox subscriber

I'm saddened to hear of Patty's passing. I'm at the point in life where I don't think of age 69 as being "old." But, I also believe that the quality of a life lived matters more than sheer longevity.

Alex Wolf user

@Dick Cox

Yep.

Bryan Hight subscriber

Meet Cathy, who's lived most everywhere, from Zanzibar to Barclay Square. But Patty's only seen the sights a girl can see from Brooklyn Heights -- What a crazy pair!

But they're cousins, Identical cousins all the way. One pair of matching bookends, Different as night and day.

Where Cathy adores a minuet, The Ballet Russes, and crepes suzette, Our Patty loves to rock and roll, A hot dog makes her lose control -- What a wild duet!

Still, they're cousins, Identical cousins and you'll find, They laugh alike, they walk alike, At times they even talk alike -- You can lose your mind, When cousins are two of a kind!

Cap Morgan subscriber

@Bryan Hight

"A hot dog makes her lose control?"

You sure about those lyrics? It could explain the ruptured intestine.

Nick Wilson subscriber

I always thought there were TWO of them! Farewell Patty (and Cathy)!

@W WESLEY HOSKINS

Get a life, one that's not as worthless as the one you lead now.

W WESLEY HOSKINS subscriber

@Cap Morgan @Bryan Hight That's pretty unnecessary. Did you even bother to read the obit? It mentions those exact lyrics.

@Cap Morgan @W WESLEY HOSKINS A life? You mean one where trashing recently deceased people is the norm? No thanks. I will leave that to low life's such as yourself.