Patricia Neal

This article is about the actress. For the actress, comedian, and writer of the same birth name, see Fannie Flagg.
Patricia Neal

Publicity photo from 1952
Born Patsy Louise Neal
(1926-01-20)January 20, 1926
Packard, Kentucky, U.S.
Died August 8, 2010(2010-08-08) (aged 84)
Edgartown, Massachusetts, U.S.
Cause of death Lung cancer
Resting place Abbey of Regina Laudis
Residence Edgartown, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality American
Education Knoxville High School
Alma mater Northwestern University
Occupation Actress
Years active 1945–2009
Home town Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Spouse(s) Roald Dahl
(m. 1953; div. 1983)
Children Olivia Dahl
Tessa Dahl
Theo Dahl
Ophelia Dahl
Lucy Dahl

Patricia Neal (January 20, 1926 – August 8, 2010) 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), and the worn-out housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud (1963), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She played Olivia Walton in the 1971 made-for-television film The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, a role played in the regular series by actress Michael Learned.

Early life

Neal was born Patsy Louise Neal, in Packard, Whitley County, Kentucky, to William Burdette Neal (1895–1944) and Eura Mildred (née Petrey) Neal (1899–2003). She had two siblings.[1][2] She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she attended Knoxville High School,[3] and studied drama at Northwestern University. At Northwestern, she was crowned Syllabus Queen in a campus-wide beauty pageant.

Career

Neal gained her first job in New York as an understudy in the Broadway production of the John Van Druten play The Voice of the Turtle. Next she appeared in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest (1946), winning the 1947 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, in the first presentation of the Tony awards.[1]

John Wayne and Patricia Neal in Operation Pacific (1950)

Neal made her film debut in John Loves Mary, followed by a role with Ronald Reagan in The Hasty Heart, and then The Fountainhead (all 1949). The shooting of the last film coincided with her affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper, with whom she worked again in Bright Leaf (1950).

Neal starred with John Garfield in The Breaking Point (1950), in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) with Michael Rennie and in Operation Pacific (also 1951) 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 1952 for a revival of The Children's Hour. In 1955, she starred in Edith Sommer's A Roomful of Roses, staged by Guthrie McClintic.

While in New York, Neal became a member of the Actors Studio. Based on connections with other members, she subsequently co-starred in the film A Face in the Crowd (1957, directed by Elia Kazan), the play The Miracle Worker (1959, directed by Arthur Penn), the film Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961, co-starring George Peppard), and the film Hud (1963), directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman. During the same period, she appeared on television in an episode of The Play of the Week (1960), featuring an Actors Studio-dominated cast in a double bill of plays by August Strindberg,[4] and in a British production of Clifford Odets' Clash by Night (1959), which co-starred one of the first generation of Actors Studio members, Nehemiah Persoff.[5]

Neal (r) with Andy Griffith and Lee Remick on the set of A Face in the Crowd (1957)

Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Hud (1963),[6] 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 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 next film was 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 a Hallmark television holiday special that inspired the long-running television series The Waltons; she won 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, so they cast Michael Learned in the role. Neal played a dying widowed mother trying to find a home for her three children in a 1975 episode of NBC's Little House on the Prairie.

She was a subject of the British television show This Is Your Life in 1978 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at a cocktail party on London's Park Lane. Neal played the title role in Robert Altman's movie Cookie's Fortune (1999).

In 2003, Neal was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.[7]

Neal worked on Silvana Vienne's movie Beyond Baklava: The Fairy Tale Story of Sylvia's Baklava (2007), appearing as herself in the portions of the documentary talking about alternative ways to end violence in the world. In the same year as the film's release, 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 appeared in a number of health-care videos.[8]

Personal life

Patricia Neal at the Tribeca Film Festival (2007)

During the filming of The Fountainhead (1949), Neal began an affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper, whom she had met in 1947 when she was 21 and he was 46.[9] At one point in their relationship, Cooper slapped Neal in the face after he caught Kirk Douglas trying to seduce her.[10] A few months later, Neal hoped that tempers would cool while she went to London, England, to film The Hasty Heart, starring Ronald Reagan. Reagan was unhappy over his breakup with Jane Wyman, adding to what would be a depressing shoot for Neal.

Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl, photo by Carl Van Vechten (1954)

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:[1] Olivia Twenty (April 20, 1955 – November 17, 1962); Chantal Sophia "Tessa" (b. 1957); Theo Matthew (b. 1960); Ophelia Magdalena (b. 1964); and Lucy Neal (b. 1965). Her granddaughter is author, television presenter and model Sophie Dahl.

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. In May 1961, the family returned to Gipsy House in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, where Theo continued his rehabilitation.[11] Neal would later describe the two years of family life during Theo's recovery as one of the most beautiful periods of her life.[11] However, on November 17, 1962, their daughter, Olivia, died at age 7 from measles encephalitis.[12]

While pregnant in 1965, Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms, and was in a coma for three weeks. One newspaper even ran an obituary but she pulled through with the assistance of Dahl, and a number of volunteers, who developed a gruelling style of therapy that fundamentally changed the way stroke patients were treated.[13] She subsequently relearned to walk and talk ("I think I'm just stubborn, that's all") and on August 4, 1965, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Lucy.[11] By 1968 her recovery was so apparently complete that her performance in The Subject Was Roses led to an Oscar nomination the following year.[14]

Neal's and Dahl's marriage ended in divorce in 1983.[15] In 1981, Glenda Jackson played her in a television movie, The Patricia Neal Story which co-starred Dirk Bogarde as Neal's husband Dahl. Neal's autobiography, As I Am, was published in 1988. In later years, Neal became a Catholic.[16]

Legacy

In 1978, Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville dedicated the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center in her honor. The center provides intense treatment for stroke, spinal cord, and brain injury patients. It serves as part of Neal's advocacy for paralysis victims. She regularly visited the center in Knoxville, providing encouragement to its patients and staff. Neal appeared as the center's spokeswoman in advertisements until her death.

Death

Neal died at her home in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on August 8, 2010, from lung cancer. She was 84 years old.[17] She had converted to Catholicism four months before her death and was buried in the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut,[18] where the actress Dolores Hart, her friend since the early 1960s, had become a nun and ultimately prioress. Neal had been a longtime supporter of the abbey's open-air theatre and arts program.

Filmography

Film

Year Film Role Notes
1949 John Loves Mary Mary McKinley
The Fountainhead Dominique Francon
It's a Great Feeling Herself cameo
The Hasty Heart Sister Parker
1950 Bright Leaf Margaret Jane Singleton
The Breaking Point Leona Charles
Three Secrets Phyllis Horn
1951 Operation Pacific Lt. (j.g.) Mary Stuart
Raton Pass Ann Challon
The Day the Earth Stood Still Helen Benson
Weekend With Father Jean Bowen
1952 Diplomatic Courier Joan Ross
Washington Story Alice Kingsley
Something for the Birds Anne Richards
1954 Stranger from Venus Susan North
La tua donna Countess Germana De Torri
1957 A Face in the Crowd Marcia Jeffries
1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's Mrs. Emily Eustace '2E' Failenson
1963 Hud Alma Brown Academy Award for Best Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1964 Psyche 59 Alison Crawford
1965 In Harm's Way Lt. Maggie Haynes BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1968 The Subject Was Roses Nettie Cleary Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance
1971 The Night Digger Maura Prince
1973 Baxter! Dr. Roberta Clemm
Happy Mother's Day, Love George Cara also starring Tessa Dahl
1975 Hay que matar a B. Julia
1977 Nido de Viudas Lupe US title: Widow's Nest
1979 The Passage Mrs. Bergson
All Quiet on the Western Front Paul's Mother
1981 Ghost Story Stella Hawthorne
1989 An Unremarkable Life Frances McEllany
1999 Cookie's Fortune Jewel Mae 'Cookie' Orcutt Nominated—Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress
2009 Flying By Margie

Television

Year Project Role Notes
1954 Goodyear Playhouse episode: Spring Reunion
1958 Suspicion Paula Elgin episode: Someone Is After Me
1957–1958 Playhouse 90 Rena Menken
Margaret
episode: The Gentleman from Seventh Avenue
episode: The Playroom
1954–1958 Studio One in Hollywood Caroline Mann
Miriam Leslie
episode: Tide of Corruption
episode: A Handful of Diamonds
1958 Pursuit Mrs. Conrad episode: The Silent Night
1959 Rendezvous Kate Merlin episode: London-New York
Clash by Night Mia Wilenski
1960 The Play of the Week Mistress
Grace Wilson
episode: Strindberg on Love
episode: The Magic and the Loss
1961 Special for Women: Mother and Daughter Ruth Evans
1962 Drama 61-67 Beebee Fenstermaker episode: Drama '62: The Days and Nights of Beebee
Checkmate Fran Davis episode: The Yacht-Club Gang
The Untouchables Maggie Storm episode: The Maggie Storm Story
Westinghouse Presents: That's Where the Town Is Going Ruby Sills
Winter Journey Georgie Elgin
Zero One Margo episode: Return Trip
1963 Ben Casey Dr. Louise Chapelle episode: My Enemy Is a Bright Green Sparrow
Espionage Jeanne episode: The Weakling
1971 The Homecoming: A Christmas Story Olivia Walton Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Drama
Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
1972 Circle of Fear Ellen Alexander episode: Time of Terror
1974 Kung Fu Sara Kingsley episode: Blood of Dragon
Things in Their Season Peg Gerlach
1975 Eric Lois Swensen TV movie
Little House on the Prairie Julia Sanderson episode: Remember Me
Movin' On Maddie episode: Prosperity #1
1976 The American Woman: Portraits of Courage Narrator
1977 Tail Gunner Joe Sen. Margaret Chase Smith Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Special
1978 A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story Mrs. Gehrig
The Bastard Marie Charboneau
1979 All Quiet on the Western Front Paul's Mother Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special
1984 Glitter Madame Lil episode: Pilot
Love Leads the Way: A True Story Mrs. Frank TV movie
Shattered Vows Sister Carmelita TV movie
1990 Caroline? Miss Trollope TV movie
Murder, She Wrote Milena Maryska episode: Murder in F Sharp
1992 A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story Antonia Morgan
1993 Heidi Grandmother

Stage

Run Play Role Notes
November 20, 1946 – April 26, 1947 Another Part of the Forest Regina Hubbard Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play
Theatre World Award
December 18, 1952 – May 30, 1953 The Children's Hour Martha Dobie
October 17, 1955 – December 31, 1955 A Roomful of Roses Nancy Fallon
October 19, 1959 – July 1, 1961 The Miracle Worker Kate Keller

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 Aston-Wash, Barbara; Pickle, Betsy (August 8, 2010). "Knoxville friends mourn loss of iconic actress Patricia Neal". Knoxnews.com. Retrieved August 8, 2010.
  2. Pylant, James (2010). "Patricia Neal's Deep Roots in the Bluegrass State". GenealogyMagazine.com. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  3. John Shearer, Famous alumni from Knoxville High School, Knoxville News Sentinel, May 28, 2010
  4. ""Play of the Week" Strindberg on Love (TV Episode 1960)". IMDb. February 25, 1960.
  5. Tom Goldie: "Tom Goldie's Telenews: Steel on Your Screen," The Times (Tuesday, July 7, 1959), p. 8. "Producer John Jacobs had a hard time filling the role of the husband. He wanted Ernest Borgnine, or Karl Malden, or Anthony Quinn, but none of them was available. Then he saw Persoff playing a featured role in the film, Al Capone, and promptly invited him to come over from America specially for Clash by Night.
  6. Bernstein, Adam (August 10, 2010). "Patricia Neal dies: Oscar winning star of 'Hud' was 84". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
  7. "Theater honors put women in the spotlight". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  8. "Danamar Productions".
  9. Wendy Smith. "Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life". Variety.
  10. Meyer, Jeffrey Gary Cooper: American Hero (1998)
  11. 1 2 3 "Roald Dahl on the death of his daughter" (3 February 2015). The Telegraph.
  12. People's Magazine, online reprint on Roald Dahl Fan Site
  13. "Big Sometimes Friendly Giant". NYMag.com. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  14. Oscar nomination 1969
  15. "Celebrity Corner". Knight-Ridder. October 24, 1983. Retrieved April 12, 2009.
  16. Me and Miss Neal, The Globe and Mail, August 13, 2010.
  17. "Actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84". NPR. August 9, 2010. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  18. "Patricia Louise Neal (1926–2010) – Find A Grave Memorial".

Further reading

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