KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Patricia Neal, the willowy, husky-voiced actress who won an Academy Award for 1963’s “Hud” and then survived several strokes to continue acting, died on Sunday. She was 84.

Neal had lung cancer and died at her home in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha’s Vineyard, said friend Bud Albers.

Neal was already an award-winning Broadway actress when she won her Oscar for her role as a housekeeper to the Texas father (Melvyn Douglas) battling his selfish, amoral son (Paul Newman).

Less than two years later, she suffered a series of strokes at age 39. Her struggle to regain walking and talking is regarded as epic in the annals of stroke rehabilitation.

 

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