Patricia Neal

That his life and character have much that is extraordinary is easy to deduce. And it is that there are few people, and even less actresses, of whom a film has been made while they were still alive. In The Story of Patricia Neal , produced in 1981 and starring Glenda Jackson , the struggles that the actress had to face when she suffered various strokes in the mid-60s of the last century are narrated. In an impressive display of tenacity and willpower, the actress made a full recovery, thanks also to the help of her husband, the writer Roald Dahl .

Patsy Louise Neal was born in Packard, Kentucky, on January 20, 1926, and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. But she soon left for New York to try her luck as an actress. A few months later I was able to participate in her first work on Broadway, with a small role in “The Voice of the Turtle.” But her career on the stage would reach its zenith in 1947, thanks to her portrayal of Regina Hubbard in “Another Part of the Forest.” The beautiful Patsy won the Tony for best supporting actress, in what was the first edition of these awards, the most important in the theater world.

Although she would later continue making appearances on stage, the actress then decided to make the leap to the movies, and made her big screen debut two years later, in the comedy John Loves Mary , alongside Ronald Reagan . However, it was that same year when she co-starred in one of the most emblematic films of her filmography, the intense The Spring , by King Vidor . The indignant air of her gesture and her look, along with her great beauty, did not go unnoticed, and since then she has often played women of great character. In addition, the actress immediately jumped to the newspapers due to the love affair that she had with Gary Cooper, his partner in the film. The thing lasted several months, but although separated from his wife, Cooper never divorced and his relationship with Neal ended up cooling off. That same year of 1949, Patsy participated again with Reagan in the drama Dark Soul and the following year she worked again with her lover Cooper in The King of Tobacco and then in the wonderful Three Secrets , directed by Robert Wise . In 1951 she had a starring appearance as Lieutenant Stuart in The Silent Fleet , opposite John Wayne and then in the famous Ultimatum to Earth (1951) , also by Wise. They were the most prolific times of her career, with movies like Week-End with Father(1951), by Douglas Sirk , Washington Story (1952), opposite Van Johnson , Diplomatic Courier (1952), by Henry Hathaway or, again with Robert Wise, in Something for the Birds (1954). Previously, during a party Patsy had met the writer and screenwriter Roald Dahl. They both married in 1953 and from that moment on Neal’s filmography dwindled considerably due to several pregnancies – she had five children – and her maternal dedication.

However, after many slight appearances in second-rate television series, he worked in three extraordinary films. The first of these is A Face in the Crowd (1957), a fantastic sociological study of the fragility of fame directed by Elia Kazan , where the then-beautiful actress plays an ambitious journalist. In 1961 she played a mischievous ‘client’ of George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany ‘s and in 1963 she would get the role with which she would win the Oscar, that of Hud’s soulful Alma Brown, the wildest of a thousand . Patricia had to deal as an employee in the home of a complicated family and above all with the insinuations of the rebellious protagonist, played byPaul Newman . He would later work again with John Wayne in Otto Preminger’s warlike First Victory .

And it was shortly after that the actress faced the most delicate moments of her life. She suffered a stroke while she was pregnant and remained in a coma for 21 days. Variety magazine published the news of her death in February 1965. Finally, her son was born healthy, but she lost her speech and motor skills. Those were very hard years for Patsy and her husband, but she also became a champion of rehabilitation and pulled through with incredible efforts and the love of her family. So much so that the Knoxville hospital where she recovered was renamed The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center in 1978.

Back to normal life, in 1967 he was offered to play Mr. Robinson in The Graduate . She turned down the role, in favor of Anne Bancroft , because she found it too demanding for her first job after her very grueling illness. He reappeared in A Tale of Three Strangers , but certainly his career was never the same again and his presence was diluted in television series and telefilms. He had a small comeback in 1979 when he participated in the vibrant The Passage , opposite Anthony Quinn , and two years later in Ghost Story , with Fred Astaire and Melvyn Douglas , in what was the last film of his partner inHud, the wildest among a thousand . Patricia Neal’s last significant film appearance came in 1999, when Robert Altman cast her in Cookie’s Fortune .