In this April 8, 1963 file photo, actress Patty Duke, 16, accepts the Oscar as best supporting actress for her work in "The Miracle Worker" at the annual Academy Awards in Santa Monica, Calif. Duke, who won an Oscar as a child at the start of an acting career that continued through her adulthood, died March 29, 2016, of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. She was 69. 

Guest speaker and actor Sean Astin, best known for his roles in ‘Rudy,’ ‘The Goonies,’ ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Stranger Things 2,’ spoke about mental health at the annual Peace of Mind Luncheon hosted Friday. The event was hosted by Mosaic Counseling Centers of East Texas and held at the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center in Tyler.

In addition to Astin’s talk, Mosaic Counseling honored Dr. David Teegarden with the 2023 C.C. “Pinky” Baker Jr. Person of Courage Award.

Attendees cheered when Astin appeared on stage. KLTV manager Pat Stacey sat down with Astin for a candid talk.

Astin spoke about his mother, actress Patty Duke, and her struggle with mental health. He also spoke about the SAG-AFTRA actor strike and gave advice about helping someone struggling with mental health.

Astin’s mother had bipolar disorder and struggled before getting her diagnosis. It took her years to get a diagnosis. After she received it, Astin noticed a positive change in her. She went on to write her 1987 memoir, Call Me Anna, in which she revealed her diagnosis. She became an advocate for mental health.

“For her, it was like a rebirth,” Astin said. “So she — over a long period of time — accumulated a lot of knowledge, a lot of experience and a lot of personal interactions with people all over the country.”

When Astin gives talks about mental health in other cities, he will hear stories about his mom and how she impacted them. He recalls being in Michigan and a woman spoke and told him about her story. She wrote a letter to his mom about her daughter who struggled with suicide and found her book to be impactful. After sending the letter, she received a phone call from Duke.

“All of the ups and downs of her love, of her emotional life and her journey to getting a diagnosis that she liked, getting medicine, that she was willing to work with everything else, a wellness strategy, she listened, she always had this metronome of work,” Astin said. “I think in that sense … she’s a great American success story. I think the work ethic is as much of reason versus things as her championship of intuition because I think it sets an example for people that they can really emulate.”

Growing up, Astin recalls feeling weight on him because his mom viewed having him as being her saving moment. She went to her church after becoming pregnant as an unmarried woman and they kicked her out.

“She imbued in me a sense of worth and value that she didn’t have for herself,” Astin said.

Astin is part of the negotiation committee on SAG-AFTRA. His mother was president of the union, before it became SAG-AFTRA. He remembers making signs and seeing her picture above him. He spoke about AI and the negotiations happening.

“We need to make sure that our people are safe and protected,” Astin said. “That they are compensated, that they have a choice in whether or not [their image] gets used differently than it is originally intended.”

Astin relayed some advice when helping loved ones with mental health: “Protect yourself” and “acknowledge to yourself before you start, that you might fail,” Astin said.

“There may be nothing you can do that will help this person and the great thing about that terrifying possibility is when you have a relationship to that idea, you helping the person becomes more about them and less about you,” Astin said.

Peace of Mind is East Texas’ premier annual conference on mental health. Keynote speaker Astin’s acting career spans four decades. He’s known for his iconic roles as Mikey in “The Goonies”, the title character of “Rudy”, Samwise Gamgee in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and Bob Newby in “Stranger Things 2.”

Following in the footsteps of his mother, Astin created a foundation to carry on her life’s work as an advocate for mental health. He frequently lectures on reducing the stigma of mental health issues.