Plan B Forum

69 is way too young in my estimation, but as I get older, more and more people close to my age keep dying.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001157/

The greater tragedy is that most people who mention her on newscasts today are probably going to talk more about her dual role in "The Patty Duke Show" or her bi-polar diagnosis rather than her Academy Award-winning portrayal of Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" (a role she originally created on Broadway).

And an interesting bit of trivia:  17 years after winning her Oscar as Helen Keller in 1962's "The Miracle Worker", Duke appeared again in a 1979 made-for-TV version of the show, this time playing Keller's teacher Annie Sullivan — leading to her third Emmy Award as "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie".

-"BB"-

The greater tragedy is that most people who mention her on newscasts today are probably going to talk more about her dual role in "The Patty Duke Show"

Well, that's the way I most remember her...



When I was looking this up on Youtube, I found a version of the intro from the series pilot of that I don't remember seeing before, that includes an homage to the classic Groucho Marx Mirror Routine:

rather than her Academy Award-winning portrayal of Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker"

I didn't see that performance until I watched it in a drama class in High School in the 70's...

When you think about it, she really was quite an extraordinary actress...

She won an Academy Award for The Miracle Worker at the age of 16 in 1962, (after two years on Broadway) and then rolled straight from that into a hit TV series that ran for four years from 1963-1966, playing a completely different character, (well, two completely different characters)...also showing a real flair for comedy...

I think you'd be hard put to find many other actresses (or actors) who demonstrated that kind of skill for that broad a dramatic range at that young an age...

By the age of 20, she'd won an Oscar and starred in a hit TV show...

It's hard to have anywhere to go but down from that; but despite her personal demons and a lot of other adversities, (like drugs and alcohol, and having all her early earnings ripped off) she kept going and working...in addition to her three Emmys she also did a stint as President of The Screen Actors Guild...

Here's the link to her wiki bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Duke

I found out a number of things about her I didn't know before from that article...

A truly gifted and remarkably strong person...

I saw her about 10-12 years back in "Oklahoma" on Broadway (my kids watched the TV show in reruns and wanted to see her). She was good in the role; indeed her comic timing was probably the best thing in the play. 69 is way too young. RIP

In many ways, she easily fits the profile of an exploited child star who one would have expected to die in obscurity from a drug overdose sometime in the mid-70s...

But she refused to let that happen to her...

Especially after that Valley Of the Dolls fiasco...it must have taken an enormous amount of tenacity and personal strength to keep at it...

And she frequently excelled...(though yes, she was also in a fair number of turkeys)

But from 1958 when she was nine years old, till the present, (where she's in a show called Power of the Air that's scheduled for release next year)

There's not a single year when she wasn't a working actress:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001157/

One of the things I learned from that wiki article I didn't know about was her romantic fling with Desi Arnaz Jr....

And how Desi's mother, Lucille Ball, disapproved of the romance...

I found that ironic because one of the things that struck me in reviewing some clips of Duke's Patty Duke Show performances this afternoon is how (among her many other skills) she showed a real talent for physical situational comedy reminiscent of...

Well, Lucille Ball...

I can't argue with that Jim; the wiki article reminded me that she had a meltdown when accepting her Emmy for My Sweet Charlie (I'm sure it's on you tube if someone wants to see it)--I thought her career was dead then, but she bounced back and eventually addressed her mental disorder. I've always admired her for the tenacity she showed.

RIP

She was in a lot of stuff when I was a young man. I thought she was cute, even though she wasn't a blonde. I liked that faux British accent too.

but she bounced back

That is probably her most defining quality...(imagine how many times after Valley Of the Dolls her agent must have heard, "Patty Duke? She's a washed up child actress who flopped as a grown up. Why would I want to cast her?")

She was one of the first "celebrities" to come forward about her "mental illness" but she never wallowed in self-pity or let it hold her back professionally...

Instead she reached out to help others while still pursuing her career...

Which makes her not just a great actress, but also a great human being...and a great role model...

I used to make fun of Patty Duke...(and some of her less impressive made-for-tv- melodramatic works):

"Oh yeah The Lifetime Channel... the All-Patty-Duke-All-The-Time Network..."

After spending some time today looking in-depth into her life and accomplishments, I feel a little ashamed of that...

Someone should make The Patty Duke Story...

I don't know who should star in it, but if it's well made it will be truly inspiring...

Okay, it's...

Trivia Time:....

The veteran actor, (who's still alive and kicking at age 93..and still working; he recently appeared in an episode of Two Broke Girls) who played Patty Duke's father on The Patty Duke Show, is probably most recognizable to TV viewers for his role in this sci-fi show...

Credit for getting the name of the show, double credit for getting the well known episode, and triple credit for getting the name of his character...(and quadruple credit for getting the name of the actor...which is probably the hardest part of the question...)

As always, no Googling and no help from the studio audience...

Duke was the ultimate method actor. In one of the scenes in "The Miracle Worker" she received 3rd degree burns on her fingers trying to read a waffle iron. Or so I was told.

Oh, also the father was the one time president of SAG.

RayThom wrote:Duke was the ultimate method actor. In one of the scenes in "The Miracle Worker" she received 3rd degree burns on her fingers trying to read a waffle iron. Or so I was told.

Yeah, and they drove her crazy by re-arranging the furniture...



And then they threw her down a well...and she screamed her hands off...

Oh, also the father was the one time president of SAG.

No, that was her :

SAG-AFTRA Mourns the Passing of Former SAG President Patty Duke -

Los Angeles (March 29, 2016) — SAG-AFTRA mourns the passing of former Screen Actors Guild President Anna Patty Duke Pearce, better known as Patty Duke. Duke was elected president in 1985, becoming the second female president of the union. Duke was an Oscar and Emmy-winning actor, labor activist, and pioneering advocate for mental health issues. She was 69. -

See more at: https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-mour ... 7iNVs.dpuf

Do try to keep up...

But what about Wxxxxxx Sxxxxxxxx who served as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 1979 to 1981? Didn't he play her father, Martin Lane, on the show?

RayThom wrote:But what about Wxxxxxx Sxxxxxxxx who served as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 1979 to 1981? Didn't he play her father, Martin Lane, on the show?

You are quite correct, I apologize...

The actor who played her father on the show was President of SAG from 1979-1981...

And you obviously know the name of the actor...

Do you also know the answers to the other questions I asked regarding his involvement in a classic Sci-fi show episode?

Lord Jim wrote:... his involvement in a classic Sci-fi show episode?

That was probably the Twilight Zone but he was in so many TV shows he wasn't more than wallpaper much of the time.

He was in fact in a Twilight Zone Episode, and a One Step Beyond episode...(and many, many other TV shows from the early 50s right through the 80s)

But that's not the sci-fi show episode he's best known for...

When I tell you, you're going to smack yourself in the forehead and say, "oh God, of course..."

Okay...

69 is way too young

I agree 100%...for obvious reasons....

I had the name (W*****m S*******t) but was never that much of a Trekkie to know the rest of it.  In fact, I think I've only seen the 'Tribbles' episode once.
But I have been here —
          (and here too...)  
-"BB"-

RIP Patty. I had a crush on her (and her cousin ) when I was young.
Too young to go.