TOM NEAL BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Tom Neal was born on January 28th, 1914 in Evanston, Illinois.  After High School he attended college at Northwestern University where he was a member of the boxing team and in 1938 he graduated from Harvard with a law degree.
 
Even though his parents had hopes for him to continue to pursue a career as a lawyer, he always had aspirations to have a career as an actor.  In 1935 he made his Broadway debut in, "If This Be Treason" and then moved to California after the majority of his Broadway roles were not doing him any justice.
 
In 1938 he had his film debut on, "Out West With the Hardys".  His film career followed with a number of roles in the 40's and 50's, mostly portraying the tough guy image.
 
When he got into a fight with the actress, Barbara Peyton's boyfriend and broke his nose as well as causing other injures, Hollywood blackballed Neal.  However, even though no longer able to work as an actor, Neal pursued other interests such as gardening and landscaping.  He relocated to Palm Springs California and opened his own landscaping company which did not succeed and he ended up filing for bankruptcy.  He tried to make a comeback to the film industry in the late 50's, but no one would hire him due to his violent reputation.
 
Then in 1965 he faced another issue in his personal life when he was brought to trial for the murder of his third wife, Gale Bennett who was shot in the head.  The death penalty was sought, but he was only found guilty of involuntary man slaughter and sentenced to serve ten years.      
 
Tom Neal married three times throughout his lifetime, first to Vicky Lane whom he married in 1948 but only remained with her for two years.  His second marriage was to Patricia Fenton from 1956 through her passing away from cancer in 1958 and they had one son, Tom Oneil Jr. who later became an actor. He then married for a third time to Gale Bennett in 1960 and she too passed away on April 2nd, 1965. 
 
Just a couple years after losing his third wife, Neal passed away at the age of fifty eight on August 7th, 1972 in North Hollywood, California from heart failure after serving six of his ten year sentence.  He was cremated and his ashes were stored in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.   
 

Filmography

1959 Mike Hammer
1958 The Last Hurrah 
1958 Tales of Wells Fargo
1954 A Time to Live
1953 The Great Jesse James Raid
1952 Gang Busters 
1952 Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok 
1951 Boston Blackie
1951 Racket Squad
1951 Let's Go Navy!
1951 G.I. Jane 
1951 Danger Zone 
1951 Stop That Cab
1951 Navy Bound 
1951 Fingerprints Don't Lie
1951 The Valparaiso Story 
1951 All That I Have 
1950 King of the Bullwhip
1950 Call of the Klondike 
1950 The Du Pont Story 
1950 The Gene Autry Show
1950 Train to Tombstone 
1950 I Shot Billy the Kid 
1950 Joe Palooka in Humphrey Takes a Chance 
1950 Everybody's Dancin' 
1950 The Daltons' Women 
1950 Radar Secret Service
1949 Red Desert 
1949 Apache Chief 
1949 Amazon Quest 
1949 Bruce Gentry
1948 Beyond Glory 
1947 The Case of the Baby Sitter
1947 Cry Wolf 
1947 The Hat Box Mystery 
1946 My Dog Shep 
1946 The Brute Man 
1946 Blonde Alibi
1945 Club Havana
1945 Detour 
1945 First Yank Into Tokyo 
1945 Crime, Inc. 
1944 Thoroughbreds 
1944 The Unwritten Code 
1944 Two-Man Submarine 
1944 The Racket Man 
1943 Klondike Kate 
1943 There's Something About a Soldier 
1943 Behind the Rising Sun 
1943 Good Luck, Mr. Yates 
1943 Who's Superstitious? 
1943 She Has What It Takes 
1943 The Rear Gunner
1943 Air Force 
1943 No Time for Love 
1942 China Girl 
1942 Bowery at Midnight 
1942 Flying Tigers
1942 The Pride of the Yankees 
1942 One Thrilling Night 
1942 Ten Gentlemen from West Point 
1941 The Miracle Kid 
1941 Top Sergeant Mulligan
1941 Jungle Girl 
1941 Under Age 
1941 Wings of Steel
1940 Flight Command 
1940 Sky Murder 
1940 The Courageous Dr. Christian 
1940 Jack Pot 
1939 Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President 
1939 Another Thin Man 
1939 They All Come Out 
1939 Stronger Than Desire 
1939 Help Wanted
1939 6,000 Enemies 
1939 Prophet Without Honor 
1939 Within the Law 
1939 Money to Loan
1939 Fast and Loose
1939 Honolulu 
1939 Four Girls in White 
1939 Burn 'Em Up O'Connor 
1938 The Great Heart
1938 Out West with the Hardys