{"id":115766,"date":"2016-03-29T14:11:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T18:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=115766"},"modified":"2016-03-30T07:45:40","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T11:45:40","slug":"r-i-p-patty-duke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=115766","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Patty Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"patty-duke\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThere are so many emotions. Her work meant so much to me growing up, and The Miracle Worker<\/i> was a game-changer in terms of my child-hood understanding of acting (especially since I wanted to be one myself.) The Patty Duke Show<\/i> was also appointment television, and I can still sing the entirety of that theme song, to this day. And then later came the books. First up, her memoir, one of the best of its kind: Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. I read it voraciously when it came out, and I was just a kid, and now it seems prophetic. Then came the follow-up, Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. Her transparency about her bipolar disorder changed the landscape of awareness forever, not only for those who suffer, but for their baffled family members. This is personal to me,<\/a> probably not a revelation to anyone who reads me with regularity. But her example paved the way for so many others, especially when her condition was seen as so frightening. And it is frightening. It’s a bear<\/i>. Patty Duke was a huge advocacy for mental health and for that so many are truly thankful. Life-saver.<\/p>\n

She was also the president of SAG\/AFTRA, the union-giant that protects those who work in movies and television. (Her death means that SAG lost two former presidents – Ken Howard and Patty Duke – in one week.) The SAG website has an obituary for Duke<\/a> that gives a great overview of her career, as well as her stint as union president.<\/p>\n

What I am really present to are those performances though. Especially The Miracle Worker<\/i>, one of the all-time great “child performances,” although to say it was a great performance “for a child” is to totally limit the magnitude of what she accomplished as Helen Keller. Let’s face it: going toe-to-toe with Anne Bancroft would be difficult for even a seasoned actress. But that film is a two-hander, a battle of the wills, equal opponents in ferocity and determination. Watching it is still a revelation today. <\/p>\n

A gifted and terrific actress. Rest in peace. And thank you, not only for all the joy and inspiration you gave me through your acting, but for your books, and how they led the way for so many. <\/p>\n

\n\"Helen_keller_patty_duke\"<\/a>
\nPatty Duke and Helen Keller<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are so many emotions. Her work meant so much to me growing up, and The Miracle Worker was a game-changer in terms of my child-hood understanding of acting (especially since I wanted to be one myself.) The Patty Duke … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115766"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115796,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115766\/revisions\/115796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}