By the end of the summer, she had decided to quit school and went to New York with 300 dollars in her pocket. She moved to a West side apartment with three friends and began auditioning. She eventually landed the part of understudy for both lead roles in
The Voice of the Turtle, and, at the suggestion of the show's producer, changed her name to "Patricia."
From New York to Hollywood
The next year, Neal won the starring role in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest. The show opened at the Fulton Theater in New York on November 20, 1946. Neal was a critical success and won several awards including the Donaldson Award, the Drama Critics Award and the Antoinette Perry Award.
The silver screen was next. Neal accepted a contract from Warner Brothers, and later worked with MGM and 20th Century Fox. In her first role she played Mary in the 1949 movie version of John Loves Mary. This, as well as her next two films, The Fountainhead (1949) and Bright Leaf (1950), with Gary Cooper, were critical failures. The tide turned, however, in 1950 when she starred alongside Ronald Reagan in The Hasty Heart.
Shortly after arriving in Hollywood, Neal met and fell in love with Gary Cooper, who was married at the time.
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