Butterfly McQueen

A lifelong atheist, she donated her body to medical science. They had five children. McQueen died in Augusta, Georgia as a result of burns received when a kerosene heater she was attempting to light exploded and doused her in fuel. She was married to writer Roald Dahl from 1953 to 1983. She had one more role of some substance in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast. In 1988 Neal published an autobiography, As I Am. Her acting roles after this were very few, and she devoted herself to other pursuits including study, and received a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science in 1975. In 1981 Glenda Jackson played her in a television movie, The Patricia Neal Story.

By 1950 she had commenced a three year stint on the television series Beulah which reunited her with her Gone With The Wind co-star Hattie McDaniel. Robinson in The Graduate, but turned it down, feeling it had come too soon after her stroke. She continued to play maids and small parts in various films including Since You Went Away, (1944), Mildred Pierce, (1945) and Duel in the Sun, (1946) but by 1947 had grown tired of the ethnic stereotypes she was required to play and ended her film career. She was offered the role of Mrs. She made her first film appearance playing an uncredited bit part as a sales assistant in The Women in 1939 and later that year filmed what would become her most identifiable role - as Prissy the maid in Gone With The Wind. She did not, however, reprise her role of the mother in the series. Born Thelma McQueen in Tampa, Florida she trained as a dancer and took her stage name from "The Butterfly Dance" after performing it in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Neal starred in the television movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which proved to be the pilot episode for The Waltons.

Butterfly McQueen (January 7, 1911 - December 22, 1995) was an American film and television actress. In 1965 she suffered a series of strokes, and went through extensive rehabilitation, returning in 1968 to star in The Subject Was Roses, for which she was again nominated for an Oscar. In 1963, Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Hud. She suffered a nervous breakdown in that year when her affair with Cooper came to an end, but she recovered, and returned in 1957 to star in A Face in the Crowd. Neal starred in The Breaking Point, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Operation Pacific before 1952.

Her appearance that same year in The Fountainhead led to a long romantic affair with her co-star, Gary Cooper. In 1949, she debuted in film opposite Ronald Reagan in John Loves Mary. She studied drama at Northwestern University, then appeared on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for Voice of the Turtle. Born Patsy Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky, she grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Patricia Neal (born January 20, 1926) is an American actress.