Patricia Neal was born Patsy Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky, to a coalmine manager father and a town doctor's daughter mother. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and developed a passion for acting at the age of 10 after attending a Methodist church's evening of monologues. She even wrote a letter to Santa Claus asking for dramatics lessons.
Neal attended high school in Knoxville and won the Tennessee State Award for dramatic reading. She then apprenticed at the Barter Theater in Virginia at 16 and later studied drama at Northwestern University. After graduating, she moved to New York City and landed an understudy role in the play "The Voice of the Turtle" (1947). The producer changed her name to Patricia, and she went on to win a Tony Award for her role in "Another Part of the Forest" (1948).
Neal's early film career included roles in "The Fountainhead" (1949) opposite Gary Cooper, with whom she had a three-year-long love affair, and in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951). However, her contract with Warner Bros. was terminated, and she signed with 20th Century-Fox. She appeared in several films, including "A Face in the Crowd" (1957) and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961),before suffering a series of strokes in 1965 that nearly killed her.
After a seven-hour operation and rehabilitation, Neal returned to acting in 1968 with the film "The Subject Was Roses," for which she received an Oscar nomination. She continued to work in television, earning three Emmy nominations, including one for her role as Olivia Walton in "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story" (1971),which led to the TV series "The Waltons" (1972).
Neal was married to writer Roald Dahl for 30 years and had five children. She died on August 9, 2010, in Edgarton, Massachusetts, at the age of 84, due to lung cancer.
