Patty Duke

Patty Duke was the most acclaimed child actress of her generation, and unlike child stars from earlier in the century, she really could act. By sheer chance, her older brother Raymond had introduced her to his agents, John and Ethel Ross, a childless couple who specialized in the work of child performers. The Rosses immediately took Duke in hand, renaming her Patty (after child star Patty McCormack, then doing The Bad Seed on-stage), getting her jobs on television (beginning in 1953 with an appearance as a dancer on the Voice of Firestone series) and in movies. By the time she...