Over at my Freedom Writing blog, I have been writing in recent days about the death last week of a good friend and ex–classmate, Phyllis.
She was a lover of movies — and, in the latter years of her life, she was afflicted by colon cancer so I guess she had a highly developed appreciation for people who overcome personal suffering. In both respects, Patricia Neal fit the bill.
Neal, who died yesterday of lung cancer at the age of 84, had a somewhat meteoric rise in films, exploding on to the Broadway scene at the age of 20 and then appearing in her first film at the age of 23. During the next 15 years, she appeared in nearly two dozen motion pictures, among them "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Hud." She also did some TV work, including a 1964 episode of "The Outer Limits."
For her work in "Hud," Neal was rewarded with an Oscar for Best Actress. She was also honored with awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. She was in her late 30s and the sky seemed to be the limit for her.
But it seemed that no sooner had Neal received all this recognition than her life seemed to collapse around her. She suffered a series of strokes that left her in a coma for three weeks. Then, in spite of semi–paralysis, limited vision and a severe speech impairment, she learned to walk and speak again, resuming her career a few years later with an Academy Award–nominated performance in "The Subject Was Roses."
Whereas her earlier roles had involved something of a Garboesque sex symbol quality, Neal seemed to realize that she had entered an entirely different phase of her career, and she took on new kinds of roles in different kinds of projects. One such project, TV's "The Homecoming," which served as the basis for the popular 1970s TV series, The Waltons, earned her recognition that was similar to what she received for her big screen work.
I often wondered why Neal did not continue her role on The Waltons, then I learned that the creators of the series were concerned that her health wouldn't permit her to make a commitment to a weekly series. So actress Michael Learned, who was some 13 years younger than Neal (and had never, as far as I know, suffered a stroke), was chosen to play the role of Olivia Walton in a series that ran for nine years.
But Neal, who was in her 40s when she made "The Homecoming," might have been capable after all. I don't think she was ever nominated for anything she ever did on TV or the big screen after that, but she did many things in the next four decades, though, including appearing in a musical drama with Billy Ray Cyrus and Heather Locklear last year, and proved that people could overcome afflictions after her recovery from her strokes, inspiring many who might otherwise have given in to their limitations and their personal depression.
Phyllis and I often discussed movies and movie stars, but we never, as I recall, discussed Patricia Neal. I wish we had, but I think I knew her well enough to say that she would have spoken of Neal with a lot of admiration.
