RIP Patty Duke

[Bob Juch]

She was 69.

[silverscreenselect]

She was 69.

At least her cousin Cathy is still with us.

[Bob Juch]

She died from sepsis from a ruptured intestine.

[SpacemanSpiff]

She was one actress I always liked, other than the 60s sitcom (which was, well, a basic 60s sitcom), partially because of The Miracle Worker -- my childhood home was on land once part of the Ivy Green estate -- and partially because of her open battle with bipolar depression, which she wrote about in A Brilliant Madness.

She said she always liked playing Helen Keller on stage because she got to beat the putz out of an adult every night and get away with it. In her autobiography, she praised Suzanne Pleshette (who replaced the original Anne Bancroft on Broadway) because in one show, Duke actually knocked a tooth out of Pleshette, and she just spit the thing out like a hockey player and didn't miss a beat.

So, we've lost Thomas Jefferson, Rev. Witherspoon of NJ, and Martha Washington in a week or so. Those American Revolutionary folks are dropping like flies.

Also, IIRC, one of her sitcoms, Hail to the Chief, was why Whit/Thomas/Harris productions bailed on ABC (Soap and Benson)and went to NBC (for the later Golden Girls and Empty Nest). They felt that ABC deliberately undercut the show so that it would flop, which it did.

[TheConfessor]

She died from sepsis from a ruptured intestine.

A hot dog made her lose control.

Sorry to hear this. I used to watch daily reruns of her show after school when I was a kid. The show originally ran from 1963 to 1966. If Wikipedia is correct, the guy who played Richard, Patty's girlfriend, was more than 11 years her senior, which seems odd for an idealized high school kid. When the show started, she was 16 and he was 27.

[T_Bone0806]

I watched The Patty Duke Show all the time in kiddom days. I had quite the crush on her.

Hey, I was like, 6 years old...gimme a break...

[SpacemanSpiff]

Here's a 1961 picture of a young Patty Duke with Helen Keller. Thought it was a timely one.

[SportsFan68]

Here's a 1961 picture of a young Patty Duke with Helen Keller. Thought it was a timely one.

Way cool! Thanks, Spiff.

I'll watch the Miracle Worker whenever it comes on. Our local theater group of a million years ago put it on, and they were all such hams -- reminded me of James Tiberius Kirk. Not enjoyable, anyway.

Patty Duke was wonderful. I had no idea she was 15 years old until much later. Fortunately, for that role anyway, she was so short.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I'll watch the Miracle Worker whenever it comes on. Our local theater group of a million years ago put it on, and they were all such hams -- reminded me of James Tiberius Kirk. Not enjoyable, anyway.

Ivy Green, the Keller homestead, puts on the play every summer using local actors. It usually goes ok, all things considered, at least for the performances I saw. It is an easy play for the actors (other than the two leads) to get hammy or campy at, especially Captain Keller; many non-Alabama performances end up with the Captain doing an over-the-top southern colonel accent.

http://www.helenkellerbirthplace.org/mi ... worker.htm

The neat thing with the Ivy Green performances is that the climatic scene is at the actual well pump where the original "miracle" occurred. Of course, the well is long-since dry, so there usually a garden hose strapped behind it to provide the water.



And the local newspaper posted an article about the relationship between Ms. Duke, the town, and the play.

http://www.timesdaily.com/news/local/du ... ea992.html

[Spock]

Reading the first of her 2 books. She was involved (at age 12) with the $64,000 Question scandal. She testified in various venues, including congress. She didn't crack and admit they fed her answers until the congressional testimony.

[silverscreenselect]

Reading the first of her 2 books. She was involved (at age 12) with the $64,000 Question scandal. She testified in various venues, including congress. She didn't crack and admit they fed her answers until the congressional testimony.

I read an article by Mike Clark, longtime movie reviewer for USA Today, who appeared on the $64,000 Question as a child movie expert. He knew a lot of films and casts but, like most children, was rather oblivious to behind the scenes personnel. So, they made sure to only feed him questions that he could answer. They also interviewed him about his likes and movies that he was well versed on made their way into his stack (he won $16,000). When he thought back about it as an adult, he realized that they were rigging the game to play to his strengths but obviously the producers wouldn't tell a pre-teen about that in advance.