Patricia Neal (born Patsy Louise Neal; January 20, 1926 – August 8, 2010) was an American actress of stage and screen. She is well known for, among other roles, playing World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), radio journalist Marcia Jeffries in A Face in the Crowd (1957), 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 also featured as the matriarch in the television film The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971); her role as Olivia Walton was recast for the series it inspired, The Waltons. A major star of the 1950s and 1960s, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and two British Academy Film Awards, and was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Early life and
education
Neal was born in Packard, Whitley County, Kentucky, to
William Burdette Neal and Eura Mildred (née Petrey) Neal. She had two siblings.
Neal grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she attended
Knoxville High School and studied drama at Northwestern, where she was a
member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. At Northwestern, she was crowned Syllabus Queen
in a campus-wide beauty pageant. She left Northwestern after talent scouts
convinced her to leave for New York.
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.
Neal made her film debut with Ronald Reagan in John Loves
Mary, followed by another role with 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).
John Wayne and
Patricia Neal
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.
Neal with Andy
Griffith
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), 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, 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.
Neal with Paul Newman
Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her
performance in Hud (1963), 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.
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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 the matriarch in the television film The Homecoming: A Christmas
Story (1971), which inspired the 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 schedule of a weekly
television series; so, instead, they cast Michael Learned in the role of Olivia
Walton. Neal played Julia Sanderson,
a dying, widowed mother trying to find a home for her three children in the
2-part episode, “Remember Me”, of NBC's Little House on the Prairie broadcast
in 1975.
Neal appeared in a series of television commercials in the
1970s and 1980s, notably for pain relief medicine Anacin and Maxim instant
coffee.
Neal played the title role in Robert Altman's movie Cookie's
Fortune (1999). She 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 several healthcare videos.
Personal life
In 1948, either during filming or after finishing work on
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. Cooper's wife
confronted him, and Cooper confessed that he was in love with Neal and
continued to see her. Cooper and his wife were legally separated in May 1951,
but he did not seek a divorce. Neal later claimed that Cooper hit her after she
went on a date with Kirk Douglas, and that he arranged for her to have an
abortion when she became pregnant with Cooper's child. Neal ended their relationship
in late December 1951.
During this time, she was a Democrat who supported the
campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.
Neal met British writer Roald Dahl at a dinner party hosted
by Lillian Hellman in 1952, while Dahl was living in New York. They married on
July 2, 1953, at Trinity Church in New York. The marriage produced five
children.
Olivia Twenty (1955–1962)
Chantal Sophia "Tessa"
(born 1957) (mother of Sophie Dahl)
Theo Matthew (born 1960)
Ophelia Magdalena (born 1964)
Lucy Neal (born 1965)
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. Neal described the
two years of family life during Theo's recovery as one of the most beautiful
periods of her life. However, on November 17, 1962, their daughter Olivia died
at age 7 from measles encephalitis. The story of Olivia's death and how Neal
and Dahl coped with the tragedy was dramatized in 2020 as a made-for-TV movie,
To Olivia.
Neal was a heavy smoker. She suffered three burst cerebral
aneurysms while pregnant in 1965 and was in a coma for three weeks. Variety
magazine ran an obituary, but she survived with the assistance of Dahl and several volunteers who developed a grueling style of therapy that
fundamentally changed the way that stroke patients were treated. This period of
their lives was dramatized in the television film The Patricia Neal Story
(1981), in which the couple was played by Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde. On
August 4, 1965, Neal gave birth to a healthy daughter. She subsequently
relearned to walk and talk, and after her recovery, was nominated for an Oscar
for her 1968 performance in The Subject Was Roses.
In 1983, following Dahl's 11-year affair with Felicity
D'Abreu, a set designer he met when she worked with Neal on a Maxim Coffee
advertisement, Neal's marriage ended in divorce. She returned to live in the
US. In her autobiography, As I Am (1988), Neal wrote: "A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than
any wonder drug."
Death
Neal died at her home in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard,
Massachusetts, on August 8, 2010, from lung cancer. She was 84 years old.
She had become a Catholic four months before she died and
was buried in the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, 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.
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.
Filmography
Film
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 Foreign Actress
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 Foreign Actress
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
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 Final film role
Television
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 in a 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
Supporting or 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
Encyclopedia of Kentucky. New York, New York: Somerset
Publishers. 1987. pp. 182–183. ISBN 0-403-09981-1.
Neal, Patricia (1988). As I Am: An Autobiography. New York,
New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-62501-2.
Shearer, Stephen Michael (2006). Patricia Neal: An Unquiet
Life. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2391-7.
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