Born: Patricia Neal

On: September 21, 1944

In: Birmingham, Alabama

Profession: Actress, author

Trivia: Holds an honorary doctorate from Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire, where her book "Fried Green Tomatoes" is part of the freshman curriculum.

Fannie co-wrote screenplay Fried Green Tomatoes, based on her best-selling novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at Whistle Stop Cafe. She also had a brief cameo in the movie, playing the teacher in a marriage counseling class.

Biography from Hollywood.com: Stand-up comedienne and comedy actress who honed her writing skills by creating her own original sketches, first as a determined contestant in the Miss Alabama contest (which she finally won on her sixth attempt*) and later in comedy clubs. In the 1960s Flagg was hired as a writer for Allen Funt's "Candid Camera" comedy series and later became a regular performer on that show and others. A regular on "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" (1971-73), "Home Cookin'" (1975) and "Harper Valley PTA" (1981), as Barbara Eden's sidekick, as well as a frequent guest performer elsewhere, she made her film acting debut in "Five Easy Pieces" (1970) and subsequently appeared in "Stay Hungry" (1975), "Rabbit Test" and "Grease" (both 1978). Having begun her career as a novelist with "Coming Attractions" (1981), Flagg wrote the popular "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe", published in 1987. In 1991, with the collaboration of screenwriter Carol Sobieski, she turned the novel into the film "Fried Green Tomatoes" (1991). A gently feminist portrait of two women growing up in the Depression-era rural South, the film (which excised the lesbian content of the book) was a huge popular hit and netted Flagg an Oscar nomination for her screenwriting debut.

Fannie did not win the Miss Alabama contest, though she was in it for seven years. However, she did win Miss Congeniality.

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From The Best Little Whore House in Texas Playbill (1980): FANNIE FLAGG (Mona) began her theatrical career at age eight with her own play entitled The Whoopee Girl which caused her expulsion from school in Birmingham, AL because it contained the word 'martini'. Seven years later she resumed acting, appearing in more than 30 plays with the Town and Gown Theatre, and shr had her own daily tv show. At 20 she came to New York, where she wrote and appeared in clubs and on CBS-TV's "Candid Camerca". She now has more than 500 network television appearances to her credit, including "Jackie Gleason," "Johnny Carson," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and is currently a regular on the CBS "Match Game PM." She wrote and performed her two comedy albums, "Rally Found the Flagg" for RCA and "My Husband Doesn't Know I'm Making This Phone Call" for MGM Records. Her films include Five Easy Pieces, and Stay Hungry, and in stage tours she has played in Mary, Mary, Private Lives, and Once More With Feeling, among many others. Ms. Flagg's most recent stage appearances include Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre and New York's Hudson Guild, and Patio/Porch on Broadway. Her first novel, Coming Attractions, will soon be published.

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