Posted on 08/09/2010 2:32:07 PM PDT by julieee
Pro-Life Actress Patricia Neal of Hud Fame Dies, Regretted Her Abortion
Washington, DC -- Pro-life actress, Patricia Neal, died at age 84 on Sunday. She had been suffering from lung cancer and was surrounded by her family at her home in Massachusetts. Neal is best known for her Oscar-winning portrayal of a housekeeper in the 1963 movie, Hud, with Paul Newman.
http://LifeNews.com/nat6619.html
(Excerpt) Read more at LifeNews.com ...
Prayers to her soul!
I can’t imagine how you can be pro-life after having an abortion. But I do pray that she confessed her sins in confession so she has a fighting chance at getting into Heaven.
He just went down a couple pegs on my chart.
Sad
That is what Rachel's Children is all about.
Their testimony to expecting mothers has saved many a baby.
Gad, I had no idea she was still alive - I know she had a stroke decades back.
These guys were actors, you don’t know anything about them.
Farewell to a very stylish girl.
It's called repentance and conversion, and it's a wonderful gift from Our Lord Jesus Christ. You would probably be amazed how many ladies are in this category. Come to Washington, DC next January for the March for Life, and you can meet and talk with some of them.
Hud was good, but Sometimes a Great Notion better.
Mine too. Go ahead Patricia...murder that baby so my wife and daughter don’t find out I dishonored them both.
Kudos to coopers wife and especially his daughter for HER courage to forgive. She did better than her father that’s for sure.
Repentance, forgiveness, abandoning those sins forever more.
yes indeed and...she was GREAT with John Wayne. They were quite a pair.
Hud fame? I remember her from “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.
Oh, wow ... sniff
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Her lover (and co-star) Gary Cooper had persuaded her to have the abortion, as he was still married and had a daughter with his wife. That daughter, Maria Cooper, famously spat on Neal to show her displeasure that Neal had interfered with the marriage of the Coopers. However, later, the wife and daughter reconciled with Neal.
Maria Cooper is credited with helping Neal return to Catholicism. And, despite her hatred of the affair, Maria Cooper is said to have complained to Neal that the aborted child was the only sibling Maria Cooper would ever have and that she wished that the child had been given life.
Patricia Neal openly admired fellow actress Ingrid Bergman, who gave birth out of wedlock to a son by Roberto Rossellini, and was therefore denounced by the United States Senate.
Neal said that Bergman had “guts” and that Neal wished that she had had the guts also to carry her baby to birth.
Joshua Mercer of Catholic Vote Action, noted Neal’s death and her pro-life views in later life.
“Neal stood out against the grain of Hollywood by calling for the defense of unborn life. It was learned from her own mistakes,” he said.
“Neal appeared as a guest on The View and spoke gently about how abortion creates anguish and sorrow. She often said simply but powerfully: ‘Don’t make my mistake. Let your baby live.’”
“I had the chance to hear her speak about six or seven years ago and I can say without any hesitation that everyone in the room was moved by her testimony,” Mercer continued.
Even the New York Times noted her abortion regrets in its obituary:
During her affair with Cooper, she became pregnant. She had an abortion and according to her 1988 autobiography, “As I Am,” (written with Richard DeNeut), she cried herself to sleep for 30 years afterward.
“If I had only one thing to do over in my life,” she wrote, “I would have that baby.”
“Never underestimate the power of forgiveness! Maria Cooper understood that Jesus forgives, so she found the strength to do so as well. I believe that Patricia is eternally grateful,” Mercer said.
The courage that eluded her at age 21 was certainly shown in later years. Rest in God’s peace, Patricia Neal.
Yes. And The Fountainhead and A Face in the Crowd. She was fantastic.
I remember many of Patricia Neal’s movies; “In Harm’s Way,” “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “A Face in the Crowd.” She also starred in “The Homecoming,” which essentially became the pilot for “The Waltons” on TV.
Never knew about the affair with Gary Cooper or the abortion though. She will be missed.
“She was fantastic.”
Indeed.
The movie that Cooper and Neal co-starred in was THE FOUNTAINHEAD, from the novel by Ayn Rand.
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