‘LOVE FINDS A HOME’
CAST BIOS
PATTY DUKE (Mary) – Patty Duke skyrocketed from bit player to Broadway star when, at the age of 14, she was honored with the Theater World Award as Most Promising Newcomer for her performance as Helen Keller in the Tony® Award-winning play The Miracle Worker.
Reprising her role in the feature film version, Duke won a Golden Globe Award as the Most Promising Newcomer and the Academy Award® as Best Supporting Actress. At 16, it made her the youngest person at that time to win the award.
Soon after, "The Patty Duke Show" debuted, becoming a hit and earning Duke her first Emmy® Award nomination. Duke's other Emmy nominations were for her work in "Having Babies," "A Family Upside Down," "Girl on the Edge of Town," "The Women's Room," "George Washington" and "Touched By an Angel." She is the winner of three Emmy Awards for her roles in "My Sweet Charlie," "Captains and The Kings" and "The Miracle Worker," in which she played the role of Annie Sullivan. Among Duke's additional feature film credits are "Billie," "Valley of the Dolls," "Me, Natalie," "Prelude to a Kiss" and "Harvest of Fire."
In 1982, Duke was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. At last, the demon that had plagued and mystified her for a lifetime finally had a name. Duke began taking Lithium to keep her symptoms under control and, in 1987, penned her best-selling autobiography, Call Me Anna. Five years later, she and medical reporter Gloria Hochman co-authored A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness.
Duke was first recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Democratic Action and only the third woman in history to be elected president of the Screen Actors Guild.
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SARAH JONES (Dr. Belinda Simpson) – Sarah Jones moved to Los Angeles from Florida in 2004. She quickly landed her first role as a guest star on the NBC television series “Medical Investigation.” Jones then booked recurring roles on HBO’s “Big Love” and Showtime’s “Huff.” In 2007, she landed a series regular role on David E. Kelley’s “The Wedding Bells.” After finishing “Deadline” and another recurring role on FX’s “The Riches,” Jones took on a lead in the independent feature “Red and Blue Marbles.” She has also acted in a number of films, including “Still Green,” “The Blue Hour,” and “Cain and Abel.”
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HAYLIE DUFF (Dr. Annie Nelson) – Haylie Duff came to worldwide attention in 2004 after her role as popular teen Summer in the surprise hit "Napoleon Dynamite," earning her a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Breakout Performance. She has since starred in Broadway's Hairspray, playing Amber von Tussle and was both host and executive producer of MTV's reality competition "Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search For The Next Elle Woods."
Duff starred alongside her sister Hilary in "Material Girls," and her other film credits include "My Sexiest Year," "Addams Family Reunion," "I Love Your Work" and the short film "The Newman Shower." She is currently in production on “Slightly Single in LA,” starring with Rumer Willis.
Duff has also enjoyed an accomplished television career. Her small screen credits include roles on the Emmy® nominated "Joan of Arcadia," "Boston Public," "Chicago Hope," "Third Watch" and "American Dreams," as well as being a series regular on "Seventh Heaven" for two seasons. Duff also headlined the psychological thriller "Nightmare" on Lifetime, as well as the thriller "Backwoods."
Though Duff's first role was in the two-part miniseries "True Women," she discovered her love of acting after winning a role in the Columbus Ballet Met’s staging of The Nutcracker. Soon after, she received her first screen credit with Goldie Hawn in her directorial debut, "Hope."
Duff continues to gain musical achievement as a singer/songwriter. She wrote two of the hits on the WEA/Buena Vista release of "Metamorphosis." She also recorded the Go-Gos' hit "Our Lips Are Sealed" for the "A Cinderella Story" soundtrack and performed Madonna's classic "Material Girl" for the "Material Girls" soundtrack.
A Houston native and accomplished potter, Duff currently resides in Los Angeles and enjoys spending time with her family, friends and beloved dogs.
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JORDAN BRIDGES (Lee Owens) – Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jordan Bridges has made his way across the country and back again. Bridges first got into the acting business as a child, starring in two movies directed by his father, Beau Bridges. After those two films, “The Kid from Nowhere” and “The Thanksgiving Promise,” he took a break from television, returning in 1994 and proceeding to the big screen.
Bridges attended Bard College in New York, where he got his B.A. in Performing Arts. He also attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). While in New York, he made his Broadway debut in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and starred in off-Broadway productions of Big Al (Arclight Theater) and The Dying City (Naked Angels/Culture Project).
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Bridges has also performed onstage in Los Angeles, with credits such as Looking for Normal (Geffen Theater) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Kingmen Shakespeare Festival).
Bridges has appeared as a regular in numerous television series, including NBC’s “Bionic Woman” and WB’s “Dawson’s Creek” and “Charmed.” His other television credits include a lead in NBC’s “Conviction,” as well as guest roles in “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “CSI: NY” and A&E’s “P.T. Barnum.”
He hit the big screen in 1999 with two films, “Macbeth in Manhattan” and “Drive Me Crazy.” He followed those with the blockbuster “Frequency” in 2000 and has been in numerous films since, including “Happy Campers” (2001), “New Suit” (2002), “Mona Lisa Smile” (2003) and “Turn the River” (2007).
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COURTNEY HALVERSON (Lillian) – A native Californian, Courtney Halverson has been working as an actress since the age of 13. After working steadily in independent films such as “Rogues” and “Keith,” Halverson landed the lead role in the film “Freaky Faron,” which filmed in Oklahoma. In 2008 Halverson traveled to Alaska to shoot the dark independent thriller “Godspeed,” in which she played the troubled lead, Sarah Roberts. Halverson has a recurring role on HBO’s hit series “Big Love” and has worked on television shows such as “Rita Rocks” and “Ghost Whisperer.”
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