Patricia Neal (born January 20 1926) is an Academy Award winning American actress.
Grandmother of model/actress Sophie Dahl.
Her struggle back from a debilitating stroke in the mid-1960s was chronicled in the film, "The Patricia Neal Story", starring Glenda Jackson.
Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1986.
She was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in Graduate, The (1967) but she was nervous about doing such a demanding role so soon after her stroke.
Roald was credited with helping her rehabilitate after her strokes. He designed her recovery routines.
Grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Her own stroke recovery experiences led to her becoming a champion in the rehabilitation field. Her commitment to the rehabilitation center at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center (in her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee) led the Center to dedicate it in 1978 as The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center.
Enrolled in speech and drama at Northwestern University.
"Variety," the entertainment newspaper, mistakenly reported in their February 22, 1965 headline that Patricia Neal had died from her multiple strokes five days earlier. In truth, she remained in a coma for 21 days. Pregnant at the time, her daughter Lucy was born healthy.
After moving to New York, she earned her first job as a Broadway understudy after only two-and-a-half months of pounding the pavement in the production of "The Voice of the Turtle."
Has a summer home in Martha's Vineyard.
Children: Tessa, Olivia, Theo, Ophelia and Lucy
Daughter, Olivia, died suddenly of complications from measles at the age of seven.
Member of Pi Beta Phi sorority
In 1947, the first time that Broadway's Tony Awards were presented, she won the Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) Award for "Another Part of the Forest."
Is portrayed by Glenda Jackson in Patricia Neal Story, The (1981) (TV)
Her classmates at Northwestern University included Cloris Leachman, Paul Lynde, Charlotte Rae, Charlton Heston, Martha Hyer, and Agnes Nixon.
Began a relationship with Gary Cooper (I) on the set of Fountainhead, The (1949). He was forty-seven, she was twenty-two. In 1951 Cooper separated from his wife with the intention of marrying Neal, however he never filed for divorce and in 1954 they reconciled. Meanwhile the affair with Neal had fizzled out, and she married Roald Dahl.
On March 4, 2007, she received one of the two Lifetime Achievement Awards presented annually by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University, following a screening of her classic film "A Face in the Crowd." (Roy Scheider was the other honoree.).
In Italy, most of her films were dubbed by Clelia Bernacchi. She was occasionally dubbed by Franca Dominici -in Fountainhead, The (1949); Giovanna Scotto -in Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951); Tina Lattanzi -in Diplomatic Courier (1952); as well as Anna Miserocchi.
