After his film career dissipated after a flurry of bad press, he left Hollywood for Palm Springs and worked such jobs as a night manager for a restaurant and a gardener. Eventually he set up his own landscaping business, but the business failed after a few years and he went into bankruptcy.
Both he and battling girlfriend Barbara Payton appeared together in The Great Jesse James Raid (1953).
Father of actor Tom Neal Jr. (b.1957)
His second wife Patricia Fenton, whom he married in 1956, died of cancer in 1958. She bore his namesake, Tom Neal Jr., who later had a role in the remake of his father's classic film noir: Detour (1992). Following her death, his son lived with Tom's sister.
Made his Broadway stage debut in a small role in "If This Be Treason" in 1935. Moved to California when a couple of other Broadway roles in "Spring Dance" (1936) and "Daughters of Atreus" (1936) failed to advance his career.
Neal had an impressive college boxing career. While at Northwestern and Harvard Universities, Neal compiled an amateur boxing record of 44-3 (41 knockouts).
Neal was born to a wealthy family in Evanston, Illinois.
Neal's family wanted him to become a lawyer, but the muscular Neal, a standout boxer on his college's boxing team, dreamed of an acting career.
Noted for his rugged good looking and charming personality, as well as his hair trigger temper, and jealous outbursts.
Tried a comeback in the movies and on television in the late 1950s, but his career was finished due to his violent off-screen reputation.
Was once engaged in 1934 to Inez Martin, a one-time Follies girl and ex-mistress of murdered racketeer Arnold Rothstein, who was shot to death inside a Park Central Hotel room on November 4, 1928. Martin was twice Tom's age. His father put an end to the whole thing by threatening Tom with disinheritance of the family's million-dollar fortune.