News

Actions

Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke dies

Posted
and last updated

NEW YORK (AP) — Patty Duke, who won an Oscar as a teen for "The Miracle Worker" and maintained a long and successful career throughout her life while battling personal demons, has died at the age of 69.

Duke's agent, Mitchell Stubbs, says the actress died early Tuesday morning of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. She died in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, according to Teri Weigel, the publicist for her son, actor Sean Astin.

Duke, born Anna Marie Pearce, followed on her early success playing the young Helen Keller with a popular sitcom, "The Patty Duke Show," which aired for three seasons in the mid-1960s. She played dual roles under an unconventional premise: identical cousins living in Brooklyn Heights, New York.

In 2015, she played twin roles again: as a pair of grandmas on an episode of "Liv and Maddie," a series on the Disney Channel.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the characters are identical cousins, not twins.

,

Weather

Daily Forecast

View Hourly Forecast

Day

Conditions

HI / LO

Precip

Saturday

05/23/2026

Sunny

94° / 64°

0%

Sunday

05/24/2026

Sunny

90° / 61°

0%

Monday

05/25/2026

Sunny

88° / 59°

0%

Tuesday

05/26/2026

Mostly Sunny

82° / 57°

1%

Wednesday

05/27/2026

Sunny

79° / 56°

0%

Thursday

05/28/2026

Sunny

80° / 56°

0%

Friday

05/29/2026

Sunny

84° / 60°

1%

Saturday

05/30/2026

Sunny

89° / 61°

0%