Patricia Neal, who died Sunday at 84, survived a long series of tragedies, including a series of strokes, a longtime extramarital affair by the husband (Roald Dahl of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” fame) who supported her rehabilitation and diseases that left one of their children brain damaged and the other dead. She won a Best Actress Oscar for “Hud” (1964) and was nominated for “The Subject Was Roses,” which she made after learning to read and talk again, a struggle movingly depicted in a TV bio-pic starring Glenda Jackson as Neal and Dirk Bogarde as Dahl.

The smoky-voiced actress wrote in her excellent autobiography that she spent 30 years regretting aborting her pregnancy during an affair with the love of her life, Gary Cooper, who refused to leave his wife and daughter. They met while making King Vidor’s film version of “The Fountainhead.” With a screenplay by Ayn Rand herself, this may be one of the most demented literary adaptations ever, but the erotic heat between Cooper’s architect Howard Roark and Neal’s architecture critic Dominque Fanchon was seldom equalled in Hollywood’s Golden Age (here’s a sample below).

Cooper, who was more than twice Neal’s age, made just one more movie with her — the little-known “Bright Leaf,” which is available from the Warner Archive Collection. Their chemistry here, again, is palpable. Neal discusses Cooper in Ross McElwee’s fascinating documentary “Bright Leaves,” which uses the earlier film as a frame for an idiosyncratic look at North Carolina’s tobacco industry. Neal, incidentally, outlived Cooper (who died of cancer) by just over 49 years.

My pal The Self-Styled Siren has more on Neal’s remarkable career and life at her place.