PATRICIA NEAL - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 03/20/1980 - HFSID 204088

PATRICIA NEAL
She signed this typed letter in 1980, refusing to accept payment for a photo she had autographed for a women's shelter in Las Vegas.
Typed Letter Signed: "Patricia Neal". 1 page, 8¼x10. Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, 1980 March 20. To Sherry Sussman. In full: "I am returning with pleasure and duly signed the photographs you send me so that you may hang them in your 'Celebrity Room', also the $5. I would not dream of taking it. Good luck with your splendid project." Enclosures not included. A leading lady of American plays and film, Neal studied drama in college and worked as a model before debuting on Broadway in The Voice of the Turtle (1946). Her performance in the play Another Part of the Forest got the attention of Hollywood, and she made her screen debut in the light farce John Loves Mary (1949); that same year she was impressive in The Fountainhead opposite Gary Cooper, whom she later said was the great love of her life. After marrying British writer Roald Dahl in 1953, she disappeared from the screen for several years, returning in 1957's A Face in the Crowd, after which she was more selective in choosing her film roles. For her performance in Hud (1963), she won the Best Actress Oscar. In 1965, she suffered a massive series of strokes that left her confined to a wheelchair, semi-paralyzed and nearly unable to speak; she made a remarkable recovery over several years, returning to the screen in The Subject Was Roses (1968), for which she received another Best Actress Oscar nomination. That same year she was presented with the "Heart of the Year" Award by President Johnson. Fine condition.