Patty Duke, sitcom star and Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe winner, dies aged 69

Patty Duke has died, her family has announced. She was 69 years old.

Rising to fame with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker at the age of 16, Duke was also a triple Emmy winner and became an established star of stage, film and TV, further making her name in her own self-titled sitcom.

“This morning, our beloved wife, mother, matriarch and the exquisite artist and champion of mental health, Anna Patty Duke, closed her eyes, quieted her pain and ascended to a beautiful place,” her family said on Tuesday (March 29).

“We celebrate the infinite love and compassion she shared through her work and throughout her life.”

( Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker )

The New York-born Duke was a prolific child star – most famously winning an Oscar at 16 for playing blind and deaf advocate Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker.

Prior to The Miracle Worker becoming a hit film, Duke had also played Helen Keller in the Broadway version of the inspiring true story.

Her Oscar success led to another star turn in the classic US sitcom The Patty Duke Show, and more mature roles in Valley of the Dolls and The Swarm.

Duke won three Emmy Awards throughout her career – first for miniseries My Sweet Charlie and Captains and the Kings, and later for taking on the role of the caregiver Annie opposite Melissa Gilbert’s Helen Keller in a TV remake of her earliest hit The Miracle Worker.

(Patty Duke In Valley Of The Dolls )

Away from the screen, Patty Duke would become a passionate advocate for mental health reform in light of her own bipolar diagnosis.

She was also the second woman to ever be elected as Screen Actors Guild president, a position she held from 1985 to 1998.

Duke is survived by her last husband, Michael Pearce, and their son, Kevin Pearce.

Sean Astin , her son from a prior marriage, also tweeted simply: “I love you mom. “