Actress, singer, and mental health advocate Patty Duke has died due to sepsis from a ruptured intestine. She was 69.
A child star, Duke won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at just 16 years old for her role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker — a film adaptation of the role she originated on Broadway in 1959. In the years that followed, she starred in a wide array of films and TV programs, including the cult classic Valley of the Dolls and The Patty Duke Show, a TV series designed to showcase her talents as an actress and singer. In 1979, she starred in a new TV adaptation of The Miracle Worker — but as Anne Sullivan, not Helen Keller.
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