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Monday, August 30, 2010
Memories of Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal, who was born in 1926, died from lung cancer on August 8, 2010. She had a number of smaller roles on the Broadway stage before being paired with actor (and later President of the United States) Ronald Reagan in her first starring movie role, in a film titled “John Loves Mary” in 1948.
I enjoyed an interview with Neal over a two day period in October of the year 2000 when she visited Dayton as a guest speaker for Dayton’s Junior League Town Hall lecture series.
Her sultry, contralto voice was full and rich as she talked about her life and the actors she worked with over the years.
“When Ronny Reagan was very ill and in his final days I wrote a letter to his wife Nancy Reagan,” Neal said. “I told Nancy how much I respected her for being such a dedicated caregiver for her husband, the President. I let both of them know how much they both meant to me.”
During our conversation Neal talked about the movie “Operation Pacific” in which she starred with the legendary John Wayne in the early 1950s. “Then following that I starred with Tyrone Power in a movie titled “Diplmatic Courier” in 1952,” she said. She confided that her favorite movie memories go back to the 1940s when she first worked with the late actor Gary Cooper.
“I met Gary Cooper when we starred in The Fountainhead and later in Bright Leaf in 1948 and 1949,” she said. “Gary and I fell in love, I have to say that Gary was THE love of my life.”
Cooper was 48 and Neal was 23 when they fell in love, she said.
“Gary was married and had a 12 year old daughter at the time. I was single when I met Gary. It was a tremendous romance,” Neal said. “Some of the critics and reporters gave me a rough way to go at that time. But I must say that, looking back on my life - this was an era that was treasured. Gary was a real true love.”
Neal was later married to English writer Roald Dahl in the early 1960s and remained married with him for close to 30 years, before they were divorced. Mr. Dahl died in 1990.
Neal and Dahl had five children together, and the first of the five, Theo, was struck by a New York City taxi cab while he was being wheeled across a New York street in a carriage when he was a baby. He suffered head injuries and needed special care for all his life.
Another child, Olivia, died at age 7, from complications that accompanied measles. “We were always a family that cherished the good times, and learned to live with the bad,” Neal said.
One of the highlights of her life was winning a best actress Academy Award in 1963 for her role in the movie “Hud.”
“I shared stardom in that movie with Paul Newman,” she said.
When asked if she had what she called her favorite piece of work during her stage, screen and television career she quickly replied, “That would have to be my stage performance in the Broadway production of “Suddenly Last Summer” in 1958.”
She added, “I was told the producers chose Elizabeth Taylor to do the movie version because they felt she was better known. I always lamented that I didn’t get the movie role.”
Neal said she also remembered, with fondness, working on the classic movie “A Face in the Crowd” in which she starred along with Andy Griffith.
“It was tremendous working with director Elia Kazan,” she said. “I felt he was an amazing film maker.”
After a pause, with a tear forming in one eye, she continued, “I have had an amazing history in show business. I am so fortunate. A Tony when I was 21 for my work on “Another Part of the Forest” and an Oscar when I was 37 for my work in the movie “Hud.”
She wiped her eyes and added, “They have always said I am a stubborn woman. I limp a bit. My right eye is not so good any more. My memory is not so crisp. But I just keep on going. I will live a full life as long as I am able.”
Before I wished her well and said goodbye, Neal signed a photograph of the two of us that was taken back-stage at Memorial Hall on Friday October 13, 2000.
It means even more to me, now that she is gone.
She had written, “To my dear Dale - Patricia Neal.”
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