Patricia Neal
Encyclopedia
Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She was best known for her film roles as World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still
(1951), wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), middle-aged housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud
(1963), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress
, and her TV role as Olivia Walton in the 1971 made-for-television film The Homecoming
.
, to William Burdette and Eura Petrey Neal. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee
, where she attended Knoxville High School
, and studied drama at Northwestern University
.
production of The Voice of the Turtle
. Next she appeared in Another Part of the Forest
(1946), winning the 1947 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, in the first ever presentation of the Tony awards.
In 1949, Neal made her film debut in John Loves Mary. That year, Ronald Reagan
was her co-star in The Hasty Heart. Her appearance the same year in The Fountainhead
coincided with her on-going affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper
. By 1952, Neal had starred with John Garfield
in The Breaking Point, The Day the Earth Stood Still
with Michael Rennie
and Operation Pacific
, starring John Wayne
. She suffered a nervous breakdown
around this time, following the end of her relationship with Cooper, and left Hollywood for New York, returning to Broadway in a revival of The Children's Hour
, in 1952. She also acted in A Roomful of Roses in 1955 and as the mother in The Miracle Worker
in 1959. In films, she starred in A Face in the Crowd (1957) and co-starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).
In 1963, Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress
for her performance in Hud
, co-starring with Paul Newman
. When the film was initially released it was predicted she would be a nominee in the supporting actress category, but when she began collecting awards, they were always for Best Leading Actress, from the New York Film Critics, the National Board of Review and a BAFTA award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Neal was reunited with John Wayne in Otto Preminger
's In Harm's Way
(1965), winning her second BAFTA Award. Her health took another turn in 1965, when she suffered three burst cerebral aneurysm
s during pregnancy, and was in a coma for three weeks. She was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate
(1967), but turned it down, feeling she had not recovered enough.
Neal worked sparingly in the following years. She returned to the big screen in The Subject Was Roses
(1968), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She starred as Olivia Walton in the television
movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971), which was the pilot episode for The Waltons
. Her health issues did not get in the way of another strong performance, with Neal winning a Golden Globe for her performance. In a 1999 interview with the Archive of American Television
, Waltons creator Earl Hamner said he and producers were unsure if Neal's health would allow her to commit to the grind of the weekly television series, which clarifies why she was not invited to reprise the role in the series (the part went to Michael Learned
). Neal played a dying widowed mother trying to find a home for her three children in a moving 1975 episode of NBC's Little House on the Prairie
.
In 2007, Neal worked on Silvana Vienne's innovative critically acclaimed art movie Beyond Baklava: The Fairy Tale Story of Sylvia's Baklava, appearing as herself in the portions of the documentary talking about alternative ways to end violence in the world. Also in 2007, Neal received one of two annually-presented Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SunDeis Film Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts
. (Academy Award nominee Roy Scheider
was the recipient of the other.)
Having won a Tony Award
in their inaugural year (1947) and eventually becoming the last surviving winner from that first ceremony, Neal often appeared as a presenter in later years. Her original Tony was lost, so she was given a surprise replacement by Bill Irwin
when they were about to present the 2006 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play to Cynthia Nixon
. In April 2009, Neal received a lifetime achievement award from WorldFest Houston on the occasion of the debut of her film, Flying By
. Neal was a long-term actress with Philip Langner's Theatre at Sea/Sail With the Stars productions with the Theatre Guild
. In her final years she would appear in a number of health-care videos, including The Healing Influence.
During the filming of The Fountainhead
(1949), Neal had an affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper
, whom she had met in 1947 when she was 21 and he was 46. By 1950, Cooper's wife, Veronica, had found out about the relationship and sent Neal a telegram demanding they end it. Neal became pregnant by Cooper, but he persuaded her to have an abortion
. At one point in their relationship, Cooper slapped Neal in the face after he caught Kirk Douglas
trying to seduce her.
The affair ended, but not before Cooper's daughter, Maria (now Maria Cooper Janis, born 1937), spat at Neal in public. Years after Cooper's death, Maria and her mother Veronica reconciled with Neal.
Neal met British writer Roald Dahl
at a dinner party hosted by Lillian Hellman
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); Chantal Tessa Sophia (b. 1957); Theo Matthew (b. 1960); Ophelia Magdalena
(b.1964); and Lucy Neal
(b. 1965). Her granddaughter Sophie Dahl
is a noted author and model.
In the early 1960s, the couple suffered through grievous injury to one child and the death of another. On December 5, 1960, their son Theo, four months old, suffered brain damage when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. On November 17, 1962, their daughter, Olivia, died at age 7 from measles
encephalitis.
While pregnant in 1965, Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysm
s, and was in a coma for three weeks. Dahl directed her rehabilitation and she subsequently relearned to walk and talk ("I think I'm just stubborn, that's all"). On August 4, 1965, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Lucy.
Neal and Dahl's turbulent marriage ended in divorce in 1983 after Dahl's affair with Neal's friend, Felicity Crosland (Dahl married Crosland that same year). In 1981, Glenda Jackson
played her in a television movie, The Patricia Neal Story which co-starred Dirk Bogarde
as Neal's husband Roald Dahl. Neal's autobiography
, As I Am, was published in 1988. In later years, Neal became Roman Catholic.
, August 8, 2010, of lung cancer
at age 84. She had converted to Catholicism four months before her death and was laid to rest in the Abbey of Regina Laudis
in Bethlehem, Connecticut
where her friend the early 1960s actress Dolores Hart
had become a nun and ultimately prioress. Neal had been a long time supporter of the abbey's open air theatre and arts program.
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 American science fiction film directed by Robert Wise and written by Edmund H. North based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe...
(1951), wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), middle-aged housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud
Hud (film)
Hud is a 1963 western film whose title character is an embittered and selfish modern-day cowboy. With screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., based on Larry McMurtry's 1961 novel Horseman, Pass By, it was directed by Martin Ritt and stars Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and...
(1963), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, and her TV role as Olivia Walton in the 1971 made-for-television film The Homecoming
The Homecoming
The Homecoming is a two-act play written in 1964 by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play and its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for "Best Revival...
.
Early life
Neal was born Patsy Louise Neal, in Packard, Whitley County, KentuckyPackard, Kentucky
Packard is a ghost town in Whitley County, Kentucky, United States. Packard was located southeast of Williamsburg. The community was a coal town which served the Packard Coal Company; the community and the company were named after Whitley County school teacher Amelia Packard...
, to William Burdette and Eura Petrey Neal. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, where she attended Knoxville High School
Knoxville High School (Tennessee)
Knoxville High School was a public high school in Knoxville, Tennessee, that operated from 1910 to 1951, enrolling grades 10 to 12. Its building is a contributing property in the Emory Place Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places...
, and studied drama at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
.
Career
After moving to New York, she accepted her first job as understudy in the BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of The Voice of the Turtle
The Voice of the Turtle (play)
The Voice of the Turtle is a comedic Broadway play by John William Van Druten dealing with the challenges of the single life in New York City during World War II...
. Next she appeared in Another Part of the Forest
Another Part of the Forest
Another Part of the Forest is a 1946 play by Lillian Hellman, a prequel to her 1939 drama The Little Foxes.-Plot synopsis:Set in the fictional town of Bowden, Alabama in June 1880, the plot focuses on the wealthy, ruthless, and innately evil Hubbard family and their rise to prominence...
(1946), winning the 1947 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, in the first ever presentation of the Tony awards.
In 1949, Neal made her film debut in John Loves Mary. That year, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
was her co-star in The Hasty Heart. Her appearance the same year in The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead (film)
The Fountainhead is a 1949 American film directed by King Vidor, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Ayn Rand, who wrote the screenplay adaptation....
coincided with her on-going affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
. By 1952, Neal had starred with John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
in The Breaking Point, The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 American science fiction film directed by Robert Wise and written by Edmund H. North based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe...
with Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...
and Operation Pacific
Operation Pacific
Operation Pacific is a 1951 World War II submarine film starring John Wayne and directed by George Waggner. The technical advisor for this film was Admiral Charles A...
, starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. She suffered a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
around this time, following the end of her relationship with Cooper, and left Hollywood for New York, returning to Broadway in a revival of The Children's Hour
The Children's Hour (play)
The Children's Hour is a 1934 stage play written by Lillian Hellman. It is a drama set in an all-girls boarding school run by two women, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie. An angry student, Mary Tilford, runs away from the school and to avoid being sent back she tells her grandmother that the two...
, in 1952. She also acted in A Roomful of Roses in 1955 and as the mother in The Miracle Worker
The Miracle Worker
The Miracle Worker is a cycle of 20th century dramatic works derived from Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life. Each of the various dramas describes the relationship between Keller—a deafblind and initially almost feral child—and Anne Sullivan, the teacher who introduced her to...
in 1959. In films, she starred in A Face in the Crowd (1957) and co-starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).
In 1963, Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her performance in Hud
Hud (film)
Hud is a 1963 western film whose title character is an embittered and selfish modern-day cowboy. With screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., based on Larry McMurtry's 1961 novel Horseman, Pass By, it was directed by Martin Ritt and stars Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and...
, co-starring with Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
. When the film was initially released it was predicted she would be a nominee in the supporting actress category, but when she began collecting awards, they were always for Best Leading Actress, from the New York Film Critics, the National Board of Review and a BAFTA award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Neal was reunited with John Wayne in Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
's In Harm's Way
In Harm's Way
In Harm's Way is a 1965 American epic war film produced and directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, and Henry Fonda.It was the last black-and-white...
(1965), winning her second BAFTA Award. Her health took another turn in 1965, when she suffered three burst cerebral aneurysm
Cerebral aneurysm
A cerebral or brain aneurysm is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel.- Signs and symptoms :...
s during pregnancy, and was in a coma for three weeks. She was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate
The Graduate
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...
(1967), but turned it down, feeling she had not recovered enough.
Neal worked sparingly in the following years. She returned to the big screen in The Subject Was Roses
The Subject Was Roses
The Subject Was Roses is a Pulitzer Prize-winning 1964 play written by Frank D. Gilroy, who also adapted the work in 1968 for film with the same title.- Background :...
(1968), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She starred as Olivia Walton in the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971), which was the pilot episode for The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
. Her health issues did not get in the way of another strong performance, with Neal winning a Golden Globe for her performance. In a 1999 interview with the Archive of American Television
Archive of American Television
The Archive of American Television is a division of the non-profit Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation that films interviews with notable people from all aspects of the television industry....
, Waltons creator Earl Hamner said he and producers were unsure if Neal's health would allow her to commit to the grind of the weekly television series, which clarifies why she was not invited to reprise the role in the series (the part went to Michael Learned
Michael Learned
Michael Learned is an American actress known for her role as Olivia Walton on The Waltons.-Personal life:Learned was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Elizabeth Duane "Betti" and Bruce Learned, a diplomat. Her maternal grandfather was an attaché for the United States Embassy in Rome...
). Neal played a dying widowed mother trying to find a home for her three children in a moving 1975 episode of NBC's Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
.
In 2007, Neal worked on Silvana Vienne's innovative critically acclaimed art movie Beyond Baklava: The Fairy Tale Story of Sylvia's Baklava, appearing as herself in the portions of the documentary talking about alternative ways to end violence in the world. Also in 2007, Neal received one of two annually-presented Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SunDeis Film Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
. (Academy Award nominee Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
was the recipient of the other.)
Having won a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
in their inaugural year (1947) and eventually becoming the last surviving winner from that first ceremony, Neal often appeared as a presenter in later years. Her original Tony was lost, so she was given a surprise replacement by Bill Irwin
Bill Irwin
William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
when they were about to present the 2006 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play to Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
. In April 2009, Neal received a lifetime achievement award from WorldFest Houston on the occasion of the debut of her film, Flying By
Flying By
Flying By is a 2009 drama film directed by Jim Amatulli and starring Billy Ray Cyrus, Heather Locklear, Olesya Rulin, and Patricia Neal. It was the final film for Patricia Neal.-Plot:...
. Neal was a long-term actress with Philip Langner's Theatre at Sea/Sail With the Stars productions with the Theatre Guild
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players.Its original purpose was to...
. In her final years she would appear in a number of health-care videos, including The Healing Influence.
Personal life
The Fountainhead (film)
The Fountainhead is a 1949 American film directed by King Vidor, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Ayn Rand, who wrote the screenplay adaptation....
(1949), Neal had an affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, whom she had met in 1947 when she was 21 and he was 46. By 1950, Cooper's wife, Veronica, had found out about the relationship and sent Neal a telegram demanding they end it. Neal became pregnant by Cooper, but he persuaded her to have an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. At one point in their relationship, Cooper slapped Neal in the face after he caught Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
trying to seduce her.
The affair ended, but not before Cooper's daughter, Maria (now Maria Cooper Janis, born 1937), spat at Neal in public. Years after Cooper's death, Maria and her mother Veronica reconciled with Neal.
Neal met British writer Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
at a dinner party hosted by Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
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); Chantal Tessa Sophia (b. 1957); Theo Matthew (b. 1960); Ophelia Magdalena
Ophelia Dahl
Ophelia Magdalena Dahl is an Anglo-American social justice and health care advocate.As of January 2008, Dahl is the president and executive director of Partners In Health , a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "preferential option for the...
(b.1964); and Lucy Neal
Lucy Dahl
Lucy Dahl is a British screenwriter and daughter of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal. She wrote the screenplay for Wild Child and served as a consultant to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based on her father's book of the same name. She is also a content contributor to the online food and wine...
(b. 1965). Her granddaughter Sophie Dahl
Sophie Dahl
Sophie Dahl , born Sophie Holloway, is an English author and former model. She was born in London, the daughter of actor Julian Holloway and writer Tessa Dahl. Her maternal grandparents were author Roald Dahl and actress Patricia Neal. Her paternal grandparents were actor Stanley Holloway and...
is a noted author and model.
In the early 1960s, the couple suffered through grievous injury to one child and the death of another. On December 5, 1960, their son Theo, four months old, suffered brain damage when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. On November 17, 1962, their daughter, Olivia, died at age 7 from measles
Measles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
encephalitis.
While pregnant in 1965, Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysm
Cerebral aneurysm
A cerebral or brain aneurysm is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel.- Signs and symptoms :...
s, and was in a coma for three weeks. Dahl directed her rehabilitation and she subsequently relearned to walk and talk ("I think I'm just stubborn, that's all"). On August 4, 1965, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Lucy.
Neal and Dahl's turbulent marriage ended in divorce in 1983 after Dahl's affair with Neal's friend, Felicity Crosland (Dahl married Crosland that same year). In 1981, Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson
Glenda May Jackson, CBE is a British Labour Party politician and former actress. She has been a Member of Parliament since 1992, and currently represents Hampstead and Kilburn. She previously served as MP for Hampstead and Highgate...
played her in a television movie, The Patricia Neal Story which co-starred Dirk Bogarde
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...
as Neal's husband Roald Dahl. Neal's autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, As I Am, was published in 1988. In later years, Neal became Roman Catholic.
Legacy
In 1978, Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville dedicated the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center in her honor. The center serves as part of Neal's advocacy for paralysis victims. She appeared in Center advertisements throughout 2006.Death
Neal died at her home in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, MassachusettsEdgartown, Massachusetts
Edgartown is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,779 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Dukes County. Edgartown has the largest population and area in the entire Dukes County and Martha's Vineyard.- History :In 1642....
, August 8, 2010, of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
at age 84. She had converted to Catholicism four months before her death and was laid to rest in the Abbey of Regina Laudis
Abbey of Regina Laudis
The Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis was founded in 1947 by Mother Benedict Duss, O.S.B. and Mother Mary Aline Trilles de Warren, O.S.B. in Bethlehem, Connecticut. This monastic foundation was one of the first houses of contemplative Benedictine nuns in the United States. Mother Benedict and...
in Bethlehem, Connecticut
Bethlehem, Connecticut
Bethlehem is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 3,422 at the 2000 census. The town center was designated in the 2000 census as a census-designated place ....
where her friend the early 1960s actress Dolores Hart
Dolores Hart
Dolores Hart is an American Roman Catholic nun and former actress. She made 10 films in 5 years, playing opposite Stephen Boyd, Montgomery Clift, George Hamilton and Robert Wagner, having made her movie debut with Elvis Presley in Loving You .-Background:Dolores Hicks was the only child of the...
had become a nun and ultimately prioress. Neal had been a long time supporter of the abbey's open air theatre and arts program.
Film
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | John Loves Mary | Mary McKinley | |
| The Fountainhead The Fountainhead (film) The Fountainhead is a 1949 American film directed by King Vidor, based on the best-selling book of the same name by Ayn Rand, who wrote the screenplay adaptation.... |
Dominique Francon | ||
| It's a Great Feeling It's a Great Feeling It's a Great Feeling is a Warner Bros. feature film starring Doris Day, Jack Carson, and Dennis Morgan in a spoof of what goes on behind-the-scenes in Hollywood movie-making. The screenplay by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson was based upon a story by I.A.L. Diamond. The film was directed by... |
Herself | cameo | |
| The Hasty Heart The Hasty Heart The Hasty Heart is a 1949 British-American co-production film based on the play of the same name by John Patrick. It tells the story of a group of wounded Allied soldiers in a mobile surgery unit at the end of World War II who, after initial resentment and ostracism, rally around a loner, a... |
Sister Parker | ||
| 1950 | Bright Leaf Bright Leaf Bright Leaf is a 1950 film drama based on a 1949 novel by Foster Fitzsimmons. It stars Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal and Lauren Bacall, directed by Michael Curtiz.... |
Margaret Jane Singleton | |
| The Breaking Point | Leona Charles | ||
| Three Secrets | Phyllis Horn | ||
| 1951 | Operation Pacific Operation Pacific Operation Pacific is a 1951 World War II submarine film starring John Wayne and directed by George Waggner. The technical advisor for this film was Admiral Charles A... |
Lt. (j.g.) Mary Stuart | |
| Raton Pass | Ann Challon | ||
| The Day the Earth Stood Still The Day the Earth Stood Still The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 American science fiction film directed by Robert Wise and written by Edmund H. North based on the short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe... |
Helen Benson | ||
| Week-End with Father | Jean Bowen | ||
| 1952 | Diplomatic Courier Diplomatic Courier Diplomatic Courier is a 1952 film directed by Henry Hathaway. It stars Tyrone Power and Patricia Neal.-Cast:*Tyrone Power as Mike Kells*Patricia Neal as Joan Ross*Hildegard Knef as Janine Betki*Stephen McNally as Col. Mark Cagle... |
Joan Ross | |
| Washington Story | Alice Kingsley | ||
| Something for the Birds | Anne Richards | ||
| 1954 | Your Woman | Contessa Germana de Torri | |
| Stranger from Venus | Susan North | ||
| 1957 | A Face in the Crowd | Marcia Jeffries | |
| 1961 | Breakfast at Tiffany's | 2-E (Mrs. Failenson) | |
| 1963 | Hud Hud (film) Hud is a 1963 western film whose title character is an embittered and selfish modern-day cowboy. With screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., based on Larry McMurtry's 1961 novel Horseman, Pass By, it was directed by Martin Ritt and stars Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and... |
Alma Brown | Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... BAFTA Award National Board of Review Award New York Film Critics Nominated – Golden Globe |
| 1964 | Psyche '59 | Alison Crawford | |
| 1965 | In Harm's Way In Harm's Way In Harm's Way is a 1965 American epic war film produced and directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, and Henry Fonda.It was the last black-and-white... |
Lt. Maggie Haynes | BAFTA Award |
| 1968 | Pat Neal Is Back | Herself | short subject |
| The Subject Was Roses The Subject Was Roses The Subject Was Roses is a Pulitzer Prize-winning 1964 play written by Frank D. Gilroy, who also adapted the work in 1968 for film with the same title.- Background :... |
Nettie Cleary | Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
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| 1971 | The Night Digger The Night Digger The Night Digger is a 1971 British thriller film that was based on the novel Nest in a Fallen Tree by Joy Cowley. It was adapted by Roald Dahl and starred his wife Patricia Neal. The Night Digger was the American title; it was originally released in the United Kingdom as The Road Builder.-Cast:*... UK title: The Road Builder |
Maura Prince | |
| 1973 | Baxter! Baxter! Baxter! is a 1973 British drama film directed by Lionel Jeffries and starring Patricia Neal, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Britt Ekland. A young boy struggles to overcome his speech problem and strained relationship with his parents.-Cast:... |
Dr. Roberta Clemm | |
| Happy Mother's Day, Love George | Cara | ||
| 1974 | "Kung-Fu; Blood of the Dragon" | Sarah | TV 2-part episode |
| 1975 | B Must Die | Julia | |
| 1977 | Widow's Nest | Lupe | |
| 1979 | The Passage | Mrs. Bergson | |
| 1979 | All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 film) All Quiet on the Western Front is a television movie produced by ITC Entertainment, released on November 14, 1979, starring actors Richard Thomas from The Waltons fame as Paul Baumer, and Ernest Borgnine as Katczinsky... |
Paul's Mother | |
| 1981 | Ghost Story Ghost Story (film) Ghost Story is a 1981 American horror film directed by John Irvin and based on the book of the same name by Peter Straub. It stars Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman and Craig Wasson . It was the last film to feature Astaire, Fairbanks, and Douglas, and the first... |
Stella Hawthorne | |
| 1989 | An Unremarkable Life | Frances McEllany | |
| 1991 | Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker | Herself | documentary |
| 1993 | "Heidi" | Grandmother | |
| 1999 | Cookie's Fortune Cookie's Fortune Cookie's Fortune is a 1999 comedy film directed by Robert Altman and starring an ensemble cast, including Patricia Neal, Charles S. Dutton, Julianne Moore, Glenn Close, Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell... |
Jewel Mae 'Cookie' Orcutt | |
| From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff | Herself | documentary | |
| 2000 | For the Love of May | Grammy May | short subject |
| 2003 | Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There | Herself | documentary |
| Bright Leaves Bright Leaves (film) Bright Leaves is a 2003 documentary film by independent filmmaker Ross McElwee about the association his family had with the tobacco industry.... |
Herself | documentary | |
| 2007 | The Fairy Tale Story of Sylvia's Baklava | Herself | documentary feature film |
| 2008 | Shattered Glory | Mrs. Wyatt | |
| 2009 | Flying By Flying By Flying By is a 2009 drama film directed by Jim Amatulli and starring Billy Ray Cyrus, Heather Locklear, Olesya Rulin, and Patricia Neal. It was the final film for Patricia Neal.-Plot:... |
Margie | |
Television
- Strindberg on Love (1960)
- CheckmateCheckmate (TV series)Checkmate is an American detective television series starring Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot, and Doug McClure. The show aired on CBS Television from 1960 to 1962 for a total of 70 episodes and was produced by Jack Benny's production company, "JaMco Productions" in co-operation with Revue...
: The Yacht Club Gang (1961) - Special for Women: Mother and Daughter (1961)
- The UntouchablesThe Untouchables (1959 TV series)The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
: The Maggie Storm Story (1962) - ESPIONAGE ---- The Weakling (1963)
- The Homecoming: A Christmas StoryThe WaltonsThe Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
(1971) - Ghost Story: Time of Terror (1973)
- Things in Their Season (1974)
- Eric (1975)
- Little House on the Prairie (1975)
- Tail Gunner Joe (1977)
- A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story (1978)
- The Bastard (1978) (miniseries)
- All Quiet on the Western FrontAll Quiet on the Western Front (1979 film)All Quiet on the Western Front is a television movie produced by ITC Entertainment, released on November 14, 1979, starring actors Richard Thomas from The Waltons fame as Paul Baumer, and Ernest Borgnine as Katczinsky...
(1979) - The Patricia Neal Story (1981) (cameo)
- Love Leads the Way: A True Story (1984)
- Glitter (1984) (pilot for series)
- Shattered Vows (1984)
- Caroline? (1990)
- A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story (1992)
- HeidiHeidiHeidi is a Swiss work of fiction, published in two parts as Heidi's years of learning and travel and Heidi makes use of what she has learned.It is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps...
(1993)
Further reading
- In February 2011, the VOA Special EnglishSpecial EnglishSpecial English is a controlled version of the English language first used on October 19, 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America. World news and other programs are read one-third slower than regular VOA English. Reporters avoid idioms and use a...
service of the Voice of America broadcast a biography of Patricia Neal: Actress Had Great Success and Personal Tragedy.
External links
- Death Announcement for Patricia Neal (YouTube)
- Patricia Neal at Allmovie
- TonyAwards.com Interview with Patricia Neal