5 Fast Facts About Actress Patty Duke
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Former child star Patty Duke, who played twin cousins on "The Patty Duke Show" and later won an Oscar for her role in "The Miracle Worker," has died.
She was 69.
Photos: Patty Duke Through The Years | Celebrity Deaths
Her agent said Duke died from sepsis after a ruptured intestine. She leaves behind a son, actor Sean Astin.
Here are 5 things you may or may not know about Duke:
1) Born in Elmhurst, NY, one of Duke's first acting jobs was on the soap opera "The Brighter Day" in the 1950s.
2) Duke starred as Helen Keller in the Broadway play, "The Miracle Worker" from 1959-1961. She won an Oscar for her role in the film version in 1962.
3) In 1963, Duke was given her own TV show, "The Patty Duke Show," created specifically for her by writer Sidney Sheldon. She played both roles -- American teenager "Patty" Lane and her identical cousin "Cathy" Lane from Scotland.
4) In her 1987 memoir, Duke said she was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder in 1982 and was a staunch advocate of mental health issues ever since.
5) Duke was married 4 times, most notably to actor John Astin. She has a son, actor Sean Astin, born in February 1971. Before she married Astin, Duke had an affair with her then "Here's Lucy" co-star Desi Arnaz, Jr. Although Duke said in her book that John Astin was Sean's biological father, she later said always believed that Arnaz, Jr. was Sean's actual father.
In 1994, Sean Astin underwent biological testing to determine his paternity, and the results showed that Astin's father is actually Michael Tell, a man whom Duke was married to for 13 days in 1970.
