Fans of The Patty Duke Show are used to seeing double.
For three seasons over 1963 to 1967, Duke, who at the time was the youngest person to win an Academy Award, played identical twin cousins in the popular TV show, which acted as a launching pad for her broad career in show business that included becoming a successful hit singer.
Through her storied career, Duke won an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
As a child, Duke began her Hollywood career with an acting role on the soap opera The Brighter Day and soon after she appeared on a game show The $64,000 Question, which sparked controversy through claims that her win of $32,000 was rigged.
Playing alongside famed Anne Bancroft, Duke’s first major role was Helen Keller in the Broadway play, The Miracle Worker, which was turned into a film in 1962. Duke’s portrayal of the young Keller in the movie landed her an Academy Award for Best Actress, when she was only 16.
”I had many, many, many fears and obsessive fears as a young person, and maybe I was incorporating them into that role. And I do know for a fact that the role was very therapeutic for me…” Duke once recalled...CONTINUE READING