Fannie Flagg

Fannie Flagg, born Patricia Neal on September 21, 1944, in Birmingham, Alabama, is an American actress, comedian, and author. The only child of William Hurbert Neal Jr. and Marion Leona Neal, she grew up primarily in the Birmingham area, with a brief period spent near Point Clear on the Gulf Coast. Her father encouraged her interest in writing and performance from an early age, and she wrote her first play at age ten. As a teenager, she entered the Miss Alabama pageant and received a scholarship to a local acting school. She later co-hosted a morning program on WBRC-TV in Birmingham before relocating to New York City after being denied a raise.

Because an actress named Patricia Neal was already registered with Actors' Equity, Flagg was required to adopt a stage name. With limited time to decide, she chose "Fannie" on her grandfather's suggestion, as the name had been common among vaudeville comediennes, and "Flagg" on the recommendation of a friend.

Flagg's performing career began to take shape in the 1960s when she wrote comedy sketches for the New York nightclub Upstairs at the Downstairs. When a cast member fell ill one evening, she stepped in as a performer and was noticed by Candid Camera creator Allen Funt, who was in the audience. Funt subsequently hired her as a staff writer on his show, and she later performed on it as well. During the 1960s and 1970s, she also recorded two comedy albums featuring parodies of public figures including Lady Bird Johnson and Martha Mitchell.

Her Broadway career brought her to New York stages in 1978, when she appeared in both the short-lived play Porch and the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, in which she succeeded Carlin Glynn. Those credits established her as a stage performer alongside her growing profile in television and film.

Throughout the 1970s, Flagg became a recognizable television presence, most prominently as a frequent panelist on Match Game during its 1973–1982 run, where she regularly occupied the lower right-hand seat beside panelist Richard Dawson. She appeared several times as an alien abduction victim on the talk show parody Fernwood 2 Night in 1977 and played the Amazon Doctor in the 1975 pilot The New Original Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter. She was also a series regular on The New Dick Van Dyke Show, portraying Mike Preston, the sister of Dick Van Dyke's character, for two seasons, and she appeared in all 30 episodes of the 1980–81 sitcom Harper Valley PTA, playing Cassie Bowman opposite Barbara Eden. Her film appearances include Five Easy Pieces (1970), Some of My Best Friends Are... (1971), Stay Hungry (1976), Grease (1978), and Crazy in Alabama (1999).

In 1978, Flagg placed first in fiction at the Santa Barbara Writer's Conference for a short story that later became the basis for her novel Coming Attractions, published in 1981 following the deaths of both her parents. The book was reissued in 1992 under the title Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, the name Flagg had originally intended. Written in diary form, the autobiographical coming-of-age novel follows an eleven-year-old protagonist beginning in 1952 and spent ten weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Her 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe remained on The New York Times bestseller list for 36 weeks and drew praise from Harper Lee and Eudora Welty. Set across two time periods, the book centers on Ninny Threadgoode's recollections of life in Whistle Stop, Alabama, during the 1920s and 1930s, alongside the present-day story of Evelyn Couch in Birmingham. Flagg co-wrote the screenplay adaptation, which became the 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes, starring Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Cicely Tyson. The screenplay earned Flagg an Academy Award nomination. Her subsequent books include Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! (1998), Standing in the Rainbow (2002), A Redbird Christmas (2004), Can't Wait to Get to Heaven (2006), I Still Dream About You (2010), The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion (2013), The Whole Town's Talking (2016), and The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop (2020), the last of which returns to characters from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Flagg has spoken openly about living with severe dyslexia, a condition she was unaware of until a teacher recognized a pattern in her misspelled written answers on Match Game and sent her a note identifying it. She has described the disorder as a significant obstacle to her writing career through much of the 1970s. She resides in both California and Alabama.