Patty Duke's Nun Fun
TV veteran
Patty Duke (aka Anna Marie Duke) was America's Sweetheart in the mid-1960s, playing identical cousins Cathy and Patty Lane on
The Patty Duke Show. She also made camp-film history as pill-popper Neely "I Need My Dolls!" O'Hara in 1967's
Valley of the Dolls. For years, Duke has also reigned as the drama queen of TV tearjerkers, including
The Miracle Worker,
Please Don't Hit Me, Mom and
Call Me Anna, in which she played out her real-life battle with manic depression. Next up, she's a crime-fighting nun (yes, really) in Hallmark Channel's
Murder Without Conviction (Sunday at 8 pm/ET). Here, Duke graciously answers our prayers by sitting down for an exclusive Q&A...
TV Guide Online: You recently got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Congrats!
Patty Duke: It's great! My son Mackenzie Astin, (Facts of Life) was there with his fiancée — hel-lo! — Samantha Sinclair. They plan to get married in the spring. As a matter of fact, he called last night to tell me he's also doing a Hallmark TV-movie called Love's Enduring Promise. My son Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) is in New Zealand again. He'll be there for three months doing [the upcoming miniseries] Hercules. I think he should buy property there. So my family's in a good cycle. Everyone's working.
TVGO: Gotta ask about your classic sitcom. Why identical cousins?
Duke: [Laughs] I think it happens in the first trimester. Oh, gawd. You know, I was so subservient in that time, I never asked anybody why they were cousins instead of twins. I just hit my marks and said my jokes on cue.
TVGO: Did you prefer to play European priss Cathy or party girl Patty?
Duke: Cathy was my favorite. I preferred her because she didn't do things to embarrass me. The American one was very embarrassing.
TVGO: The theme song said "Cathy loves to rock 'n' roll. A hot dog makes her lose control!" Not very ladylike.
Duke: Ugh! Someday, I'm gonna get the person who came up with that. You have no idea what torture that has been all these years! I was once in an after-hours transvestite bar, back in my Valley of the Dolls days. One guy dressed up and did the hot-dog song as a tribute. Oh, and I can't tell you how many Neely O'Haras I have met! I have such a love connection with drag queens. It only makes me mad when one of them looks better than me.
TVGO: So you're a nun in Murder Without Conviction?
Duke: I love playing a nun. Everywhere I walked in the convent where we filmed, people would say, "Good morning, sister." I'm the cutest little old nun I ever saw! But sometimes people get confused and think I played The Flying Nun. I have taken kudos for Sally Field's good work for years! In this movie, I'm just the crawling nun — because she's so old!
TVGO: Do nuns still dress in full penguin habits like your character?
Duke: Well, they actually do if they're cloistered, like the more meditative nuns who don't work with the public. Anyway, I have a lot riding on this movie emotionally. I should just admit it, rather than stuff it and make myself more nervous. I hope they pick it up as a regular series or at least several more movies. Hallmark owns the rights to the 13 books in the Christine Bennett Mysteries series, which this film is based on...
TVGO: So you're hoping this turns into your nunly version of the Murder She Wrote franchise?
Duke: From your lips to God's ears! I'm always the one who sits back and hopes somebody will give me a job. This time, I'm beating them over the head with it. I've never been so brazen in my life!
