It's not unusual for any actor or filmmaker to be showered with attention following an Oscar win -- but it was a much different for legendary actress Patty Duke, who won her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as a mere 16-year-old for the 1962 drama "The Miracle Worker."

Duke won the award for playing Helen Keller in the film -- a role that had already mastered on Broadway at age 12. And thanks to the approach of her management, the film star had little opportunity to let the highest of film accolades inflate her ego.

"I lived in a strange situation with my managers. Winning the Oscar was tempered by them," Duke recalled in a recent @ The Movies interview. "They knew my buttons -- they created my buttons -- so I was almost humbled immediately. There was no such thing as brandishing the Oscar around, and having people touch it and hold it."

One thing, Duke admits, it that she didn't realize at her young age just how major of an honor the Oscar really was.

"Of course, I would get much more out of it today," Duke said. "That doesn't mean that I loved it, appreciated it and was thrilled at the time, but I didn't have enough behind me to fully appreciate it."

Now 63, Duke (who goes by her real name Anna Pearce) said that she takes nothing for granted in her career -- a successful one that has not only produced multiple film and television roles, but classic television sitcoms like "The Patty Duke Show" and another version of "The Miracle Worker." The 1979 television movie, like the 1962 feature film, also earned Duke high honors -- but the second time around it was an Emmy for playing Keller's tutor, Annie Sullivan.

Duke's proudest accomplishments also include two sons -- Sean Astin and Mackenzie Astin -- who've gone on to successful careers of their own in Hollywood with the same sense of work ethic and values that earned their mom a lasting career in show business.

"There's nothing neater than a person coming up to you and saying, 'I worked with Sean' or 'I worked with Mac,' and noting, 'What a lovely gentleman. What a lovely guy.' I say to myself, 'Hey, I guess I didn't make as many mistakes as I thought,'" Duke said, laughing.