--- title: Oscar-Winning Actress Patty Duke Dies At Age 69 description: She was famous for her role as Helen Keller in 'A Miracle Worker' canonical: https://time.com/4275357/patty-duke-obit/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-29T18:33:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:08.252Z og:title: Oscar-Winning Actress Patty Duke Dies At Age 69 og:description: She was famous for her role as Helen Keller in 'A Miracle Worker' og:url: https://time.com/4275357/patty-duke-obit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta419e0929959ceca/69888cea524fc02b62df75cd/patty-duke-obit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Patty Duke Honored with Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oscar-Winning Actress Patty Duke Dies At Age 69 twitter:description: She was famous for her role as Helen Keller in 'A Miracle Worker' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta419e0929959ceca/69888cea524fc02b62df75cd/patty-duke-obit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Oscar-Winning Actress Patty Duke Dies At Age 69 > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Lynette Rice / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Lynette Rice / Entertainment Weekly Mar 29, 2016 6:33 PM UTC  Patty Duke during Patty Duke Honored with Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, California, United States. Patty Duke during Patty Duke Honored with Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, California, United States. Todd Williamson—FilmMagic/Getty by [Lynette Rice / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Lynette Rice / Entertainment Weekly Mar 29, 2016 6:33 PM UTC Patty Duke, the film, TV, and stage actress who won an Academy Award at age 16 for her role as Helen Keller in _A Miracle Worker_, has died. She was 69. Actor Sean Astin confirmed the death of his mom on a Los Angeles morning show. > [](https://twitter.com/HayleyHerst/status/714850326034001921) Duke was the youngest actress at the time to earn an Oscar for playing Helen Keller, a role she originated opposite Anne Bancroft on Broadway. Her rising star resulted in an eponymous sitcom that was created by Sidney Shelton and launched in 1963\. The Patty Duke Show lasted until 1966. Duke worked constantly in films like Valley of the Dolls and TV shows like Night Gallery, Police Story, and Hawaii 5-0 while privately battling biopolar disorder, which was revealed in her 1987 autobiography Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. She went on to advocate for the mentally ill by working with the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Duke won three Emmys, one of which was for playing the role of Anne Sullivan in the 1979 adaptation of The Miracle Worker for NBC. She is survived by her fourth husband, Michael Pearce, and her children Sean Astin, Mackenzie Astin, and Kevin Pearce. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/29/patty-duke-dead?iid=sr-link1) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://EW.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4275357/patty-duke-obit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4275357/patty-duke-obit/"},"headline":"Oscar-Winning Actress Patty Duke Dies At Age 69","datePublished":"2016-03-29T18:33:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:08.252Z","description":"She was famous for her role as Helen Keller in 'A Miracle Worker'","url":"https://time.com/4275357/patty-duke-obit/","keywords":["motto","News"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta419e0929959ceca/69888cea524fc02b62df75cd/patty-duke-obit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lynette Rice / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta419e0929959ceca/69888cea524fc02b62df75cd/patty-duke-obit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Patty Duke Honored with Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame","caption":"Patty Duke during Patty Duke Honored with Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, California, United States.","creditText":"Todd Williamson—FilmMagic/Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4275357/patty-duke-obit/","name":"Oscar-Winning Actress Patty Duke Dies At Age 69"}}]}] ```