Tom Neal

Thomas Carroll Neal Jr. was born on January 28, 1914, in Evanston, Illinois, one of three children of banker Thomas Neal Sr. and Mayme Neal, née Martin. He had two older sisters, Mary Elizabeth and Dorothy Helen. His great uncle was the noted thespian John Drew. Neal and his sisters grew up in a ten-room home in Chicago. He attended Lake Forest Academy and Evanston Township High School before enrolling at Northwestern University, where he majored in mathematics, participated in multiple sports, competed in amateur boxing, joined the Sigma Chi fraternity, and was active in the drama club.

Neal left Northwestern after a year and returned to Chicago, where he appeared in summer stock productions before relocating to New York City in 1933. He made his Broadway debut in 1935, appearing in three productions between 1935 and 1936: Daughters of Atreus, Spring Dance, and If This Be Treason. Between 1932 and 1934, prior to his stage career, he had competed in numerous amateur boxing matches.

In 1938, Neal entered film with a role in Out West with the Hardys, part of the Mickey Rooney Hardy family series. He went on to appear in many low-budget productions throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In 1941, he starred alongside Frances Gifford in Jungle Girl, a fifteen-episode serial produced by Republic Pictures. His most recognized screen performance came in the film noir Detour, in which he played Al Roberts opposite Ann Savage. The two actors appeared together in five films total.

Following a widely publicized physical altercation with actor Franchot Tone on September 14, 1951, over actress Barbara Payton, Neal was effectively blacklisted in Hollywood. Tone suffered a smashed cheekbone, a broken nose, and a brain concussion as a result of the fight and was hospitalized. Despite the blacklisting, Neal and Payton attempted to sustain their careers by co-starring in the 1953 Western The Great Jesse James Raid and a touring production of The Postman Always Rings Twice, which ran from June to September 1953 before receiving largely negative reviews. Neal and Payton ended their relationship permanently in November 1953.

Neal was married three times. His first marriage, to actress and singer Vicky Lane in 1948, ended in divorce in 1949 when Lane cited mental and physical cruelty. He subsequently married Patricia Fenton, with whom he had his only child, Patrick Thomas Neal, born in 1957. Fenton died the following year from cancer. In 1961, Neal married receptionist Gail Bennett in Las Vegas. On April 1, 1965, Bennett was shot in the back of the head with a .45 caliber gun at the couple's Palm Springs home. Neal surrendered to police on April 3 and was indicted on a murder charge on April 10. At trial, he testified that Bennett's death resulted from an accidental discharge during a struggle over a gun. On November 18, 1965, a jury convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, and on December 10 he was sentenced to one to fifteen years in prison, of which he served six. He was released on parole on December 6, 1971.

With his acting career behind him, Neal had relocated to Palm Springs and established a landscaping business. After his release from prison, he returned to work as a landscaper and gardener. On August 7, 1972, his son found him dead in his bed at his home in North Hollywood, California. His death was attributed to heart failure. Neal's son, who uses the name Tom Neal Jr., appeared in a 1992 independent remake of Detour, playing the same role of Al Roberts that his father had made notable in the original film.