- After his film career dissipated following 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The volatile Neal, who once severely pummeled actor Franchot Tone over the affections of actress Barbara Payton, was later jailed for involuntary manslaughter in the 1960s for shooting his third wife to death in the head. He got six years despite maintaining it was an accident.
- 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.
- 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.
- Neal was born to a wealthy family in Evanston, Illinois.
- Neal had an impressive college boxing career. While at Northwestern and Harvard Universities, Neal compiled an amateur boxing record of 44-3 (41 knockouts).
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Max Levine in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- Both he and battling girlfriend Barbara Payton appeared together in The Great Jesse James Raid (1953).
- Lived to the same age as his son Tom Neal Jr.. Both died at age 58, senior from heart failure and junior from cancer. Both lived nearly the same amount of time: senior 58 years, 6 months, 11 days, and junior 58 years, 5 months, 10 days. Both died in August.
- Made his Broadway stage debut in a small role in "If This Be Treason" in 1935. Moved to California after a couple of other Broadway roles in "Spring Dance" (1936) and "Daughters of Atreus" (1936) failed to advance his career.
- 1934: Tom Neal was knocked out in 2 rounds by "One of Harvard's most outstanding boxers", Bill Smith at the Indoor Athletic Building at Harvard University in an amateur boxing match. Smith went on to win the light-heavy-weight N.C.A.A. championship in 1935 and had a record of 103-3-0.
- Father of actor Tom Neal Jr. (b.1957)
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Leo Hart in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out William Beltran in 1 round in an amateur boxing match at the Indoor Athletic Building at Harvard University. Neal was coached by Henry Lamar.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Herman Zeinman in 1 round in an amateur boxing match at the Indoor Athletic Building at Harvard University. Neal was coached by Henry Lamar.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out James Crawford in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Tommy Mitchell in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Samuel Rodgway in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Gary Keers in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Igg Rosenberg in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Lawrence O'Neil in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Melvin Kenyon in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
- 1933: Tom Neal knocked out Lloyd Blake in 1 round in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an amateur boxing match.
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