Recalling Patty Duke's visits to Des Plaines, St. Charles
In 2011 before her visit to St. Charles, I asked actress Patty Duke if she ever thought about death.
"Oh, my God! Only every single day of my life!" she replied.
"All the panic attacks I've had since childhood were about the eventuality of death. It can still be a source of angst for me. Now, living as long as I have - I never thought I would live this long - has been helping me to accept the concept."
Duke, who won an Oscar as a teenager for playing Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" and enjoyed a long and successful career in show biz, has died at the age of 69.
Her agent, Mitchell Stubbs, reported the actress died early Tuesday morning of sepsis from a ruptured intestine.
In 2011, Duke had come to St. Charles' Arcada Theatre for a showing of "The Miracle Worker" capped by a Q&A with the two of us under the silver screen. I asked her in advance of the appearance if she had accepted the eventuality of death.
"How can the world continue without me? Give me a break!" the then-64-year-old actress said with a laugh. "It's funny, because I've searched a number of religions trying to find a place to hang my hat. It hasn't happened with formal religion.
"I was brought up Catholic, and you know how scary we are about death! Mostly, what I seem to be arriving at is living in the moment."
Duke visited the suburbs again in 2014 as she considered bringing a production of "The Miracle Worker" to the Des Plaines Theatre. She toured the theater and posed for pictures in front with Downers Grove actor/director Jack Phillips, who directed and performed "Love Letters" with the star several times.
"Her great gift wasn't just her honesty on the stage," Phillips said. "She was such a generous person with her time and her talents."
In addition to acting roles, including her twin roles as identical cousins in the 1960s sitcom "The Patty Duke Show," Duke - who had bipolar disorder - was a tireless mental health advocate.
Ron Onesti, president and CEO of the Onesti Entertainment Corp., arranged to have Duke come to the Arcada in 2011 and was struck by her sincerity.
"She was nothing short of spectacular, so sweet, so friendly," he said. "She was very appreciative to her fans."
Onesti said that Duke's death is a loss for everyone who grew up watching her in TV and movies.
"I don't want to say it's like I've lost a friend," he said. "It's more like losing a piece of your past."
Phillips said that Duke made an excellent president of the Screen Actors Guild.
"She worked hard on the problems we still have today," he said, "pushing for equality in casting, pushing the rights of actresses to get equal pay and equal access to work. She brought a great deal of respect to actors and the unions. She made a big difference."
The actress had her own experience with the death of an important person in her life, Anne Bancroft, her "Miracle Worker" co-star on Broadway before they made the 1962 movie.
"I went to school on her, as well as adoring her," Duke told me in 2011. "I have tremendous respect for how she lived her life."
If Duke hadn't been a performer, what might she have become?
"The people who raised me, my managers, used to say that if I wasn't in show business, I would be a hooker or a nun," said Duke. "I don't think I would have been a hooker. I might have thought about being a nun, but I don't think so.
"It's hard to tell because my career started at the age of 7. When my career started, my dreams about what I wanted to be stopped. What I did was work. "
Duke suffered an extraordinarily painful childhood.
Her father abandoned his family when Anna Marie (her real name) was 7. New York theatrical managers John and Ethel Ross took control of her life and career after persuading Duke's mother it would be best for her daughter.
They dictated everything for the girl they renamed "Patty" (after a popular actress Patty McCormack), including her opinions, bathing habits and what she wore.
She won the best supporting actress Oscar for 1962's "The Miracle Worker." Later roles included "Valley of the Dolls," and in recent years she guest-starred on a number of TV shows.
She was married four times and was the mother of three sons, including "Lord of the Rings" star Sean Astin.
At the Arcada in 2011, Duke had come to help raise funds for AIDS awareness.
"Most of the people I've known who've passed from AIDS have come to a point where all they wanted to do is forgive, and pass on peacefully," Duke said.
"Forgiveness has played such an important part in my life, and I came to realize how vital a thing it is for all of us to practice."