Actress and mental health advocate Patty Duke dies at 69

(Image credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

published 29 March 2016

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.

In 1987, Duke publicly revealed she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 35. She spent much of her later life advocating for mental health, writing a New York Times bestselling book about living with her illness. "You need to accept that there may be some things about yourself you don't like," she wrote in 1997. "You can work on them, but some of them might always be there. As long as they're not destroying you or those around you, that's okay."

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Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.

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