Girl interrupted: The Patty Duke Show's Duke
Question: When I was growing up, I loved The Patty Duke Show, and even thought her characters were played by two different actresses when I was a little kid. But I've read Patty was miserable during the years she did the show. Is that true? Love your column.
Answer: Unfortunately it is, Jillian, as Duke detailed in her 1987 best-seller, Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. The actress, was already a stage sensation and the first person under 18 to receive a competitive Oscar (she won for The Miracle Worker at 16) when she launched the ABC comedy in September 1963. Duke was a bundle of talent who was lauded for her dramatic and comedic performances, but nobody at the time realized what was going on behind the scenes.
Born to a lower-middle-class family in a
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