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5 of Patty Duke's Most Memorable Roles

5 of Patty Duke's Most Memorable Roles
Actress Patty Duke attends the 41st Annual ICG Publicists Awards on February 27, 2004 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Vince Bucci/Getty Images)

By    |   Wednesday, 30 March 2016 01:11 PM EDT

Patty Duke, the Oscar and Emmy winning actress, died Tuesday at age 69. She had many memorable performances, from "The Miracle Worker" to cult classic "Valley of the Dolls."

"Anna 'Patty Duke' Pearce passed away this morning March 29, 2016 at 1:20 am," read a statement from one of her representatives, USA Today reported. "Her cause of death was sepsis from a ruptured intestine. She was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a mental health advocate and a cultural icon. She will be missed."

Duke found herself in the acting spotlight early in her life, having won an Oscar for her role as Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker."

Gathered below are 5 roles that made Duke a star.

1. "The Miracle Worker" — Duke was 16 years old when she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress. She played the role of the blind and deaf Helen Keller alongside Anne Bancroft in the 1962 film. It was a role she originated on Broadway in 1959, according to The Wall Street Journal.

2. "The Patty Duke Show" — Duke also became the youngest person at the time to have an eponymous television show, which ran with ABC for three seasons, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show, which aired between 1963 and 1966, earned Duke an Emmy nomination in 1964. She played identical-looking cousins Patty Lane, an American, and Cathy Lane, from Britain.

3. "Valley of the Dolls"
— Duke starred with Barbara Parkins and Sharon Tate in the 1967 film that that initially received poor reviews from critics but went on to become a cult hit, according to The Wrap.

4. "My Sweet Charlie"
— Duke won an Emmy Award for outstanding single performance by an actress in a leading role for the 1970 NBC TV movie. In it, an unmarried pregnant white woman befriends a black New York lawyer, played by Al Freeman, who is himself accused of murder in a rural Texas town, according to The New York Times.

5. "Hail to the Chief"
— Duke's short-lived 1985 series seemed to be ahead of its time, in light of today's hits like HBO's "Veep" with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and CBS's "Secretary of State" with Tea Leoni. Duke played the first female president of the United States in the series, which ultimately lasted seven episodes, according to IMDB.

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TheWire
Patty Duke, the Oscar and Emmy winning actress, died Tuesday at age 69. She had many memorable performances, from "The Miracle Worker" to cult classic "Valley of the Dolls."
patty duke, dies, memorable roles
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2016-11-30
Wednesday, 30 March 2016 01:11 PM
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