Remembering Two Artists Who Were Not

Defeated By Difficult Personal Lives

August 19, 2010   

RIP: Harvey Pekar
(1939-2010)
Patricia Neal (1926-2010)

  Two celebrities who both came to national prominence through the medium of film have left the great stage of life. Though these two couldn’t have been more different in some ways-one chronicled his life through underground comics, the other was a classically trained actress-both bore the similarity of having overcome great physical obstacles in order to lay the mark they left in the world of popular culture.

    Harvey Pekar was a man that most of us could relate to. Well, I least I know that I certainly could. I readily admit, however, that I wasn’t aware of Pekar or his unique talents until the 2003 bio pic of his life, “American Splendor,” changed all of that.

   Actor Paul Giamatti, a man who excels at portraying these types of angst ridden characters, as witnessed spectacularly in the 2004 film, “Sideways,” was the onscreen cinematic alter ego of Pekar in the film of his life. In a unique creative decision, the makers of the film also allowed Pekar to appear as himself in the film as sort of an ongoing counterpoint to Giamatti’s portrayal of Pekar. This also allowed the audience more of a chance to sympathize with Pekar’s plight and humanize this unique man in the process.

Photo: The brilliant writer Harvey Pekar

  Pekar struggled through two divorces, chronic depression, a seemingly perpetual state of loneliness, and a low paying, dead end job as a file clerk before finding his creative outlet-and some semblance of happiness- through the publication of a comic detailing his day to day angst. Later he would also fight a life threatening battle with lymphoma and chronicle it as well. The comic, entitled-you guessed it- “American Splendor,” which included illustrations by famed cartoonist Robert Crumb, took a while to catch on but eventually became an underground sensation. Pekar described his work as “an autobiography written as it’s happening. The theme is about staying alive. Getting a job, finding a mate, having a place to live, finding a creative outlet. Life is a war of attrition. You have to stay active on all fronts. It’s one thing after another. I’ve tried to control a chaotic universe. And it’s a losing battle. But I can’t let go. I’ve tried, but I can’t.” 

    Unfortunately, as we all must, Pekar lost the batttle. His third wife, Joyce, found him dead at his Cleveland home at the age of 70 on July 12, apparently from complications resulting from a battle with prostrate cancer. Pekar, however, did not let illness or his ongoing depression deter him in his last days as he was busy up until the end with a recent series of web comics. Harvey Pekar, we will miss your unique take on the struggles of day to day life. May you rest in peace.

   The story of Patricia Neal’s trials and tribulations may be of a different caliber from those of Mr. Pekar but her refusal to give in to what might have appeared to be a losing battle would have even made Harvey Pekar proud.

    Neal came from humble roots, She was born Patsy Louise Neal, and grew up in Kentucky coal mining country, specifically Packard, Whitley County, Kentucky. The family moved to Knoxville Tennessee and she would go on to study drama at Northwestern University.

    Neal’s best cinematic output came during the 50s and early 60s when she starred in such now classic films as “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “A Face in the Crowd” (costarring with Andy Griffith), “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,”  and “Hud,” for which she won an Oscar.

Photo: Patricia Neal with Paul Newman in Hud

   Neal was well on her way to achieving her status as an accomplished actress when she met British writer Roald Dahl at a dinner party in 1951. The couple would soon marry, and though the union would last nearly thirty years, it was fraught with personal tragedies for the both of them, to say nothing of Dahl’s now legendary serial womanizing which would end the marriage in 1983.

   In the early 1960s the couple suffered through grievous injury to one child and the death of another. In late 1960, their son Theo, four months old, suffered brain damage when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. Less than two years later, their daughter, Olivia, died at age 7 from encephalitis.

    While pregnant in 1965, Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms. As a result, the actress was in a coma for three weeks. Dahl directed her rehabilitation and she subsequently relearned to walk and talk. In August of that year, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Lucy. All of this was chronicled in a well made 1981 made for TV movie, “The Patricia Neal Story,” which starred Glenda Jackson as Neal.

   Through it all Neal continued to act. She even appeared as Olivia Walton in the pilot film for the ‘Walton’s’ television series, “The Homecoming.” Her output slowed somewhat beginning in the early nineties, though she would appear in Robert Altman’s excellent 1999 film, “Cookie’s Fortune.” Her final credit was in last year’s ‘Flying By.”

    Though Neal died of lung cancer last week at the age of 84, she also left a mark on the world of pop culture that will stand the test of time. May you also rest in peace, Patricia Neal.

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