Oscar Winning Actress Patty Duke Dead At 69
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Sixty-nine-year-old Oscar and Emmy winning Actress Anna “Patty Duke” Pearce has died. The news of Patty Duke’s death was confirmed Tuesday morning by her manager, Holly Shelton, NBC News reports. While the cause of her death was not immediately known, a CBS News report says that the actress died at the age of 69 due to sepsis from a ruptured intestine. This was reportedly also confirmed in a statement released by Shelton after the actress died.
An excerpt from the written statement released by Patty Duke’s manager reads as follows.
“She was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a mental health advocate and a cultural icon. She will be greatly missed.”
Anna Marie “Patty” Duke was born on December 14, 1946, and started her career as a child actor. She won her first Academy Award at the young age of 16. The award was for her role as a supporting actor in The Miracle Worker. Patty Duke later went on to star in the sitcom The Patty Duke Show, which made her a popular star. She was also an accomplished singer and had a successful singing career delivering two Top 40 hits in 1965, “Don’t Just Stand There” (No. 8) and “Say Something Funny” (No. 22). Patty also sang on the shows Shindig!, Kraft Music Hall, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Merv Griffin Show.
The news of Patty Duke’s death has come as a shock for many of her fans who took to Twitter and other social media networks to express their grief over the actress’ passing. We have embedded a few tweets from her fans below.
I did a whole hour with her on ABC Radio back in the 80’s and I’d had a huge crush on her ever since. RIP #PattyDuke pic.twitter.com/qP3gYkOhAe
— Bill Griffeth (@BillGriffeth) March 29, 2016
1st time I met #pattyduke, I told her my sis was a huge fan of the Patty Duke Show. She grabbed my phone & called my sister! #kxly
— Melissa Luck (@MelissaKXLY4) March 29, 2016
Patty Duke won awards, spoke up on mental illness and created our favorite Goonie. She was a solid role model for women. Rest in peace.
— Michele Morrow (@michelemorrow) March 29, 2016
Some tweeted the intro scenes from the Patty Duke show.
RIP Patty Duke
I’m gonna have a good cry while singing along with The Patty Duke Show theme: https://t.co/qNKlWW1bSo— Nina L. Diamond (@ninatypewriter) March 29, 2016
Patty Duke was also known for her battle with bipolar disorder.
Peace and thanks to Patty Duke, one of the first to talk about bipolar in a way that made people listen. Millions, myself included, owe her.
— Jim Gabriel (@flipyourface) March 29, 2016
Watched so much Patty Duke Show growing up. RIP. pic.twitter.com/kFLRy7KGXW
— Jason Gore (@sonicdork) March 29, 2016
Rest in peace Patty Duke who won an Oscar for The Miracle Worker. Here’s Patty singing in The Valley of the Dolls. pic.twitter.com/7r1TQrIUbH
— Sam Kalidi (@samkalidi) March 29, 2016
Patty Duke was herself active on Twitter, and her Twitter profile had a considerable number of followers. Her last tweet was made on March 17 when she mourned the death of Frank Sinatra Jr., We have embedded those tweets below.
@NancySinatra Just can’t be true! Frank Jr has passed. Nancy dear, we were just in our early 20’s. It was a blink of an eye ago.
— Patty Duke (@pattyduke_id) March 17, 2016
@NancySinatra Frank Jr, was so good to all of us and he adored his big sister. Sending love to you, Tina and all his family and friends
— Patty Duke (@pattyduke_id) March 17, 2016
In her autobiography, released in 1987, Duke revealed that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (then known as manic depression) back in 1982 — thus becoming the first celebrity to go public with her bipolar disorder diagnosis.
[Photo by AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes]