Screen star Patricia Neal dies

Oscar winning actress passed away aged 84 after a battle...

12:14 09 August 2010

American actress Patricia Neal has died aged 84.

The Oscar winner passed away after a battle with lung cancer.

Neal won an Academy Award for her role in the 1963 film Hud, opposite late screen legend Paul Newman.

However, just two years later, she gave up acting after suffering a series of strokes that put her in a coma. She had to learn how to walk and talk again, and found great difficulty with her memory, making learning scripts particularly difficult.

Underterred, she returned to the screen in in 1968, earning another Oscar nomination for her role in 'The Subject Was Roses'.

The star was born in Tennessee and was married author Roald Dahl for 30 years up until their divorce in 1983. She is the grandmother of model and TV presenter Sophie Dahl.

Tragedy also struck in 1960 when the couple's infant son suffered brain damage after the pram he was in was struck by a taxi in New York City.

After moving to England with her Dahl, the couple's seven-year-old daughter died from measles encephalitis in 1962.

Her early screen roles were 1951 sci-fi movies 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' and 'A Face In The Crowd' directed by the controversial Elia Kazan.

One of her notable turns later in her career was as Olivia Walton in the TV drama 'The Waltons', gaining the first of three Emmy nominations.

Her family said in a statement that on the day before she died, the screen star said: "I've had a lovely time."

They added: "She faced her final illness as she had all of the many trials she endured, with indomitable grace, good humour and a great deal of her self-described stubbornness."