Acting 1950s–1990s One of Duke's early acting roles was in the late 1950s on the soap opera
The Brighter Day. She was featured in the uncredited role of Augusta Davis in the 1958 black and white short "An American Girl". She also appeared in print ads and in television commercials. In 1959, at the age of 12, Duke was a contestant on
The $64,000 Question and won $32,000; her category of expertise, according to her autobiography
Call Me Anna, was popular music. The
game show was revealed to have been rigged, and she was called to testify before a panel of the United States Senate. Duke eventually testified before congressional investigators and broke into tears when she admitted she had been coached to speak falsely. Also in 1959, Duke appeared in a television adaptation of
Meet Me in St. Louis as Tootie Smith, the role that had originated in the film version by
Margaret O'Brien. Duke's first major starring role was
Helen Keller (with
Anne Bancroft as
Anne Sullivan), in the Broadway play
The Miracle Worker, which ran from October 1959 to July 1961. Duke originated the role of Keller on Broadway, although
Patty McCormack actually originated the role in its earlier original presentation as a live television drama on
Playhouse 90. During the run, Duke's name was elevated above the play's title on the theater's billboard, believed to be the first time this had been done for such a young star. Before the film started shooting, the actress and activist Helen Keller briefly met. At 16, Duke was the youngest person at that time to have received an Academy Award in a competitive category. Duke portrayed both main characters: Patricia "Patty" Lane, a fun-loving American teenager who occasionally got into trouble at school and home, and her prim and proper "identical cousin" from Scotland, Catherine "Cathy" Lane.
William Schallert portrayed Patty's father, Martin, and his twin brother, Kenneth, Cathy's father;
Jean Byron played her mother, Natalie;
Paul O'Keefe was her younger brother, Ross; and
Eddie Applegate portrayed her boyfriend, Richard Harrison (though the actor was more than a decade older than Duke).—at the time it almost ruined her career. In 1969, Duke starred in
Me, Natalie, in which she played an "ugly duckling" Brooklyn teenager struggling to make a life for herself in the
Bohemian world of
Greenwich Village. Duke won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) for the role. Duke was also a co-host of
AM Los Angeles on
KABC-TV alongside
Steve Edwards in 1987. During her term, she led industrial actions and contract negotiations and oversaw the relocation of the guild's headquarters. and the reboot of
Hawaii Five-0. In 2011, she joined the cast of the drama
The Protector. She also returned to the stage on occasion—in 2002 as Aunt Eller in a revival of
Oklahoma! on Broadway and in 2009 as
Madame Morrible in the San Francisco production of the musical
Wicked. In May 2011, Duke directed the stage version of
The Miracle Worker at the now defunct Interplayers Theater in
Spokane, Washington. In 2010, she hosted a PBS TV special
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling: An Irish Parade Of Stars. The special was part of the My Music series and featured Irish and Irish-American folk music and sentimental standards. In 2011, Duke appeared in
public service announcements for the U.S. government, promoting the
Social Security website. In several, she appeared as Patty and Cathy using split-screen effects. In others, she appeared with
George Takei wearing a
Star Trek-like costume. In 2015, Duke made her final TV appearance, guest-starring on
Liv and Maddie as Grandma Janice and Great-aunt Hilary, a pair of identical twins.
Singing '', December 11, 1965 Like many teen stars of the era, and bolstered somewhat by her appearance in the musical
Billie, Duke had a successful singing career, including two top-40 hits in 1965, "Don't Just Stand There" (number eight) and "Say Something Funny" (number 22). She also performed on TV shows such as
The Ed Sullivan Show.
Mental health advocacy In 1987, Duke revealed in her autobiography that she had been diagnosed with manic depression (now called
bipolar disorder) in 1982, becoming one of the first public figures to speak out about her personal experience of mental illness. She also suffered from
anorexia nervosa and during her teenage years, weighed as little as .
Memoirs Duke wrote three books. Her autobiography,
Call Me Anna () was published in 1987 and
Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness () was published in 1992. The third,
In The Presence of Greatness—My Sixty Year Journey as an Actress () (with William J. Jankowski), published posthumously in February 2018, is a collection of essays about her experiences with other artists and celebrities. ==Recognition==