Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal dies at 84

AFP - US actress Patricia Neal, winner of both Academy and Tony awards, died at her home in the northeastern US state of Massachusetts Sunday at the age of 84, The New York Times reported.

The cause of her death was not immediately known, but the newspaper noted that Neal had suffered three strokes early in her career and was semi-paralyzed and unable to speak for a long time after that.

Neal won her Tony award before she was 21, following her Broadway debut in Lillian Hellman's play "Another Part of the Forest", the paper noted.

The actress made her movie debut in the 1949 comedy "John Loves Mary", where she played opposite the late former president Ronald Reagan.

She later starred in the screen version of John Patrick?s play "The Hasty Heart" (1950), in which she played a nurse who tries to comfort a dying soldier, and "The Breaking Point" (1950), which was based on Ernest Hemingway?s novel "To Have and Have Not", The Times said.

In 1964, Neal received an Oscar for best actress for her performance in the movie "Hud", where she appeared with Paul Newman.

But a year later she had three strokes that left her in a coma for three weeks, The Times said.

Following these crises, she was able to learn to walk and talk again.

Despite a severely impaired memory that made it difficult to remember lines, she returned to the screen in 1968 in the movie "The Subject Was Roses". She was nominated for an Academy Award for that role, but did not win it, the paper said