9 August 2010 7:54 AM, PDT | IMDb News

Patricia Neal, the Oscar-winning actress whose life off-screen contained as much drama, tragedy, and inspiration as any of her film or theater roles, died Sunday at her home in Martha's Vineyard of lung cancer; she was 84.

An Oscar, Tony and Golden Globe winner, Neal was just as well-known for the trials, tribulations and triumphs she lived through, including a nervous breakdown, the death of one of her children, and a series of strokes that left her in a three-week coma while pregnant at the age of 39. Her subsequent rehabilitation, with the help of her then-husband, author Roald Dahl, led to yet another chapter of her acting career, as well as her pioneering for the cause of stroke rehabilitation.

Born Patsy Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky in 1926, Neal grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and studied acting at Northwestern University before heading to New York, where she began her long and illustrious stage career, winning a Tony Award in 1946 for Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, which attracted the attention of Hollywood. Though she filmed the comedy John Loves Mary first in 1949 -- a film in which she played the Mary to future President Ronald Reagan's John -- it was the second film she made that year which introduced her to audiences with a huge splash: the highly-anticipated adaptation of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, where she played conflicted, imperious heroine Dominique Francon opposite Gary Cooper's stalwart architect Howard Roark, already a famed character thanks to the success of Rand's novel. Though actress Barbara Stanwyck championed the project to Warner Bros., the studio ultimately cast the unknown 22-year-old Neal opposite the 47-year-old Cooper.

While the final results were neither a commercial nor critical success, the King Vidor film remains a campy and compelling curiosity in adapting Rand's philosophy to the screen; for its stars, it was the beginning of a notorious and turbulent affair. The married Cooper initially separated from his wife -- who upon discovery of the affair sent a telegram to Neal demanding the dissolution of the relationship -- but the resulting stress of the relationship and Neal's flailing Hollywood career led to a nervous breakdown for the actress. Though she had appeared in the now-classic The Day the Earth Stood Still and the John Wayne wartime drama Operation Pacific, Neal's position in Hollywood felt less than secure, and she returned to New York following the break-up with Cooper, appearing in among other productions a revival of The Children's Hour, whose author, Lillian Hellman, introduced Neal to author Roald Dahl. The two married in 1953, and the actress relocated to Dahl's home country of England.

In the late 1950s Neal appeared mostly on Broadway -- including her role as Helen Keller's mother in the original production of The Miracle Worker in 1959 -- and occasionally in television; her only film during that time was the acclaimed Elia Kazan drama A Face in the Crowd , where she played the woman who discovers and then ultimately betrays famed man-of-the-people Andy Griffith. After appearing as the wealthy benefactor and lover of George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Neal suffered two family tragedies in rapid succession: her four-month old son Theo was hit by a taxi in 1961, from which he ultimately recovered, and then her first-born child, Olivia, died suddenly of measles at the age of 7. After two years of only television work and practical abandonment by Hollywood, Neal returned to the screen in 1963 in Martin Ritt's Texas-set drama Hud, portraying the world-weary housekeeper to Paul Newman's amoral title character, who tries to rape her in the course of the film. It was a surprise career comeback for Neal, who received an Oscar nomination along with Newman and co-star Melvyn Douglas. Pregnant with her fourth child, Neal was unable to attend the ceremony but won the Best Actress Oscar (Douglas also won Best Supporting Actor). After giving birth, Neal made two more films -- the London-set Psyche 59 and Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way, opposite previous co-star John Wayne -- before becoming pregnant for a fifth time.

It was during this pregnancy in 1965 that Neal suffered a series of debilitating strokes, which left her in a coma for three weeks and required emergency brain surgery. When she awoke, she needed to be confined to a wheelchair due to partial paralysis, and found her speech severely impaired; still, she gave birth to a daughter, Lucy, without complications. As Dahl coordinated her speech and physical therapy, Neal learned to walk and speak again, and her rehabilitation was so successful that within two years was offered the part of Mrs. Robinson in 1967's The Graduate, a role she turned down, feeling that it came too soon after her stroke. A year later, though, she was ready to work, and took the lead role in the film adaptation of Frank Gilroy's play The Subject Was Roses opposite Jack Albertson and Martin Sheen. Her comeback was certified with an Academy Award nomination (though she lost in the year that Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand tied for Best Actress), with Albertson winning Best Supporting Actor.

Though The Subject Was Roses was her last major film role, Neal continued to work in television despite fears regarding her health. She was the first actress to play the role of Olivia Walton in The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, for which she received an Emmy nomination and Golden Globe award; when the telefilm was turned into the series The Waltons, she was recast with Michael Learned. A two-episode guest spot on Little House on the Prairie in 1975 garnered acclaim, and she received two more Emmy nominations in the 1970s; Oscar-winning actress Glenda Jackson also received an Emmy nomination in 1981 for portraying Neal in the telefilm The Patricia Neal Story, which chronicled her stroke, recovery, and advocacy for stroke rehabilitation. Neal also appeared as the wife of Fred Astaire in the thriller Ghost Story, as an imperious schoolmistress in the TV film Caroline?, and as the titular "Cookie" in the Robert Altman film Cookie's Fortune. A final note of drama in Neal's life came in 1983, when she and Dahl separated after it was discovered he was having an affair with one of Neal's friends.

In her later years, Neal retired to New York, and maintained a second home in Martha's Vineyard. She is survived by four children, and seven grandchildren, including model/actress Sophie Dahl.


Report a problem

Similar News Items

Martin Sheen
Barbra Streisand
John Wayne (I)

IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.

See our NewsDesk partners