Patricia Neal

They had five children. She also sang "Monster Rap" and "Haunted House" on the Elvira's Monster Hits album. She was married to writer Roald Dahl from 1953 to 1983. Elvira has become a symbol of Halloween, and owns the trademark to her wig and costume. In 1988 Neal published an autobiography, As I Am. One of the first successful horror hostesses, Vampira (Maila Nurmi), later sued Peterson over character rights issues. In 1981 Glenda Jackson played her in a television movie, The Patricia Neal Story. Shortly after her marriage to Mark Pierson (now her business manager) in 1981, she created the character Elvira after a successful audition to be a horror movie show host. She was the first such host to be nationally syndicated.

Robinson in The Graduate, but turned it down, feeling it had come too soon after her stroke. Back in the US, she joined the Los Angeles-based improvisational troupe The Groundlings. She was offered the role of Mrs. In Italy, she was the lead singer in a rock band and a chance encounter with Federico Fellini led to a small part in Roma (1972). She did not, however, reprise her role of the mother in the series. She became a showgirl at The Dunes in Las Vegas at age 17. Neal starred in the television movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which proved to be the pilot episode for The Waltons. Born in Manhattan, Kansas, Peterson grew up in Colorado.

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. She gained fame wearing dark, gothic, and cleavage-enhancing clothing as host of Elvira's Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation. In 1963, Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Hud. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is the screen persona of Cassandra Peterson (born September 17, 1949). 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.