1. Art and Diseño

One-on-One
with
Patty
Duke
She wanted to be a nun, but Hollywood had other plans.
Now the Oscar winner talks about the faith that never left her.
B Y R I TA E . P I R O
O
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR
NE OF THE MOST popular teen
stars on television, now the
proud grandmother of six, Oscar
winner Patty Duke, 68, is enjoying her sixth decade as a professional actor. Happily ensconced in the northern
Idaho home she shares with her husband of 29
years, Michael Pearce, she is grateful for both
her past successes and her present joys.
“I’ve been richly blessed,” she says softly.
“When I pray, I never ask for material things.
I offer only prayers of gratitude.”
By the time she entered first grade at Sacred
Hearts of Jesus and Mary School in New York
City, Anna Marie Duke (she prefers to use her
baptismal name) had already caught the attention of several talent scouts. By the time she
made her first Communion, she was well on
her way as a child star, having appeared in
commercials and on television, sharing the
bill with the likes of David Niven, Richard
Burton, and Sir Laurence Olivier.
As a child, though, acting remained the furthest thing from her mind.
“More than anything else, I wanted to be a
nun,” Anna reveals. “My friends and I would
play ‘nun’ all the time. We would wrap a piece
of loose-leaf paper around our forehead and
neck, put a dark scarf around our head, and we
would play school, taking turns being the
teacher or the mother superior.”
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Given what lay ahead for young Anna Marie,
she could have used a cloister of nuns praying
around the clock for her.
Foundation of Faith
The third and youngest child of John Patrick
and Frances (McMahon) Duke, Anna was born
on December 14, 1946, in the Kips Bay section
of New York City. A former Navy man, John’s
battle with alcohol forced him to leave the
family, which included an older daughter,
Carol, and a son, Raymond, when Anna was
6 years old.
“I rarely saw him after he left,” she recalls.
“I promised myself that when I was older, I
would find him and make him better.”
Though remembered by Anna as a “loving
and terrific mom,” Frances Duke struggled
with frequent episodes of severe depression,
including several hospitalizations.
“My mother depended upon going to
church, praying the rosary to help her deal with
her depression. We didn’t have the knowledge, the treatments back then. She was desperate that through her faith she would stop
being depressed.”
Attending Mass at Sacred Heart Church provided Anna with her first taste of theatre. “I
loved all the ritual involved in Mass, what
some people call the ‘bells and smells.’ It had
such high drama with the mystique of Latin
February 2015 ❘ 29
thrown in for good measure. I was the first one
in my class who could perfectly recite the
Confiteor in Latin,” she boasts.
Life with the Rosses
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR
Patty Duke became a staple
in American homes with
her iconic television series
The Patty Duke Show, which
was created especially for
her, about identical cousins
and their misadventures.
The series ran from 1963
to 1967.
At age 7, Anna caught the attention of John
and Ethel Ross, a husband-and-wife team of talent agents, both now deceased. Recognizing
Anna’s potential for acting success, the couple
devoted themselves to managing both her
career and her life.
Under their tyrannical hold, Anna was
stripped of nearly everything she knew and
loved, starting with her name.
“The managers did not think that my name
was perky enough, so they decided to change
it. Without any discussion, they barked out the
order to me saying, ‘All righty, Anna Marie is
dead. You’re Patty now.’” In later years, Anna
would define this event as the beginning of her
personal destruction.
The Rosses never disguised their great disdain
for Mrs. Duke, whose depression had become
so severe that she could barely function.
“The managers said to my mother, ‘Now,
Mrs. Duke, you know that you are unable to
take care of your daughter,’” Anna remembers. “‘If you really love her, you will let her live
with us so that we can give her everything
you cannot.’”
Despondent and terribly intimidated, Frances
Duke saw in the Rosses’ offer a way to ease the
doleful life she believed she had created for her
youngest child.
For nearly 10 years, until age 18, Anna lived
with her managers in their Manhattan apartment, sleeping on a cot in a hallway. Anna’s
every word and movement were monitored
and controlled. Her daily actions were reviewed
and criticized each evening at dinner. She
could not talk on the telephone, entertain any
friendships, or be in any room with the door
closed. She could use the bathroom for only 10
minutes at a time.
The Rosses were addicted to alcohol and
prescription drugs, both of which they would
periodically give to young Anna as a way to
help her get through her demanding workload.
The managers’ word was law. Anna recalls a
commercial which cast her between them and
her Catholic faith.
30 ❘ February 2015
St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g
“It was for a canned meat product. We were
in the middle of filming when I remembered
that it was Friday, which meant that I could not
eat meat. I froze in fear. Do I eat meat on Friday and go against God or do I refuse and go
against the managers? It didn’t take me long
to figure out the answer. I went ahead and ate
the meat. Being in trouble with God would be
a lot easier for me than being in trouble with
the managers.”
Another incident involved Anna’s muchadored first Communion dress.
“My mother didn’t have two nickels, but she
managed to buy me a beautiful dress and veil
that I loved. A part came up very quickly and
I needed a fancy dress. My managers called my
mother and ordered her to bring over my first
Communion dress, which they proceeded to
dye pink! My mother was horrified and I was
heartbroken,” she recalls mournfully.
Patty Duke and Her Miracle
Patty Duke owes a debt of gratitude to Helen Keller. In 1959, when
she was 13, she starred on Broadway as Helen Keller with costar Anne
Bancroft as Anne Sullivan. The show ran for almost two years, and her
performance was so acclaimed that her name was placed above the
title on the marquee.
The film adaptation of The Miracle Worker was released in 1962 to
widespread acclaim, earning five Academy Award nominations. Duke’s
Oscar triumph made her, at the time, the youngest
winner in a competitive category.
But no role or award could compare with
meeting the real Helen Keller.
“It was everything you could imagine,”
Duke says. “It was a religious experience.
My first sight of her, she was coming down
this long flight of stairs in this magnificent
Success at a Young Age
blue dress that matched her gorgeous blue
Once Anna began to star on Broadway at age
13, playing young Helen Keller in The Miracle
Worker with Anne Bancroft, she was removed
from her beloved Catholic school and church
and educated through a hodgepodge of academic resources. She was permitted to receive
Confirmation and, as she recalls, “I wanted to
take the name Theresa, but I chose Patricia
because, even though I hated ‘Patty,’ I thought
it would be a way of making the name some
part of me.”
As a child, Anna felt powerless to do anything to change her situation, especially since
no one, including her mother, knew what was
actually taking place in her life. Though the
managers permitted Mrs. Duke to have limited
interaction with Anna once a week, her father
was not.
Anna was 17 and at the pinnacle of TV stardom in The Patty Duke Show when word came
that her father had died. Anna begged to be
allowed to attend his funeral. Finally, the managers relented, but on one condition: that
Anna attend the funeral Mass all made up for
her television role as “Patty and Cathy Lane”
so that they could maintain control over the
whole event. Anna was not allowed to
acknowledge her family at the funeral, nor
could she attend the burial.
Soon after she turned 18, Anna severed ties
with her managers, walking out of their apartment during a heated argument. Old enough
to be on her own now, Anna sought to claim
her earnings from her past 10 years of full-time
work only to learn that the managers had
eyes. She made this grand entrance.”
culable.
“If I had not been in The Miracle Worker and met
Helen Keller, I don’t know what my life would have been because they
set the bar for the rest of my career and my life,” she says.
Helen’s life continues to inspire Duke, five decades after playing her.
“She never indulged in self-pity,” she says. “I wish everybody could
have an experience like that with whoever their hero is.” —C.H.
PHOTO © MGM-UA/PHOTOFEST; PHOTO ABOVE FROM THE US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Fr anciscanMedia.org
Helen’s role in Duke’s life and career is incal-
Patty Duke won the Academy Award as best supporting actress for her memorable turn in The Miracle Worker, costarring fellow Oscar winner Anne Bancroft.
The real Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan are pictured above.
February 2015 ❘ 31
squandered nearly all of her money on themselves in violation of child labor laws.
“I didn’t care about the money,” says Anna.
“I was just happy to be free of them.”
Within a few months after leaving her managers, Anna’s personal life began to unravel. For
the next 17 years, she was plagued by repeated
bouts of extreme euphoria, deep depression,
suicide attempts, and delusions—along with
wild spending sprees, violent outbursts, and
broken relationships.
She was hospitalized several times. She
became the mother of two boys, actors Sean
Astin and Mackenzie Astin, who lived most of
their childhood not knowing which mother
they would encounter each time they came
into her presence. Would it be the warm, loving mom baking cookies in the kitchen, the
wild monster from whom they would run and
hide, or the weeping, dejected woman they
would beg through the bathroom door not to
harm herself?
Patty Duke, with her sons
Mackenzie and Sean Astin,
was awarded a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in
2004. It’s one of many
recognitions from the film
and television industries for
her extensive body of work.
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR
A Balanced Life
Playing a nun was a dream come
true for Duke, who considered
religious life before she became an
actor. Duke played Sister Dulcina
in 1983’s September Gun, costarring
Sally Kellerman.
32 ❘ February 2015
In 1981, at age 35, Anna was diagnosed with
bipolar disorder, an illness caused by changes
in the chemistry of the brain. Doctors believe
that the triggers for the disorder have their
foundation in the cruelties and losses that victims predisposed to the condition, like Anna,
suffered in youth. With a prescription securely
in hand and a commitment to therapy, Anna
began to enjoy a balanced life in a short period
of time.
“It was like a rebirth, a resurrection,” she
recalls. “One of my greatest blessings has been
the right diagnosis, the right doctor, and the
right treatment.”
With her head and heart both working
steadily together for the first time in decades,
Anna allowed herself to be touched by God’s
grace of forgiveness.
“For me, forgiveness has been key,” she
declares. “In forgiving, I have eased my own burden and this allows me to generate more love,
to live and do as Jesus, who is all about love.”
Despite the decade of emotional, physical,
and mental torture that Anna was made to
endure by her managers, the couple was not
denied her clemency.
“I realized that true forgiveness meant I had
to not only forgive the managers with all my
heart, which I do completely, but also I had to
ask God for forgiveness for them. I believe
that when they started they had the best of
intentions, but they were ill-equipped to deal
with a child, and as they got sicker and more
St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g
addicted, their actions and thoughts became
all distorted,” she offers in their defense.
“I understand that if they had been in their
right minds, they would not have acted that
way.”
Anna also begged to be forgiven. “I went
back to as many people as I could remember
whom I had hurt or offended in some way during that dark time and asked for forgiveness.”
Looking Back
Immediately after leaving her managers, Anna
had tried to resume a normal relationship with
her mother, but Mrs. Duke’s increased depression as well as Anna’s own demons made it difficult. The Duke women persisted, however,
and once mother and daughter received their
respective correct diagnoses and treatment,
both melted into a seamless relationship of love
and respect.
Frances Duke lived the last 15 years of her
life with her daughter, first in Los Angeles,
then in northern Idaho. Says Anna, “They
tried to break us apart, but they couldn’t. Our
relationship became almost too good to be
true.”
Despite the emotional distress of those years,
Anna’s career continued to soar, her illness
never affecting her ability to turn out one
acclaimed performance after another. She
starred in nearly 100 television productions,
and received three Emmy Awards and two
Golden Globe Awards in addition to her Oscar
for best supporting actress for The Miracle
Worker.
Her work has included several spiritualbased roles in Touched by an Angel, Amazing
Grace, and Insight. During the 1970s and ’80s,
Anna teamed up several times with Father Bud
Keiser, the founder of Paulist Productions, raising money for the poor, including on a visit to
Africa.
Anna twice achieved her dream of being a
nun, at least on screen, in two made-fortelevision movies.
“Every morning I would get to the set early
so that I could put on the pieces of the habit
by myself, quietly and reverently, as I had
always imagined nuns doing.”
She is thrilled with the pontificate of Pope
Francis. “I’ll tell you a secret,” she whispers. “I
have a crush on the pope. He’s going to do
great things. I am very hopeful.”
Still Anna
Though she continues to act on television and
on stage, the bulk of Anna’s attention is focused
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on advancing awareness of and support for
mental health. She travels the country giving
presentations on mental illness, particularly
bipolar disorder. Twice she has appeared before
Congress to advocate for mental-health support.
“We need to get to a place where we can
teach people to take care of themselves so that
they don’t act in destructive ways toward others and toward themselves,” she says.
Call Me Anna, her best-selling 1987 autobiography, represented the first time a celebrity
was so public about her own mental illness.
“The relief at getting well and the passion for
not keeping it a secret overrode any stigma or
backlash possible,” she insists. “Most people in
and out of the industry have
been incredibly supportive.”
Click here for more on
The industry has been very
Patty Duke’s life and career.
supportive indeed, twice voting
Anna president of the Screen
Actors Guild.
With husband Mike at her
side and her children and
grandchildren nearby, Anna is today at the
happiest place in her life.
“My husband is responsible for most of that
happiness,” she beams. “He was an Army man
at Fort Benning, Georgia. We met when I was
making a movie that featured some military
scenes and he was assigned to be my trainer.
The pacifist and the Army guy: God has a
great sense of humor.”
In 1987, Anna and Mike adopted a baby
boy, “Kevin from Heaven,” now 27 and a professional chef, who got to enjoy the best of his
mother.
Five granddaughters and one grandson keep
the couple busy. “Mike and I are committed to
following the example of Jesus. It has become
part of our molecular structure. Our grandchildren attend religious-based schools and
we have all the books and DVDs, but the only
way they really learn is by example, and ‘Nana’
and ‘PopPop’ want to be that example for
them.”
Anna Marie Patricia “Patty” Duke Pearce—
she is comfortable with any of her names
now—never wonders why she had to endure
the trials she did.
“I was given a difficult time, that’s true, but
I was also given countless blessings,” she says,
her voice catching in her throat. “In fact, just
about every day feels like a miracle.” A
tal
Digi as
t
Ex r
Rita E. Piro is the author of many articles and books. She is
on the faculty at a large Catholic high school for young
women in New York City.
February 2015 ❘ 33