How to duplicate an object without duplicating animation data? What is the easiest way to duplicate an object without it duplicating the animation as well?

I thought I could simply change this in the user preferences by unchecking "action" but this doesn't seem to work.  It is of course possible after duplicating to U> make single user > animation then delete keyframes manually, but I'd prefer not to have to do that.
I don't know how to do such duplication without involving Python scripting. If you're concerned about removing action from a large amount of objects quickly, though, you could use this:

Select all objects you want to remove action from, ending with any other object without any action attached as the active/last selected object. Then execute Object > Make Links (Ctrl-L), and select Animation Data. It will copy the action from active object, which is None, to every other selected objects, effectively removing their animation data. 

Not exactly what you're looking for, but worth considering as an alternative solution.