Born Patsy Louise Neal inside Packard, Kentucky, she grew up within Knoxville, Tennessee. She exposed drama at Northwestern University, then appeared in Broadway, winning a Tony Award for Voice of the Turtle. Within 1949, she debuted in film opposite Ronald Reagan in John Loves Mary.

Her appearance that equivalent season in The Fountainhead coincided by owning an extended romanticist affair with her lot older co-star, Gary Cooper. A affair got begun ii years sooner, around 1947, when Neal was single Twenty-one, & by 1950, Cooper's wife experienced uncovered out & joined a battle. On a occasion, Treglown reports, Neal received the as a result wire: "I HAVE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU. YOU HAD BETTER STOP NOW OR YOU WILL BE SORRY. MRS. GARY COOPER". Yet Mrs. Cooper experienced her way, but not prior to her hubby had gotten Neal pregnant, and then persuaded her to keep around an abortion. Shamefaced & frightened, Neal ended a relationship, but not prior to Cooper's girl, Maria (at present Maria Cooper Janis) (b. 1937), spit at her publically. Ironically, several years late Maria & Patricia would turn into friends (when by the Hello! magazine).

When her affair by having Cooper, Neal met writer Roald Dahl at a person within 1951. It married in July 2, 1953, at Trinity Church in New York. A marriage produced 5 toddlers: Olivia Twenty (April 20, 1955 - November 17, 1962), who died of rubeola cephalitis, Chantal Sophia (renamed Tessa to avoid rhyme), Theo Matthew Roald, Ophelia Magdalena, & Lucy Neal.

Neal starred in The Breaking Point, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Operation Pacific before 1952. She suffered the nervous breakdown within that year whilst her affair by using Cooper come to an prevent, however she recovered, & returned in 1957 to star in A Face in the Crowd. Within 1963, Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Hud, but was unable to attend a telecast that month. She returned to the large screen around 1968 to star in The Subject Was Roses, for which she was again nominated for an Oscar.

Inside February, 1965, Neal suffered three incapacitating strokes patch pregnant using her girl Lucy, allowing her unable to hike & possibly speak for the period. Roald took home control of her rehabiliation & she was entity to leave a hospital iii months late. In August 4, 1965, she successfully gave birth to her girl. Dahl helped Neal across her rehabilitation, however wound higher committing fornication using Neal's so-right frien500, Felicity Ann d'Abreu Crosland (b. 12/12/38). Neal & Dahl ended higher divorcing in November 17, 1983, after Thirty years of marriage.

Neal starred in the television movie The Homecoming: The Christmas Story, which proved to become a pilot episode for The Waltons. She did non, still, reprise her role of the mother in the series. She was offered a role of "Mrs. Robinson" in The Graduate, but off it down, feeling it experienced are ahead of time fallowing her stroke.

Around 1981 Glenda Jackson played her in the television flick, A Patricia Neal Story. Around 1988 Neal published an autobiography, As We are.

Filmography
John Loves Mary (1949) The Fountainhead (1949) ''It's a Great Feeling (1949) (Cameo) The Hasty Heart (1949) Bright Leaf (1950) The Breaking Point (1950) Three Secrets (1950) Operation Pacific (1951) Raton Pass (1951) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Week-End with Father (1951) Diplomatic Courier (1952) Washington Story (1952) Soemthing for the Birds (1952) Your Woman (1954) Stranger from Venus (1954) A Face in the Crowd (1957) Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Hud (1963) Psyche '59 (1964) In Harm's Way (1965) Pat Neal Is Back (1968) (short subject) The Subject Was Roses (1968) The Night Digger (1971) Baxter! (1973) Happy Mother's Day, Love George (1973) B Must Die (1975) Widow's Nest (1977) The Passage (1979) Ghost Story (1981) An Unremarkable Life (1989) Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991) (documentary) A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story (1992) (TV) Cookie's Fortune (1999) From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff (1999) (documentary) For the Love of May (2000) (short subject) Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003) (documentary) Bright Leaves'' (2003) (documentary)