Driving Miss Daisy is a 1989 American comedy drama film directed by Bruce Beresford and written by Alfred Uhry, based on Uhry's 1987 play. The film stars Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, and Dan Aykroyd. Freeman reprised his role from the original Off-Broadway production.
The story defines Daisy and her point of viewthrough a network of relationships and emotions by focusing on her home life, synagogue, friends, family, fears, and concernsover a twenty-five-year period.
Driving Miss Daisy was a critical and commercial success upon its release and at the 62nd Academy Awards received nine nominations, and won four: Best Picture, Best Actress (for Tandy), Best Makeup, and Best Adapted Screenplay. , it is the most recent PG-rated film to have won Best Picture.
Plot In 1948, Miss Daisy Werthan, a 72-year-old wealthy, Jewish, widowed, retired schoolteacher, lives alone in Atlanta, Georgia, except for a black housekeeper, Idella, who comes in daily. When Daisy accidentally drives her 1946 Chrysler Windsor into her neighbor's yard, her 40-year-old son, Boolie, buys her a Hudson Commodore and hires 60-year-old Hoke Colburn, a black chauffeur, as Daisy can no longer drive due to her being a high insurance risk. Boolie tells Hoke that Daisy may not appreciate his efforts, but she cannot fire him, because Boolie is his employer. At first, Daisy refuses to let anyone drive her, but Hoke's patience pays off, and she reluctantly accepts the first two trips; one to the Piggly Wiggly supermarket, the other to her synagogue. Then she tries to get Boolie to fire Hoke after she had discovered a can of salmon missing from her pantry which she believes Hoke had stolen the previous day. However, the following morning when arriving for work, and without knowing that Miss Daisy had even noticed the missing can, Hoke tells her that he has brought a replacement can because he had eaten the salmon himself the previous evening because the leftovers she had provided for his dinner were inedible.
As Daisy and Hoke spend time together, she comes to appreciate his many skills. She teaches him to read using her teaching skills and resources. Meanwhile, Hoke buys the Hudson and Cadillacs in which he drives Miss Daisy, after they are traded in for newer models, and he negotiates a higher salary with Boolie. Hoke takes Miss Daisy to a birthday party in Alabama. Hoke experiences racism when he is not allowed to use the public restroom at a gas station.
In the spring of 1963, a new television is seen in the kitchen, and Hoke and Idella watch as they go about their kitchen duties. After Hoke comes back from serving cake to the ladies over, Idella drops the peas she was shucking, her hand lying limp. After Idella dies, rather than hire a new housekeeper, Daisy decides to care for her own house and have Hoke do the cooking and the driving.
After her synagogue is bombed, Daisy realizes that she is also a victim of prejudice. American society is undergoing radical changes, and Miss Daisy attends a dinner at which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives a speech. Boolie declines when she invites him to the dinner, fearing the chance of lost business, and suggests that she invite Hoke. She waits until the last moment, and even then only raises it with Hoke in the car on the way to the event, saying that Boolie had said that Hoke wanted to attend. Hoke says he had not in fact said anything to Boolie, and tells Miss Daisy that she should have just asked him directly if she had thought he might like to attend. She attends the dinner alone while Hoke listens to the speech on the car radio. She is struck by King's words, when he says: "If the moderates of the white South fail to act now, history will have to record that the greatest tragedy was not the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but the appalling silence and indifference of the good people."
One morning in 1971, Hoke arrives at the house to find Daisy agitated and showing signs of dementia: she believes that she is a young teacher again. Hoke calms her down. In that conversation, she calls Hoke her "best friend". Boolie arranges for Daisy to enter a retirement home.
In 1973, Hoke, now 85 and rapidly losing his eyesight, retires. Boolie, now 65, drives Hoke to the retirement home to visit Daisy, now 97. The two catch up, and Hoke gently feeds her Thanksgiving pie.
Cast
Production Eddie Murphy was the first choice for the role of Hoke Colburn but turned it down, later explaining in 2025: "They actually developed that for me... I wasn't doing no shit like that back then. I was like 'I ain't driving no Miss Daisy.'"Eddie Murphy Says Turning Down 'Rush Hour' for ‘Holy Man’ Was a ‘No-Brainer’
Reception Box office Driving Miss Daisy was given a limited release on December 15, 1989, earning $73,745 in three theaters. The film was given a wide release on January 26, 1990, earning $5,705,721 over its opening weekend in 895 theaters, becoming the number one film in the United States. It remained at number 1 the following week but was knocked off the top spot in its third weekend of wide release by Hard to Kill. It returned to number one the next weekend and remained there for a fourth week. The film ultimately grossed $106,593,296 in North America, and $39,200,000 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $145,793,296. The film was released in the United Kingdom on February 23, 1990.
Critical response Driving Miss Daisy was well received by critics, with particular praise for the screenplay and performances by Freeman, Tandy and Aykroyd. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 85% rating based on reviews from 106 critics, with an average score of 7.70/10. The website's critical consensus states: "While it's fueled in part by outdated stereotypes, Driving Miss Daisy takes audiences on a heartwarming journey with a pair of outstanding actors." On Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, the film has a score of 81 based on 17 reviews. CinemaScore similarly reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune declared Driving Miss Daisy one of the best films of 1989. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a film of great love and patience" and wrote, "It is an immensely subtle film, in which hardly any of the most important information is carried in the dialogue and in which body language, tone of voice or the look in an eye can be the most important thing in a scene. After so many movies in which shallow and violent people deny their humanity and ours, what a lesson to see a film that looks into the heart."
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also gave the film a positive review, calling Tandy's performance "glorious" and opining, "This is Tandy's finest two hours onscreen in a film career that goes back to 1932." The performances of Tandy and Freeman were also praised by Vincent Canby of The New York Times, who observed, "The two actors manage to be highly theatrical without breaking out of the realistic frame of the film."
On the other hand, the film has been criticized for its handling of the issue of racism. Candice Russell of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel described Freeman's character as having a "toadying manner" which was "painful to see", and said that the film was ultimately "one scene after another of a pompous old lady issuing orders and a servant trying to comply by saying 'yassum.'"Russell, Candice (January 12, 1990). "'Daisy' Mostly One-Note Film" , South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale. The film's nomination for Best Picture at the Academy Awards over Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing was controversial. Lee later reflected on the controversial decision by saying that Driving Miss Daisy was "not being taught in film schools all across the world like Do the Right Thing is."Stern, Marlow (January 15, 2015). "Spike Lee Blasts ‘Selma’ Oscar Snubs: ‘You Know What? F*ck ’Em’" , The Daily Beast.Collins, K. Austin (January 22, 2019). "When the Oscars Chose Driving Miss Daisy Over Do the Right Thing" . Vanity Fair.
Awards and nominations 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 80) 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. That has occurred three times since: Argo in 2012, Green Book in 2018, and CODA in 2021. 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". As of 2025, it is the latest Best Picture winner that was rated PG. All the winners since have been rated PG-13 or R.
Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref. Academy Awards Best Picture Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck Best Actor Morgan Freeman Best Actress Jessica Tandy Best Supporting Actor Dan Aykroyd Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium Alfred Uhry Best Art Direction Art Direction: Bruno Rubeo; Set Decoration: Crispian Sallis Best Costume Design Elizabeth McBride Best Film Editing Mark Warner Best Makeup Manlio Rocchetti, Lynn Barber, and Kevin Haney American Comedy Awards Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) Morgan Freeman Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) Jessica Tandy Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Dan Aykroyd Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear Bruce Beresford Best Joint Performance Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman BMI Film & TV Awards Film Music Award Hans Zimmer Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actress Jessica Tandy British Academy Film Awards Best Film Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck, and Bruce Beresford Best Direction Bruce Beresford Best Actress in a Leading Role Jessica Tandy Best Adapted Screenplay Alfred Uhry David di Donatello Awards Best Foreign Actress Jessica Tandy Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Morgan Freeman Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Jessica Tandy Grammy Awards Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television Driving Miss Daisy – Hans Zimmer Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor Morgan Freeman Best Actress Jessica Tandy Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Actor Morgan Freeman NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Nastro d'Argento Best Female Dubbing Micaela Giustiniani National Board of Review Awards Best Film Top Ten Films Best Actor Morgan Freeman National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actor Best Actress Jessica Tandy New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor Morgan Freeman Best Actress Jessica Tandy Best Director Bruce Beresford Political Film Society Awards Human Rights Producers Guild of America Awards Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck Retirement Research Foundation, USA Wise Owl Award – Television and Theatrical Film Fiction David Brown, Richard D. Zanuck, and Lili Fini Zanuck Writers Guild of America Awards Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium Alfred Uhry
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: AFI 100 Years 100 Cheers – No.77
Oscar "test of time" recount In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter polled hundreds of academy members, asking them to re-vote on past close run decisions. Academy members indicated that, given a second chance, they would award the 1990 Oscar for Best Picture to My Left Foot instead.
Soundtrack