Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Anna Marie, Where Are You?


Image borrowed from Yahoo

Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (born December 14, 1946) is an American actress of stage, film, and television. First becoming famous as a child star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, and later starring in her eponymous sitcom for three years, she progressed to more mature roles upon playing Neely O'Hara in the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls. She was later elected president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1985 to 1988.

Duke was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982, and since then has devoted much of her time to advocating and educating the public on mental health issues.

Duke's first major starring role was playing Helen Keller (with Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan) in the Broadway play The Miracle Worker, which ran for nearly two years (October, 1959 – July, 1961). Midway through the production-run, her name was placed above the title on the marquee. The play was subsequently made into a 1962 film, for which Duke received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. At 16, Duke was the youngest person at that time to receive an Academy Award in a competitive category. Duke would later star in a 1979 remake of The Miracle Worker, this time playing Annie Sullivan, with Melissa Gilbert in the Helen Keller role.

Actors take risks all the time. We put ourselves on the line. It is creative to be able to interpret someone's words and breathe life into them.
Patty Duke

For the first time, I lived alone... in a luxury apartment on Sunset Strip. For a few days I loved the idea, but I got lonely and restless.
Patty Duke

Human beings have speculated about the relationship between inspiration and insanity for centuries.
Patty Duke

I believe that all the important people in my life prior to 1982 were victimized by my illness.
Patty Duke

I can't even remember how many times I tried to kill myself.
Patty Duke

I can't tell you what I had for breakfast, but I can sing every single word of rock and roll.
Patty Duke

I had been very close to Anne Bancroft when we worked together in The Miracle Worker.
Patty Duke

I have a picture of myself in my mind as I walk around every day, until I look in the mirror-and then I'm stunned.
Patty Duke

I have been afraid all my life that I am going to die. All my life it has been stuffed in my imagination.
Patty Duke

I have two books that were published quite some time ago. I start to read about three sentences. I have to close it. I am so self-conscious. Who did I think I was?
Patty Duke

I joke around a lot about the manic times because they're funny. We manics do outrageous things and it is part of our colorful nature.
Patty Duke

I kind of like the position of being the fair-haired savior of my mother.
Patty Duke

I knew from a very young age that there was something very wrong with me.
Patty Duke

I never did quite fit the glamour mode. It is life with my husband and family that is my high now.
Patty Duke

I still have highs and lows, just like any other person. What's missing is the lack of control over the super highs, which became destructive, and the super lows, which are immediately destructive.
Patty Duke

I tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.
Patty Duke

I think my real depressions started when I was about 16 and doing The Patty Duke Show. I would go to bed at about 10 o'clock on a Friday night and not get up again until 6:30 Monday morning.
Patty Duke

I'm going to be 58, and I'm a woman. In this business, that seems to be a bigger crime than being mentally ill.
Patty Duke

I'm living out a childhood fantasy. Our house is in a historic district of a small town that I used to read about in storybooks.
Patty Duke

I'm not sure I want all my neuroses cleared up.
Patty Duke

2 comments:

Merisi said...

Thank you posting this information,
I had no idea about her illness.
What a brave woman!

Tess Kincaid said...

Great post. I actually popped over to listen to Kiri te Kanawa in A Room With a View. Where'd she go?