Many newspapers and magazines have covered the recent death of Patty Duke (1946-2016). Of course, she is best remembered by her Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (both in theatre and film), her TV show and several other roles (since Valley of the Dolls to her Glee appearance in 2013). But she also had a small Brontë character in her CV. In 1958, four years before playing Helen Keller with Anne Bancroft, she played Young Cathy in a Wuthering Heights live broadcast TV production which had Richard Burton as Heathcliff:The DuPont Show of the MonthThis is how Patty Duke remembered her experience in Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke (1987):
Wuthering Heights (1958)
9 May 1958
Directed by Daniel Petrie.
The next year came something even better, "Wuthering Heights," starring Richard Burton and Rosemary Harris. Even today, the romance of that story is really transporting. If I watch the Laurence Olivier/Merle Oberon version on late night TV, I can't go out of the house the next day because my eyes are so red. And Richard Burton was, well, Burton, bigger than life and exciting to look at. I played Cathy as a child and even though I was crazy about Rosemary Harris, who was the older Cathy, I also resented it when it was time for her to take over. I wanted to do those love scenes with Richard Burton.
Besides Burton, what I really enjoyed about "Wuthering Heights" was the rain. Heathcliff kept running away, I'd follow him, and it would rain and rain on the moors during our preteen love scenes. (p.36)
so sad .rip x
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