Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Alfred Uhry (YEWR-ee) was born on December 3, 1936, in Atlanta to Ralph K. and Alene Fox Uhry. His father was a furniture designer and artist; his mother was a social worker. Uhry earned a B.A. degree from Brown University in 1958. During his undergraduate years, he wrote the book and lyrics for annual student musical presentations. On June 13, 1959, Uhry married Joanna Kellogg, a schoolteacher. They had four daughters: Emily, Elizabeth, Kate, and Nell.

When Uhry first went to New York, he worked for composer Frank Loesser as a lyricist. Then he joined the faculty of Calhoun High School, a private school in New York City, where he taught English and drama until 1980. For the next several years, until 1984, Uhry was affiliated with the Goodspeed Opera House, working on comedy scripts for television. In 1985 he resumed teaching for three years at New York University in New York City, as instructor of lyric writing. A key experience in Uhry’s life was the opportunity to work with the composer Robert Waldman for a number of years.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s, Uhry worked mainly as a lyricist and librettist. In 1968 he wrote the lyrics for Here’s Where I Belong, a musical adapted from John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden. It closed after one performance. Uhry’s work as lyricist and librettist for a two-act musical based on Eudora Welty’s novella The Robber Bridegroom in 1975 fared much better. It was produced on Broadway, and it earned him a nomination for the Drama Desk Award in 1975 and the Tony Award, the American Theatre Wing Award, and the League of American Theatres Award in 1976. A surprise hit, this musical ran on Broadway for almost 150 performances during the 1976-1977 season. Uhry had several such successes throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s, with Chapeau, a musical; Swing, which was performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1980; Little Johnny Jones; and America’s Sweetheart, based on John Kobler’s book about Al Capone.

After realizing that he had spent years doing what he did not really want to do, Uhry decided that the time was right to write a play. For him, researching a subject was unnecessary; he would draw from family experiences. He knew a family legend about his grandmother, who continued to drive long past the time she could do so safely. The family finally forced her to accept the services of a chauffeur. With the Off-Broadway production of his first full-length play, Driving Miss Daisy, Uhry got his big break. In the play, the twenty-five-year relationship between the elderly grandmother and the black chauffeur provided Uhry a chance to reveal some of the changes in attitudes and relationships that took place during that era of civil rights struggles between the 1950’s and the 1970’s. With great subtlety, Uhry addresses a number of issues of the era, including race and ethnicity, the rich and the poor, the Jew and the Gentile, and conflicts between the old and the young.

Driving Miss Daisy earned Uhry the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in drama as well as the Outer Critics Circle award. The play enjoyed 664 performances, making it the longest-running play in the history of the Alliance Theatre Company, and there were 1,195 Off-Broadway performances of the play. The following year Driving Miss Daisy was awarded the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award. In 1990 Uhry received the Academy Award (Oscar) for the best screenplay adaptation.

Uhry continued to produce screenplays throughout the 1980’s. In 1988...