BRENTWOOD—Neva Patterson, the Broadway and TV veteran best known for the film “An Affair to Remember,” opposite Cary Grant, died on Tuesday, December 16, at her Brentwood home due to complications from a broken hip. She was 90 years old.
Born to a mailman father and seamstress mother in Nevada, Iowa, in 1920, Patterson worked odd jobs before and after moving to New York in 1938. She began her Broadway career with the show “The Druid Circle” in 1947. She appeared in a handful of other plays, most notably in the “The Seven Year Itch” in 1952. A much more prolific star of TV dramas, she appeared in countless numbers of series from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. Among those most notable were “The Dukes of Hazard,” “St. Elsewhere,” “V” and “V: The Final Battle,” the latter two earning her much fame amongst science fiction fans.
Patterson appeared in slightly over a dozen Hollywood films, from 1953’s “Taxi” to 1984’s “All of Me,” but her appearance in “An Affair to Remember” in 1953 left an enduring impression with filmgoers. The film was nominated for four Oscars, and was frequently referenced in 1993’s “Sleepless in Seattle.”
Patterson adopted two children with her third husband, the late TV writer James Lee.