Patricia Neal, 1926-2010

Patricia Neal and Paul Newman in Hud (1963)

Patricia Neal, who won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a ranch family's maid in the 1963 movie Hud, has died at the age of 84. Neal's career started out in the late 1940s, when she played opposite Ronald Reagan in John Loves Mary in 1949, but it was another movie from the same year, The Fountainhead, that really got her noticed, even if it wasn't a very good movie. By all accounts she and co-star Gary Cooper fell in love, although he was already married and wouldn't leave his wife.

Neal appeared in quite a few critically acclaimed movies in the 1950s, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and A Face in the Crowd, but her career nearly came to an end when she suffered a series of strokes in 1964. She returned to acting in the 1968 movie The Subject Was Roses and earned another Oscar nomination for her work.

This being Summer Under the Stars on TCM, I doubt they're going to have any time to do a tribute until after the month is over.