One camp viewed it as a heart-warming account of two people from very different worlds becoming close, close friends. Her casting was particularly unusual because she was quite elderly – 80 years old.Ĭritics and commentators dueled over 'Miss Daisy' when it won the Oscar for best picture. Hollywood producers Lili and Richard Zanuck quickly scooped up the rights for $50,000 and brought it to the silver screen starring Morgan Freeman, who played in the Broadway production, and Jessica Tandy. In no time its short run was extended, and then moved to Broadway where it ran for three years!

His play almost instantly took off (it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988) when it opened to a 79-seat off-Broadway theater. More: Georgia's most popular movie is 'Gone with the Wind' - So why wasn't it filmed here?įilmed in Georgia: Clint Eastwood learned Savannah way from Sonny Seiler filming 'Midnight' Coleman in the American South over a 25-year period beginning in 1948.įilmed in Georgia: Savannah is setting for ludicrous John Grisham plot in 'Gingerbread Man' Uhry was a budding writer still in his 20s, and he put down as best he remembered the back-and-forth of Mrs. Her grandson, Alfred Uhry, had witnessed the interactions between Mrs.

Miss Daisy in real life was Lena Fox of Atlanta. The second surprise is how it came to be at all. The first surprise about this 1988 play recounting the history of a feisty Southern lady and her chauffeur is that it is a true life story.

Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry