Driving Miss Daisy

50C8DAN
50C8DAN Senior Contributor
in HUDSON

On this date in 1989, "Driving Miss Daisy" was released.

Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Lauren Bacall, and Angela Lansbury all were interested in playing Miss Daisy. Morgan Freeman originated the role of Hoke in the off-Broadway production of the play. Studio executives also considered Bette Midler and Eddie Murphy pairing.

Alfred Uhry based the story of Daisy and Hoke on his own grandmother Lena Fox and her chauffeur Will Coleman. While being interviewed in the 2008 PBS mini-series "The Jewish Americans", Uhry, who grew up as a Jewish child in Atlanta during the 40s and 50s, admitted that many Jews in Atlanta celebrated Christmas, like Boolie and his wife, in an attempt to be a part of a community, where Jews were a minority.

The role of Florine, played by Patti LuPone, is not in the original play. It was written in by Uhry specifically for LuPone, who, Uhry felt, looked good in a costume.

"Driving Miss Daisy" received nine Academy Award nominations and also achieved the following distinctions in Oscar history:

- It is the only film based on an off-Broadway production ever to win Best Picture

- Jessica Tandy (at age 81), became the oldest winner in history to win Best Actress.

- It was the first Best Picture winner since "Grand Hotel" in 1932 to not also receive a Best Director nomination (this has only occurred twice since, "Argo" in 2012 and "Green Book" in 2018; "Wings" the first to win Best Picture in 1927 did not have a nomination for director William A. Wellman). In his opening monologue at the 62nd awards ceremony, host Billy Crystal made fun of this irony by calling it "the film that apparently directed itself."

- It is the last Best Picture winner that was rated PG. All the winners since have been rated PG-13 or R.

- It is the second of only two Academy Award Best Picture winners to have been adapted for the screen from plays having won the Pulitzer Prize. The first was "You Can't Take It with You" (1938). (IMDb/Wikipedia)

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