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Patricia Neal (born January 20, 1926) is an United
States|American actress.  

Born Patsy Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky, she
grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee.  She studied
drama at Northwestern University, then appeared on
Broadway, winning a Tony Award for Voice of the
Turtle.  In 1949, she debuted in film opposite
Ronald Reagan in John Loves Mary.  

Her appearance that same year in The Fountainhead
led to a long romantic affair with her co-star,
Gary Cooper. The affair began two years earlier,
in 1947 and by 1950, Cooper's wife had found out
and joined the battle. On the occasion, Treglown
reports, Neal recieved the following telegram: "I
HAVE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU. YOU HAD BETTER
STOP NOW OR YOU WILL BE SORRY. MRS. GARY COOPER".
Eventually Mrs. Cooper got her way, but not before
her husband had made Pat pregnant and persuaded
her to have an abortion. Guilty and scared, Neal
called of the relationship.

After her affair with Cooper, Neal met writer
Roald Dahl at a party in 1951. They married on
July 2, 1953 at Trinity Church in New York. The
marriage produced five children: Olivia Twenty
(April 20, 1955 - November 17, 1962), died of
measles encaphalities), Tessa Dahl|Chantal Sophia
(renamed Tessa to avoid rhyme), Theo Matthew
Roald, Ophelia Magdalena, and Lucy Neal. They
eventually divorced on November 17, 1983.

In February, 1965, Neal suffered three crippling
aneurysms while pregnant with her daughter Lucy,
leaving her unable to walk and even speak for a
time. Roald took personal control of her
rehabiliation and she was able to leave the
hospital three months later. On August 4 she
successfully gave birth to her daughter.

Neal starred in The Breaking Point, The Day the
Earth Stood Still and Operation Pacific before
1952.  She suffered a nervous breakdown in that
year when her affair with Cooper came to an end,
but she recovered, and returned in 1957 to star in
A Face in the Crowd.

In 1963, Neal won the Academy Award for Best
Actress for her performance in Hud (movie)|Hud. 
In 1965 she suffered a series of strokes, and went
through extensive rehabilitation, returning in
1968 to star in The Subject Was Roses, for which
she was again nominated for an Oscar.

Neal starred in the television movie The
Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which proved to be
the pilot episode for The Waltons.  She did not,
however, reprise her role of the mother in the
series.  She was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson
in The Graduate, but turned it down, feeling it
had come too soon after her stroke.

In 1981 Glenda Jackson played her in a television
movie, The Patricia Neal Story.  In 1988 Neal
published an autobiography, As I Am.


==Filmography==
*John Loves Mary (1949)
*The Fountainhead (1949)
*It's a Great Feeling (1949) (Cameo)
*The Hasty Heart (1949)
*Bright Leaf (1950)
*The Breaking Point (1950)
*Three Secrets (1950)
*Operation Pacific (1951)
*Raton Pass (1951)
*The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
*Week-End with Father (1951)
*Diplomatic Courier (1952)
*Washington Story (1952)
*Soemthing for the Birds (1952)
*Your Woman (1954)
*Stranger from Venus (1954)
*A Face in the Crowd (1957)
*Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
*Hud (movie)|Hud (1963)
*Psyche '59 (1964)
*In Harm's Way (1965)
*Pat Neal Is Back (1968) (short subject)
*The Subject Was Roses (1968)
*The Night Digger (1971)
*Baxter! (1973)
*Happy Mother's Day, Love George (1973)
*B Must Die (1975)
*Widow's Nest (1977)
*The Passage (1979)
*Ghost Story (1981)
*An Unremarkable Life (1989)
*Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991)
(documentary)
*A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story
(1992) (TV)
*Cookie's Fortune (1999)
*From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of
Chekhov and Shdanoff (1999) (documentary)
*For the Love of May (2000) (short subject)
*Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were
There (2003) (documentary)
*Bright Leaves (2003) (documentary)