Patricia Neal

Patricia Neal
Author: Stephen Michael Shearer
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 765
Release: 2021-03-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0813180724

Major Motion Picture Adaptation Coming Soon The internationally acclaimed actress Patricia Neal (1926–2010) was a star on stage, film, and television for more than sixty years. On Broadway she appeared in such lauded productions as Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, winning the first Tony award. In Hollywood she starred opposite the likes of John Wayne, Paul Newman, John Garfield, and Gary Cooper in some thirty films. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Alma Brown in Hud, which earned her the 1963 Academy Award for Best Actress. But there was much more to Neal's life. She was born in Packard, Kentucky, though she spent most of her childhood in Knoxville, Tennessee. For a time, Neal became romantically involved with Gary Cooper, her married costar in The Fountainhead. In 1953, Neal wed famed children's author Roald Dahl, a match that would bring her five children and thirty years of dramatic ups and downs. At the pinnacle of her screen career, Neal suffered a series of strokes which left her in a coma for twenty-one days, and Variety even ran a headline erroneously stating that she had died. After a difficult recovery, Neal returned to film acting, earning a second Academy Award nomination for The Subject Was Roses (1968). She appeared in several television movie roles in the 1970s and 1980s and won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Dramatic TV Movie in 1971 for The Homecoming. Adapted as a major motion picture (filmed as An Unquiet Life) starring Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes, and Sam Heughan, Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life is the first critical biography detailing the actress's impressive film career and remarkable personal life. Author Stephen Michael Shearer conducted numerous interviews with Neal, her professional colleagues, and her intimate friends and was given access to the actress's personal papers. The result is an honest and comprehensive portrait of an accomplished woman who lived her life with determination and bravado.

As I am

As I am
Author: Patricia Neal
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011-02-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781451626001

The acclaimed autobiography from the Tony and Academy Award-winning actress casts Patricia Neal in her greatest role—as the indomitable heroine of her own incredible real-life story: “Destined for bestsellerdom” (Library Journal). Throughout her triumphant career, Patricia Neal faced a series of devastating challenges and losses, sometimes privately, sometimes before an audience of millions. By age twenty-one, the self-confident, determined, Southern-bred actress had starred in a Broadway hit, won a Tony, was “the toast of New York” and was featured on a Life cover—only the first of many triumphs in a celebrity life. “In this account, Neal writes candidly about her numerous love affairs, both transient and profound, such as a liaison with Gary Cooper and her twenty-five-year marriage to writer Roald Dahl. More arresting are the tragedies that beset her, including the deaths of two of her five children and, at age thirty-nine, a massive stroke suffered when she was at the peak of her career and carrying her fifth child. Her heroic struggle to regain her speech, mobility, and mental capacities adds another dimension to an already courageous human being” (Publishers Weekly).

Alaska Nellie

Alaska Nellie
Author: Nellie Neal Lawing
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-01-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789123208

NOT A GHOST WRITTEN ROMANCE...but the true story of an Alaskan pioneer who went North as a young girl during the exciting days of the development of the Alaskan Railroad. Offers of publishers to edit her copy and rewrite the book were repeatedly rejected in order that the story might be told accurately and the true sentiment of the writer in these later years be conveyed to the reader. Leaving gunfire and bloodshed in the rowdy mining camps of Cripple Creek, Colorado, Alaska Nellie—without friends or even acquaintances to turn to for advice or help—travelled along to the strange land that was then truly a frontier. The hardships she endured, the cold and hunger, miles of travel on foot, pulling a sled without the aid of dogs, the dangers she encountered and kind assistance she gave to those in need have made her name one that is known and loved throughout the entire territory. Everyone will enjoy this thrilling story of one of the few woman pioneers who lived to “carry on.”

Both of Us

Both of Us
Author: Ryan O'Neal
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307954846

Ryan O’Neal’s intimate memoir of his turbulent and passionate love story with Farrah Fawcett Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett. He was the handsome Academy Award–nominated star of Paper Moon and the classic romance Love Story. She was the beautiful, all-American Charlie’s Angel, whose poster adorned the bedroom walls of teenage boys everywhere. One of the most storied love affairs in Hollywood history, their romance has captivated fans and media alike for more than three decades. In a tragic turn, the world lost Farrah after a tragic battle with cancer in 2009, but in his intimate memoir Both of Us, Ryan brings their relationship to vivid life. Fans of each other from afar, Ryan and Farrah met through her husband, Lee Majors, and fell passionately in love. Soon, however, reality threatened their happiness and they struggled with some serious matters, including the disintegration of Farrah’s marriage; Ryan’s troubled relationship with his daughter, Tatum, and son, Griffin; mismatched career trajectories; and raising their young son, Redmond—all leading Ryan and Farrah to an inevitable split in 1997. Ryan fought to create a life on his own but never stopped longing for Farrah. Eventually he realized that he had lost his true soul mate. Older and wiser, he and Farrah found their way back to each other and were excited to start a new life together. But their bliss was cut short when Farrah was diagnosed with cancer and passed away just three years later. Ryan’s deep love for Farrah and his devotion to preserving her memory are evident in Both of Us. Drawing on decades’ worth of personal records and keepsakes, he has included never-before-seen photographs, letters exchanged between him and Farrah, and his own diaries, making this a poignant and compelling memento for her fans. Written with candor and emotional honesty, it is a true Hollywood love story.

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl
Author: Jeremy Treglown
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2016-06-28
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1504038592

A New York Times Notable Book: A revealing look at the famous twentieth-century children’s author who brought us The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Few writers have had the enduring cultural influence of Roald Dahl, who inspired generations of loyal readers. Acclaimed biographer Jeremy Treglown cuts no corners in humanizing this longstanding immortal of juvenile fiction. Roald Dahl explores this master of children’s literature from childhood—focusing a tight lens on the relationship between Dahl and his mother, who lovingly referred to him as “Apple”—through to his death. Treglown deftly navigates Dahl’s time as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, exploring how the experience transformed many of the beliefs that influenced the English writer’s work, including The Gremlins, which was commissioned by Walt Disney. A former editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Treglown discusses many of Dahl’s most famous works, such as James and the Giant Peach and Fantastic Mr. Fox, while also delving into his marriage to actress Patricia Neal, combing through letters and archives to show a man who could be both comic and vitriolic, thoughtful yet manipulative and irascible. Treglown highlights many of Dahl’s literary achievements as well as his breakdowns and shortcomings, presenting a very personal and telling picture of the author and the inner turmoil that crippled him. Separating the man from the myth, Treglown’s frank, intimate portrait of Dahl illuminates the contradictions within the mind of this beloved author, a man who could be both a monster and a hero. It is required reading for book lovers and film buffs alike.

Feeding the Bump

Feeding the Bump
Author: Lisa Neal
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2008-02-01
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1741763509

Delicious recipes and nutritional advice for pre-conception, pregnancy and beyond.

Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson
Author: Stephen Michael Shearer
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2013-08-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250013666

Gloria Swanson defined what it meant to be a movie star, but her unforgettable role in Sunset Boulevard overshadowed the true story of her life. Now Stephen Michael Shearer sets the record straight in the first in-depth biography of the film legend. Swanson was Hollywood's first successful glamour queen. Her stardom as an actress in the mid-1920s earned her millions of fans and millions of dollars. Realizing her box office value early in her career, she took control of her life. Soon she was not only producing her own films, she was choosing her scripts, selecting her leading men, casting her projects, creating her own fashions, guiding her publicity, and living an extravagant and sometimes extraordinary celebrity lifestyle. She also collected a long line of lovers (including Joseph P. Kennedy) and married men of her choosing (including a French marquis, thus becoming America's first member of "nobility"). As a devoted and loving mother, she managed a quiet success of raising three children. Perhaps most important, as a keen businesswoman she also was able to extend her career more than sixty years. Her astounding comeback as Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard catapulted her back into the limelight. But it also created her long-misunderstood persona, one that this meticulous biography shows was only part of this independent and unparalleled woman.

Talk Softly

Talk Softly
Author: Cynthia O'Neal
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2011-01-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1609800796

Actress and model Cynthia O'Neal was living her dream life—married to the famous stage and screen actor Patrick O’Neal, the mother of two young sons, resident of the Dakota downstairs from John Lennon, owner of the successful Ginger Man restaurant, and frequent guest at dinner parties with Leonard Bernstein and Rudolf Nureyev. And then she changed course suddenly, surprisingly, and completely. The AIDS epidemic hit the arts community hard, and after seeing the multitude of people facing an unfamiliar and stigmatized disease completely alone, Cynthia walked into the fray. With the support of longtime friend Mike Nichols, she founded Friends in Deed and soon found herself spending her days in hospitals, cramped rooms, and dirty apartments, anywhere a patient needed a hug, a hand held, or confidence boosted. And when Patrick became ill and passed away in 1994, Cynthia had to work through her own grief instead of someone else’s and found her life transformed again. Talk Softly is the story of a life well-lived—with passion and compassion, in celebration of the joy of each moment, and with the ability to surprise yourself when you least expect to.

Beautiful

Beautiful
Author: Stephen Michael Shearer
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 808
Release: 2010-09-28
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1429908203

“A fascinating biography that re-creates Hollywood’s Golden Age of Glamour” as it recounts the life of the star and inventor (Publishers Weekly). Hedy Lamarr’s exotic beauty was heralded across Europe in the early 1930s. Yet she became infamous for her nude scenes in the scandalous movie Ecstasy. Trapped in a marriage to one of Austria’s munitions barons, a friend of Mussolini’s who hid his Jewish heritage to become an “honorary Aryan” at the onset of World War II, Lamarr fled Europe for Hollywood, where she was transformed into one of cinema’s most glamorous stars, appearing opposite such actors as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and James Stewart. As her career faded, she went from one husband to the next, her personal troubles and legal woes casting a shadow over her phenomenal intelligence and former image. Stephen Michael Shearer separates the truth from the rumors regarding the life of Hedy Lamarr, and highlights her astonishing role as inventor of a technology that has become an essential part of everything from military weaponry to today’s cell phones. Praise for Beautiful “In Beautiful, Mr. Shearer writes with humor and has fun with some of the glorious nonsense of Lamarr’s movies.” —Jeanine Basinger, The Wall Street Journal “Much more than a standard Hollywood biography.” —Edge Magazine