Patty Duke

On October 19, 1959, two months shy of her 13th birthday, Anna Marie Duke (professionally known as "Patty") made an astonishing Broadway debut in the difficult, demanding role of blind and deaf Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker. The 1962 feature film version won Duke an Academy Award for best supporting actress. 1963 through 1966, she was a TV favorite, playing "identical cousins" in The Patty Duke Show - in which future Guild President William Schallert played her father. Between the years of her Academy Award in 1963, and her resignation as Guild president in 1988, Duke garnered three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Golden Laurel, and a People's Choice award. Shortly before her election as Guild president, she played the first female President of the United States. Although she'd never served on the Guild's Board of Directors, in 1985, she decided to became a candidate for Guild president, as part of a "Pro-SAG" slate, and was elected in November. In September, 1986, the Guild moved headquarters into the former Hollywood Congregational Church. During her presidency, the Guild devised a low-budget motion picture agreement giving advantages to productions that hire more women, minorities, seniors, and disabled performers; the Screen Actors Guild Foundation was created; and two strikes were conducted (a six week animation strike in June/July 1987, and a three-week commercials strike in March/April 1988) 1985: as new Guild presidentIn 1987, the year the Guild celebrated its one-billionth dollar in residuals, Duke released her well-received, brutally honest autobiography, Call Me Anna, and successfully ran for a second term as Guild president. She married Harry Falk, an assistant director on “The Patty Duke Show,” when she was still a teenager; the marriage ended in divorce. A second marriage, to Michael Tell, was annulled after 13 days. In 1972, Ms. Duke married the actor John Astin; during their marriage, she was billed as Patty Duke Astin. They divorced in 1985. Ms. Duke’s survivors include her fourth husband, Michael Pearce, an Army drill sergeant whom she married in 1986 (she preferred afterward to be known in private life as Anna Pearce); her brother, Raymond; two sons, the actors Sean Astin and Mackenzie Astin; a stepdaughter, Charlene Gibson, from her marriage to Mr. Pearce; a son, Kevin, with Mr. Pearce; and six grandchildren. Another stepdaughter from her fourth marriage, Raelene Pearce, died in 1998.