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 A Woman on the Verge When I started this blog, I had no intention that it become a a sortof "celebrity obituary" cyber-spot. However, as each month goes by,it seems we lose one celebrated "golden era" figure after another;iconic personalities whose talent, personality and class helpeddefine what we now term the era of "Classic Hollywood". This washighlighted during last week’s Emmy Awards ceremony, when we

 bid farewell to the likes of Lena Horne, Lynne Redgrave, and of 

course, Rue McClanahan (see my June 2010 tribute below). Andthen, there was the great Patricia Neal.

In a career that spanned over sixty years, Neal played everythingfrom sultry cosmopolitan sirens to stoic mountain women. Today,she is probably best remembered for her high profile turns in The

 Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), orher Oscar-winning performance in Hud (1963). My first recollection

of Neal, however, was in a modest television movie called The Homecoming (1971), in which she played the depression-eramatriarch of an impoverished mountain family named Walton.

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With her elongated cadence(" Jahhnn-boy") and the sad but undefeated look in her dark eyes,she reminded me of some not-so-distant relatives from my mother's

side of the family (the ones that my father often referred to as"thosehillbillies"). But even more than her vocal perfection, her physicality suggested a woman that had been broken and by sheer force of willhad put herself back together again (later I was to find out that this

 was very much the case for Neal, herself). I had no idea who this woman was, but she seemed to channel the spirit of these down butdetermined people whom I knew so well. Her performance hauntedme for many years.

 And then, I saw The Fountainhead.

 At first, I could not believe that this young woman playing the fiery and imperious Dominique in King Vidor's controversial 1949

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classic could possibly have been thesame woman who played the elemental and stoic Olivia Walton. Andthen, I saw the glint of steel in the young woman's eyes, and I knew that indeed, she was one and the same. This was the definingattribute that Patricia Neal brought to all the characters sheportrayed. Even in her most "throw-away" performances, there is anunderlying current of power - a gravitas - which almost always madeher characters distinctive and startling.

Patricia Neal was never the standard Hollywood leading lady. In thegreat tradition of Frances Farmer and Tallulah Bankhead, sheconfounded studio executives who were never sure what to do withher. When she arrived in Hollywood, she was most likened to thesultry young Lauren Bacall, but did not possess that actress' sexualaloofness, nor her emotional stability. Neal had a seethingsensuality that seemed at times seemed ready to overtake her; she

 was frequently a woman on the verge of a sexual breakdown. This

quality informed her performances to a degree uncomfortable to theMayers, Warners and Cohns. Watch her as she excitedly sizes up the young Andy Griffith in A Face In the Crowd (1957), her eyes andsexual appetite growing larger by the second. Or in Hud , as the

 world-weary housekeeper who just barely suppresses her sexualdesire for both Paul Newman and Brandon De Wilde. As Newman

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tosses sexual innuendos her way, her eyes linger a bit too long on hislean frame, giving the distinct impression that their eventual

coupling is just a matter of time. Or ,more startlingly, as she rustles the adolescent De Wilde out of bedfor breakfast, and her wrestling becomes a bit more aggressive whenhe tells her that he is naked beneath the sheets.

On-screen she was a woman who was guided by her appetites; off-screen she was guided by her own moral compass, and gave littleregard to the standards of "morality" espoused by the Hollywoodcommunity. Her infamous extra-marital affair with Fountainhead co-star Gary Cooper led to public condemnation, abortion, andeventually a nervous breakdown and self-imposed exile fromHollywood. A return to the stage and a stabilizing marriage to writerRoald Dahl brought much needed grounding to the actress. It also

 brought about a return to Hollywood’s good graces, and in aparticularly pallid season, Neal won the 1963 Best Actress Oscar for

 Hud , even though her role was essentially a supporting one.

Later, after rising like a phoenix from a series near fatal strokes, thesexual undercurrent was replaced by steely resolve. This was a

 woman who had literally been broken and by sheer force

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of will, had put herself back together again. This quality was highlighted no more eloquently than in her "comeback" performance in The Subject Was Roses

(1968). As Nettie, she is both victim and victimizer – a woman whocloaks the bitterness she feels over her life’s disappointments inpassive-aggressive manipulation of those around her. It is astunning performance that is halting in its simple power andpoignancy-- and it earned Neal another Oscar nomination. Unlike1963, however, the competition for the 1968 Best Actress Academy 

 Award was arguably the most formidable in Oscar history. When the winning performance was announced, it was a tie betweenKatharine Hepburn's monumental turn in The Lion In Winter , andBarbra Streisand's phenomenal film debut in Funny Girl . Upagainst these two iconic characterizations, Neal's quiet but steely performance did not stand a chance.

Undeterred, Neal continued to work in television and films up untilthe final year of her life. Throughout the remaining years, sheremained a beacon of talent and courage not just in her career, butin her life (her autobiography, As I Am, was published in 1988). She

remains a shining example of what best personifies "ClassicHollywood".

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