KNOXVILLE, Tennessee. (AP) – Patricia Neal, the willowy, husky-voiced actress who won an Academy Award for 1963's 'Hud' and then survived several strokes to continue acting, died on Sunday. She was 84.

Neal had lung cancer and died surrounded by her family at her home in Edgartown, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard.

"She faced her final illness as she had all of the many trials she endured: with indomitable grace, good humour and a great deal of her self-described stubbornness," her family said in a statement.

Neal was already an award-winning Broadway actress when she won her Oscar for her role as a housekeeper to the Texas father (Melvyn Douglas) battling his selfish, amoral son (Paul Newman).

Less than two years later, she suffered a series of strokes in 1965 at age 39. Her struggle to once again walk and talk is regarded as epic in the annals of stroke rehabilitation. She returned to the screen to earn another Oscar nomination and three Emmy nominations.

The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center that helps people recover from strokes and spinal cord and brain injuries is named for her in Knoxville, where she grew up.

In her 1988 autobiography, 'As I Am', she wrote, "Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison."

Neal projected force that almost crackled on the screen. Her forte was drama, but she had a light touch that enabled her to do comedy, too.

She had the female leads in the 1949 film version of Ayn Rand's novel 'The Fountainhead', the classic 1951 science fiction film 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and Elia Kazan's 1957 drama 'A Face in the Crowd'.

In 1953, she married Roald Dahl, the British writer famed for 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'James and the Giant Peach' and other tales for children. They had five children. They divorced in 1983 after she learned he was having an affair with her best friend, and he died in 1990. Even before her illnesses, her life often was touched by misfortune. Besides her daughter's death, an infant son nearly died in 1960 when his carriage was struck by a taxi.

Neal also suffered a nervous breakdown, and had an ill-fated affair with Gary Cooper, who starred with her in 'The Fountainhead'. "I lived this secret life for several years. I was so ashamed," she told The New York Times in 1964.