Profile of Patricia Neal on Famous Like Me

Patricia Neal (born January 20, 1926) is an American actress.

Born Patsy Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky, she grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. She studied drama at Northwestern University, then appeared on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for Voice of the Turtle. In 1949, she debuted in film opposite Ronald Reagan in John Loves Mary.

Her appearance that same year in The Fountainhead coincided with a long romantic affair with her much older co-star, Gary Cooper. The affair had begun two years earlier, in 1947, when Neal was only 21, and by 1950, Cooper's wife had found out and joined the battle. On the occasion, Treglown reports, Neal received the following telegram: "I HAVE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU. YOU HAD BETTER STOP NOW OR YOU WILL BE SORRY. MRS. GARY COOPER". Eventually Mrs. Cooper got her way, but not before her husband had gotten Neal pregnant, and then persuaded her to have an abortion. Guilty and scared, Neal ended the relationship, but not before Cooper's daughter, Maria (now Maria Cooper Janis) (b. 1937), spit at her in public. Ironically, many years later Maria and Patricia would become friends (as per Hello! magazine).

After her affair with Cooper, Neal met writer Roald Dahl at a party in 1951. They married on July 2, 1953, at Trinity Church in New York. The marriage produced five children: Olivia Twenty (April 20, 1955 - November 17, 1962), who died of measles encephalitis, Chantal Sophia (renamed Tessa to avoid rhyme), Theo Matthew Roald, Ophelia Magdalena, and Lucy Neal.

Neal starred in The Breaking Point, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Operation Pacific before 1952. She suffered a nervous breakdown in that year when her affair with Cooper came to an end, but she recovered, and returned in 1957 to star in A Face in the Crowd. In 1963, Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Hud, but was unable to attend the telecast that year. She returned to the big screen in 1968 to star in The Subject Was Roses, for which she was again nominated for an Oscar.

In February, 1965, Neal suffered three crippling strokes while pregnant with her daughter Lucy, leaving her unable to walk and even speak for a time. Roald took personal control of her rehabiliation and she was able to leave the hospital three months later. On August 4, 1965, she successfully gave birth to her daughter. Dahl helped Neal through her rehabilitation, but wound up committing adultery with Neal's then-best friend, Felicity Ann d'Abreu Crosland (b. 12/12/38). Neal and Dahl ended up divorcing on November 17, 1983, after 30 years of marriage.

Neal starred in the television movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which proved to be the pilot episode for The Waltons. She did not, however, reprise her role of the mother in the series. She was offered the role of "Mrs. Robinson" in The Graduate, but turned it down, feeling it had come too soon after her stroke.

In 1981 Glenda Jackson played her in a television movie, The Patricia Neal Story. In 1988 Neal published an autobiography, As I Am.

Filmography

• John Loves Mary (1949)
• The Fountainhead (1949)
• It's a Great Feeling (1949) (Cameo)
• The Hasty Heart (1949)
• Bright Leaf (1950)
• The Breaking Point (1950)
• Three Secrets (1950)
• Operation Pacific (1951)
• Raton Pass (1951)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
• Week-End with Father (1951)
• Diplomatic Courier (1952)
• Washington Story (1952)
• Soemthing for the Birds (1952)
• Your Woman (1954)
• Stranger from Venus (1954)
• A Face in the Crowd (1957)
• Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
• Hud (1963)
• Psyche '59 (1964)
• In Harm's Way (1965)
• Pat Neal Is Back (1968) (short subject)
• The Subject Was Roses (1968)
• The Night Digger (1971)
• Baxter! (1973)
• Happy Mother's Day, Love George (1973)
• B Must Die (1975)
• Widow's Nest (1977)
• The Passage (1979)
• Ghost Story (1981)
• An Unremarkable Life (1989)
• Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991) (documentary)
• A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story (1992) (TV)
• Cookie's Fortune (1999)
• From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff (1999) (documentary)
• For the Love of May (2000) (short subject)
• Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003) (documentary)
• Bright Leaves (2003) (documentary)

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