This Is Your Life: Patricia Neal

Patricia NEAL (1926-2010)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Patricia Neal, actress, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the offices of Sir John Woolf on London's Park Lane, during a cocktail party to launch a new series of Anglia Television's Tales of the Unexpected, which is written by her husband Roald Dahl.

Patricia, who was born in Kentucky, USA, began her career on stage in New York, making her Broadway debut in 1946 before moving to Hollywood, where she found fame through a run of leading roles in such films as The Day The Earth Stood Still, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Hud, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

While pregnant in 1965, Patricia suffered a stroke and was in a coma for three weeks. She recovered with the help of her husband, writer Roald Dahl, and friends who developed a gruelling style of therapy that fundamentally changed the way stroke patients were treated. She relearned how to walk and talk, and by 1968 her recovery was so complete that her performance in the film The Subject Was Roses led to an Academy Award nomination.

"Who knew this?"

programme details...

Edition No: 502
Subject No: 500
Broadcast date: Wed 13 Dec 1978
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 22 Nov 1978
Venue: New London Theatre
Series: 19
Edition: 8
Code name: Hud

on the guest list...

Roald Dahl - husband
Elaine Stritch
Joseph Cotten
Patricia Medina
Marius Goring
Wendy Hiller
Richard Greene
Lucy - daughter
Ophelia - daughter
Theo - son
Tessa - daughter
Pete - brother
Margaret - sister
George - brother-in-law
Eura - mother
Helen Horton
Wally Saunders
Valerie Eaton Griffith
Else Logsdail - sister-in-law
Alfhild Hansen - sister-in-law
Asta Anderson - sister-in-law
Marjorie Clipstone
Frankie Conquy
Ann Lamb
Angela Hogg
Dick Kirwan
Patricia Kirwan
Audrey Ray-Smith
Jane Figg
Kenneth Haigh
Emily Faust
John Wayne
Sophie - granddaughter
Kirk Douglas
Dr Charles Carton

production team...

Researchers: Debbie Gaunt, Maurice Leonard
Writer: John Sandilands
Directors: Royston Mayoh, Terry Yarwood
Producer: Jack Crawshaw

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related page...

The Glamorous Life

Hollywood in the spotlight

Screenshots of Patricia Neal This Is Your Life

Patricia Neal recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in her autobiography, As I Am...

Back in England, Roald took me to a formal party at Sir John Woolf's office. Sir John was producing Roald's short stories as a TV series called 'Tales of the Unexpected'.

There were scads of British stars there who had appeared in the shows. Midway through the party, an unfamiliar man with a large red album under his arm interrupted an enjoyable conversation I was having.

That was a bit much, I thought.

The man was Eamonn Andrews, the host of the British 'This Is Your Life' television programme, and it was my life they were doing then and there. So that was the reason for Roald's mysterious chauffeured-limousine trips to London!

It seemed that everyone who had ever been in my life had been gathered. Mother and NiNi, the whole Neal family and Emily Mahan Faust were flown in from America. Roald's family and half of Great Missenden were there. Even Dr Charles Carton, Kirk Douglas and Duke Wayne sent greetings on film. It was fabulous – on television.

It was a private fiasco, however. We did not have room at Gypsy House to put up my family because all the children were home on holiday. Mother was crushed. Once safely home, she let me know with an angry letter. When Roald saw it, a lifetime of antagonism between them burst like a ripe boil. He dictated a scathing letter saying we would never see her again. I was not prepared to cut Mother out of my life over a misunderstanding, but I still could not take a stand against my husband. The letter was sent.

Series 19 subjects