Out Spotlight

Today's Spotlight is an actress, comedienne, Academy nominated screenwriter and author. Today's Out Spotlight is Fannie Flagg.

Fannie Flagg was born Patricia Neal September 21, 1941 (although some say 1944), in Birmingham, Alabama, the daughter of Marion and William Neal,Jr. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a small-business owner and projectionist.

She began her theatrical career at age eight with her own play entitled The Whoopee Girl which caused her to be expelled from school because it contained the word 'martini'. Seven years later, she resumed acting career, appearing in more than 30 plays with the Town and Gown Theatre, and then on her own local tv show in Birmingham. Just 18, Flagg co-hosted the locally produced "Morning Show" on WBRC-TV.

At 20 she went to New York to start her acting career. Flagg couldn't use her birth name since there was already a well-known Oscar-winning actress named Patricia Neal, and choose the name Fannie Flagg. While in New York trying to jump start her career, she wrote and appeared in comedy clubs.

She honed her writing skills by creating her original sketches, first as a determined contestant in the Miss Alabama contest (which she finally won on her sixth attempt). Flagg herself was a contestant in the Miss Alabama pageant for seven years. She never won the title like her character does, however, she did win Miss Congeniality.

She got noticed in the NY comedy club circuit and got hired as a staff writer for Allen Funt's Candid Camera, and she later became Funt's co-host on the syndicated 1970s weekly version of the show.

She went on to more than 500 network television appearances to her credit, including "Jackie Gleason," "Johnny Carson," and "The Dick Van Dyke Show".

During the 1970s, Flagg became a fixture on game shows, which showcased her quick wit and sassy Southern personality. She is best known for her appearances on the game show Match Game, where she was a fixture in the lower right-hand seat next to regular panelist Richard Dawson.

She was also a regular on The New Dick Van Dyke Show, where for two seasons she played Van Dyke's character Dick Preston's sister. Another memorable role was Cassie Bowman in the 1980-81 sitcom version of Harper Valley PTA, starring Barbara Eden.

Flagg was not just a small screen star, she made her film acting debut in the movie, "Five Easy Pieces" with Jack Nicholson in 1970, and went on to star in "Some of My Best Friends Are...","Stay Hungry", "Grease", "Rabbit Test" and "Crazy in Alabama".

And her talent was showcased on stage with roles in "Mary, Mary", "Private Lives","Once More With Feeling", "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean". Flagg also starred in "Patio/Porch" and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" on Broadway.

During the 1960s and '70s, Flagg wrote and recorded two comedy albums, "Rally Found the Flagg" for RCA and "My Husband Doesn't Know I'm Making This Phone Call" for MGM Records. Some of her skits included many parodies of Lady Bird Johnson and Martha Mitchell.

She has spoken publicly about her dyslexia, saying she was enormously challenged as a writer because she "was severely dyslexic and couldn't spell, still can't spell. So I was discouraged from writing and embarrassed". She put her writing career on hold for most of the 1970s because of being discouraged and her anxiety. She overcame her fear and completed several novels and screenplays on her way to an even bigger career as writer.

Flagg is probably best known for her book "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe". In 1991, collaborating of screenwriter Carol Sobieski, she turned the novel into the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes".

The story is a gently feminist portrait of two women growing up in the Depression-era rural South, the film, excised the lesbian content of the book's story.

The film starring Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary Louise Parker, and Cicely Tyson garnered Flagg a nomination for an Academy Award for her screenwriting debut. It also earned her the coveted Scripters Award and a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Screen Award. For her reading of the audiobook, she received a Grammy nomination.

Fried Green Tomatoes was not her first novel. Her first was Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man (originally titled Coming Attractions). She went on to write after Fried Green Tomatoes, including "Welcome To The World, Baby Girl!", Standing in the Rainbow, A Redbird Christmas, and Can't Wait to Get to Heaven.

Her first novel, Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, was on the New York Times bestseller list for ten weeks. Her second, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, praised by Harper Lee and Eudora Welty, was on the Times list for thirty-six weeks.

Coming off the success of the book and the movie, Flagg went on to write a nonfiction collection of recipes entitled "The Original Whistlestop Cafe Cookbook".

Her most recent book, "I Still Dream About You: A Novel" was published on last November.

Flagg was at one time married to fellow actor Dick Sargent, who he himself was also gay. They both hid their sexual orientation at the time, and appeared on Tattletales as a couple. They were divorce,Sargent going on to marry again before finally coming out shortly before his death. Flagg went on to have a relationship with author, activist,and feminist icon Rita Mae Brown, who wrote about her relationship with Flagg among her other past lovers.

She continues to write and divides her time between homes in California and Alabama.