HOLLYWOOD—Actress Patricia Neal, 84, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 1963 starring opposite Paul Newman in the film “Hud,” died last Sunday at her home on Martha’s Vineyard. Ms. Neal also kept an apartment in Manhattan and was very close to her family. She died of lung cancer, after a lengthy and very publicized battle to recover from a series of strokes that occurred in her youth. Even though the strokes left her unable to speak and semi-paralyzed, Patricia made a miraculous recovery and overcame all the adversities in her life. My favorite Patricia Neal film was the 1951 version of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” from Twentieth Century Fox Studios.

Many of Patricia Neal’s peers and even fans had warm words to commemorate her amazing career and life. Film star and actress on “General Hospital,” Constance Towers said, “Patricia was working for John Ford when she had her stroke. Her children were all brought to my house for an Easter egg roll, and when they were picked up, her husband Roald Dahl was driving and she was in the front passenger seat, unable to speak with a cap on her head, (her head had been shaved for the operation). Tommy, her recovery was so impressive. Her will to get well and to live was incredible and her love of her children was really touching. Roald Dahl was impressive too. He made her try to speak and express herself. He was very attentive and loving. I’ve never forgotten them.”

Kate Linder, who stars on “The Young and the Restless,” said, “Patricia Neal was a mentor. Her philosophy was to never give up. In spite of her stroke, she continued to pursue her career to achieve the most important part of her life—to perform. She had a great impact on me. I am sad that I never was able to tell her how much she meant to me.”

Other stars spoke to Canyon News about her impact on them and the entertainment industry. Tippi Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” said, “[She was] a great and strong woman, whose career was an incredible contribution to the industry of acting. A loss to all of us.” While singer, dancer and minister Carol Channing opined, “Patricia [Neal] was a champion of the arts. Our industry has suffered a great loss of a remarkably talented actress of both stage and screen. She will be missed.”

“Queen of the Lot” star Tanna Frederick tells Canyon News, “Patricia Neal did things that I had never seen before on screen. I remember being stunned by her striking dualities, she played strength and earthiness with a guaranteed fragility deep in the guts of each character—graceful in her choices, a risk taker, divinely chiseled face and those unyielding eyes, which breathed compassion.”

Reader Ann wrote the following upon hearing of Ms. Neal’s death, “I am so sad about Patricia Neal. She actually has always been one of my favorite people and one of my favorite actresses. Not only was she an incredible actress, but an incredible person.”

Actress Alison Arngrim, who portrayed the evil Nellie Oleson on “Little House on the Prairie,” which Patricia Neal guest starred on in the early 1970s took her death very hard. “Not only did I get to meet her on ”˜Little House,’ Tommy, [she starred in the episodes ”˜Remember Me’ parts 1 and 2], but I later had the great honor to appear in a film with her titled ”˜For The Love Of May.’ She was not just a brilliant woman, but so very, deeply kind. While on ”˜Little House,’ she took the time to speak to all of us children, never turning us away or dismissing us as ”˜kids.’ She was so brave, she never stopped working to overcome her physical challenges, turning her memory exercises into a game. She would ask each of us our name and birthday. Then she would tell us which famous person was born closest to us. I, being January 18, was closest to Cary Grant. I was only 13, but still though, Cary Grant was pretty cool, and so [I] was suitably impressed! Then, later that day, or the next, she would suddenly turn to me smiling and say, ‘Alison Arngrim, January 18, same day as Cary Grant!'” Angrim said. “She did this with all of us. We thought it was a great game and it made us all feel very special. But a few of us older ones knew that it was also a serious matter of life and death. She was fighting for her mind and memory. But she did it by playing a game and making a bunch of kids feel special Tommy. To this day, every time I even say my birthday, it’s January 18, I hear her strong, joyously triumphant voice saying, ‘same day as Cary Grant!’”

Photograph Courtesy: Link 81 Collection of actress Patricia Neal at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank

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