Patricia Neal

Distinguished Alumnae Award Recipient, 1980

Patricia Neal, 1926-2010. Born in Kentucky and raised in Tennessee, Patricia studied theater at Northwestern until 1946, when she was spotted by talent scouts who convinced her to leave for New York.  In 1946, she appeared in the Broadway production of Lillian Hellman’s Another Part of the Forest winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in the inaugural Tony Award ceremony started in 1947.  She also was the recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Glove Award, and two British Academy Film Awards, and was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. Her acting career continued to be impressive and award-winning on both stage and screen. 

She experienced a lot of tragedy in her life, related to accidents and illnesses of two of her five children when they were young, three strokes while she was pregnant, and a very public divorce from a thirty-year marriage to British author, Roald Dahl. Growing through those life experiences, she became a role-model for recovering.   Before receiving the Distinguished Alumnae Award, she turned to philanthropic endeavors and founded the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.  She would visit the center often to give inspiration to the patients recovering from stroke, spinal cord and brain injury.