Book Review: A Final Chat with Patty Duke

As I've noted on these pages before, the late Patty Duke had the rare ability to connect deeply with audiences, not only in her award-winning performances but also by speaking openly and candidly about her own life and experiences. Her many fans who are still saddened by her death in 2016 will welcome this new book of reminiscences.

Although she published an autobiography some 30 years ago, her longtime fan and friend William J. Jankowski urged her to capture on the printed page her memories of the many storied co-stars and other colleagues with whom she worked over her lengthy career. The result makes for fascinating reading, as she shares previously untold stories about experiences both uplifting and unhappy, with an emphasis on the former. Some she has written about before, and it's intriguing to see how her accumulated maturity and life experience allowed her to change her perspective on people like Lucille Ball, and her second husband Michael Tell, who was ultimately revealed by DNA testing to be the biological father of her son Sean.

In his preface, her co-author writes that he and Duke "would like readers to feel like they are having a private, intimate conversation with her." That's a goal they accomplish beautifully here. This is a lovely book.

Remembering Patty Duke (1946-2016)

Mr. and Mrs. Pearce.

Like so many of her fans, I was shocked and saddened by the unexpected news of Patty Duke's death earlier this week. Ordinarily, I don't have a strong reaction when I learn that a celebrity has passed away, even if it's someone whose work I admire. It just isn't quite the same for me as losing someone I know personally.

But among the most noteworthy qualities of Anna Marie Pearce, as she preferred to be known in her private life, was her ability to communicate with others -- whether it was in one of her performances as "Patty Duke," the Oscar- and Emmy-winning actress, or her compulsion to share her life experiences with others. After being diagnosed as mentally ill nearly 35 years ago, she spent much of her time not only making her own life better and healthier, but striving to help others do the same. That she succeeded on both counts is amply demonstrated in a touching interview given this week by her husband of 30 years, Michael Pearce. I found it well worth watching, and I think you will, too.

She won't be forgotten.

President Duke

First Couple Ted Bessell and Patty Duke.

In honor of Presidents' Day, here's a chief executive you may or may not remember -- President Julia Mansfield, as played by Oscar and Emmy winner Patty Duke, in the 1985 ABC sitcom Hail to the Chief.

The show was created by Susan Harris, the mastermind behind the popular comedy Soap. Like that show, Hail to the Chief utilized a serial format, with stories that continued week to week. Unfortunately, as Duke noted in her autobiography, though she thought Harris' pilot script "was the best thing I'd ever read for half-hour television," subsequent episodes fell short, and ABC canceled the show after only seven weeks.

Now, more than 30 years later, life may catch up with art, if voters elect our first Madam President this fall. As for Patty Duke, aside from her continuing popularity as an actress, she went on to serve as president of the Screen Actors' Guild, and become a respected advocate for mental health awareness. Not bad for a lady whose TV term was over almost before it began.