The Tragedies and Triumphs of Actress Patricia Neal

By PopEater Staff Posted Aug 9th 2010 06:00PM

Patricia Neal experienced as many tragedies off screen as as she did triumphs on screen.

The Oscar-winning actress, who succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 84 this past Sunday, had a life marked with tragic circumstances immersed with her Hollywood success.

While filming 'The Fountainhead,' the actress began an affair with the married Gary Cooper. Neal became pregnant but Cooper would not leave his wife and daughter for the young starlet, and encouraged her to have an abortion.

Furthermore, the movie itself was a bomb. "You knew, from the very first reel, it was destined to be a monumental bomb ... My status changed immediately. That was the end of my career as a second Garbo," Neal said after watching, The New York Times reports.

It was around this time that she left Hollywood for New York, due to the stress of the end of her romance with Cooper.

She then met and married acclaimed author Roald Dahl in 1953, despite the fact that she did not love him, according to her autobiography.

In 1960, Neal's 4-month-old son with Dahl, named Theo, was hit by a taxi, leaving him brain-damaged. Two years later, their oldest daughter Olivia died of measles at the age of 7.

But her career continued to peak. She appeared in 1961's classic 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' and at the 1964 Academy Awards, Neal earned the trophy for best actress in a leading role for 'Hud.'

Tragedy was never far away, though. The honored actress became pregnant with her youngest child Lucy in 1965, but suffered a series of strokes that left her in a coma for three weeks. Fortunately, she gave birth without complications, but her road to recovery was not easy.

According to the New York Times, surgeons worked on Neal for 14 hours after she collapsed in her Beverly Hills home. Two weeks later, her doctor told Dahl his wife would live. "I'm not sure whether or not I've done her a favor," the surgeon told him at the time.

But Dahl became merciless with her recovery, putting her into physical and speech therapy and continued to be demanding of her on his own. Gradually, she regained her ability to walk and talk.

Then he announced, in 1967, that she would speak at a charity dinner for brain-damaged children, and later Neal recollected in her tome: "I knew at that moment that Roald the slave driver, Roald the bastard, with his relentless scourge, Roald the Rotten, as I had called him more than once, had thrown me back into the deep water. Where I belonged."

Shortly thereafter, she was offered the now-iconic role of Mrs. Robinson in 'The Graduate,' but turned it down, believing it to be too soon after her strokes.

Nevertheless, she would work on the big screen again. 'The Subject Was Roses' became her next feature film, which earned her a second Oscar nomination in 1969.

Of course, her personal life struck again. Her 30-year marriage to Dahl ended in 1983, when she found out about her husbands infidelities with her close friend, Felicity Crosland.

After her divorce, Patricia continued to appear on the big and small screens in lesser roles and worked to open and fund raise for the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center which aids brain-injured adults and children.

"I can't see from one eye. I've been paralyzed. I've fallen down and broken a hip. Stubbornness gets you through the bad times. You don't give in," she said in 1988.

Tags: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, roald dahl

Comments

(87)

Monday 09 August

By JoAnne

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She certainly suffered in her life with a verbally abusive husband and dealing with a difficult recovery from a stoke, but she was highly thought of by film buffs. I hope her children apologized to her for how they were influenced by her evil husband. I read her book and felt really bad for what she went through with him. Glad she out lived him by twenty years.Bless his cruel evil ...!

By kathy

Dahl was not verbally abusive....he FORCED her to do the stroke rehab that she did not want to do and she managed to recover because of that. The woman admitted she did not love the man she married-and she was upset by his infidelities????? Was she as sensitive to the pain Gary Cooper's wife suffered during Patricia's affair with him? Good actress-yes, Role model....not so much

By Gator Blue

Considering Patricia Neal's health when she was just 39, she did well to live to 84. I hope her last years, before her final illness, were happier than the earlier ones.

Her stroke and the deaths of her children were tragic. However, I have to say that I think she brought some problems on herself. Having an affair with a married actor was certainly not in her best interest. Why would she be surprised that he wouldn't leave his family for her.

If it's true that she said she didn't love her husband, there should be no big surprise that he had an affair.

She was a talented actress and deserved the accolades she got for her work.

By SuzanneWA

From the moment I saw her in "hud," I knew I had another role-model. Not the glitzy, blinged-out type of actress, but one wih rich emotional range. I've always LOVED Patricia Neal, and followed her tragic life to the end. I agree that her affair with Gary Cooper was a career mistake...but we don't choose who we love. As for not loving Roald, she stuck with him through thick and thin, especially grateful for his "pushing" her for her recovery from her devastating stroke. I had a mini-stroke at 61, from which I've recovered fully. Like I said. she is a TRUE role-model, and bless her heart, she lived to a ripe old age. Rest in Peace, Patricia...you've earnedd it.

By charles

yes, I have got to say that she was a talented actress, however she did live a long time by today's standards. I'm watching a movie she was in now I remember her now she was the lead actress in The Day The Earth Stood Still,I love her and empathize with this Lady she was truly great,God Bless

By susy

Patricia Neal was a great actress. As for the utter idiots who say she wasn't a "role model"; or cruelly say that she shouldn't have been suprised her "unloved" husband cheated on her - she stated that she learned to love her husband after they married, and as far as I know SHE didn't cheat on HIM. She always gave Dahl full credit for bringing her back from her strokes and also for giving her the children she adored. Patricia Neal was a wonderful woman who suffered in her life & came through a lot of tragedy. May she rest in peace.

By rggirt

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Patricia Neal was obviously obsessed with her career and therefore had a sexual affair with Cooper to further her career. It seems prophetic how the rest of her life had such tragedy, that she had to pay for her sins against decency.

By KellyB

Utter nonsense. Life and death happen regardless of whether or not one has an affair.

By BC

It's just pathetic that you think GOD would kill her baby, and causeher strokes because she fell in love with a married man. Why don't you move to Afganistan. God will cut your nose off if your bad there.

By SkyBlue

Sins against decency? Are you serious? Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody's perfect. Her affair with Gary Cooper certainly was a mistake. But a sin? What a naive, simplistic world you must live in.

Are you really that perfect? Maybe we should talk about your "sins".

By Aboona [Fr.] Joe

I hope to hell God has mercy on YOUR soul.

Tuesday 10 August

By Steven

Christianity preaches forgiveness and repentance, which you obviously cannot do. Patricia Neal obviously repented for her sins, and her fans forgave her. God does not do vengeance against the repentant.

By Kat

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You are one major idiot.

Friday 27 August

By sylvia Santiago

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It takes two to have an affair. Cooper didn't think of how he hurt his family, and then Patricia.I remember when it was going on. Rest in peace Patricia.

By SUE

Wow. I am stressed just thinking of all the tragedy in her life. That's what you call a tough ole broad! I was a fan of her work. RIP.

By Adrian

The Fountainhead was a good movie.

By Uncle Eddy

My mother always thought Patricia Neal was the model woman.

There was a movie called Patricia Neal story which starred Glenda Jackson as Patricia Neal. Patricia was at the Oscar ceromony that year and her first line was
"I'm happy to annouce that the script is written and I'll be starring in the Glenda Jackson Story."

By Merri

I always loved this quote from Little House on the Prairie when she played Julia Sanderson; "Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I'll remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all"...

By Connie

Thanks so much for this quote, I keep this written close by, I love it, but couldn't remember from which one of Patricia Neal's acting parts it came. Thanks for remembering. Didn't she play the original Olivia Walton? And Patricia: "thanks for the memories" I love you.

Monday 16 August

By lesa

Merri, I remember that episode of LHOTP and it is my favorite. I am no film critic but I thought that role was the best thing she ever did!!!!!

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