Steel Magnolias Trivia
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49 free Steel Magnolias trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Steel Magnolias trivia questions with answers. Steel Magnolias started as a short story Robert Harling wrote for his nephew after his sister Susan died, became a one-set, all-female Off-Broadway play in ten days, and then a 1989 film that gave Julia Roberts her first Oscar nomination. This quiz covers all of it: the beauty-shop regulars, the wedding day with its pink-and-pink color scheme and armadillo groom's cake, and the town of Natchitoches, Louisiana where it was shot. The easy questions are for anyone who has cried at the funeral scene. The harder ones dig into who originated the roles Off-Broadway, the 2005 Broadway revival, the CBS sitcom pilot that dropped Shelby, the 2012 Lifetime remake with Queen Latifah and Alfre Woodard, the box office, and a royal seating mishap at the London premiere. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, the play and the cast, Wikiquote's transcript, and the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, and each question carries its source.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actress plays salon owner Truvy Jones in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias?
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton clashed with the director, who she later said was unhappy with her acting; a co-star recalled her answering him with bawdy jokes.
Q 02What medical condition does Julia Roberts' Shelby have in Steel Magnolias?
Type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is why Shelby's doctor has told her not to have children, a warning she defies within the year, to her mother's dismay.
Q 03Which actress plays M'Lynn Eatenton, Shelby's mother, in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias?
Sally Field
Sally Field plays M'Lynn, who alone stays at Shelby's bedside to the end; the men of the family, she says at the grave, could not bear to stay in the room.
Q 04What is the nickname of Shirley MacLaine's grouchy character in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias?
Ouiser
Ouiser, short for Louisa, blames a neighbor's gunfire for her dog's lost coat and says she no longer has a good side, yet lets her friends reunite her with an old flame.
Q 05Which U.S. state is the setting of both the play and the film Steel Magnolias?
Louisiana
Louisiana is where playwright Robert Harling grew up; he set the story in fictional Chinquapin Parish and insisted the film be shot in his real hometown.
Q 06Which Footloose director made the 1989 film version of Steel Magnolias?
Herbert Ross
Herbert Ross, a former ballet and Broadway choreographer, was hard on newcomer Julia Roberts, co-stars recalled; the rest of the cast rallied around her.
Q 07Which actress plays Annelle, the shy beauty-school graduate, in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias?
Daryl Hannah
Daryl Hannah's Annelle arrives hiding a husband who ran off with her car and money, and ends the film devout, newly married and expecting a baby she will name after Shelby.
Q 08Which actress plays Clairee Belcher, the former mayor's widow, in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias?
Olympia Dukakis
Olympia Dukakis, fresh from her Moonstruck Oscar, plays the widow who breaks the tension at Shelby's burial by offering up her best friend to be hit.
Q 09The 1989 film Steel Magnolias ends with Annelle going into labor at the town's celebration of which holiday?
Easter
Easter. At the town egg hunt, Annelle's husband Sammy is dressed as the Easter Bunny, and he follows her to the hospital on the back of a motorcycle.
Q 10In Steel Magnolias, what animal is the groom's cake at Shelby's wedding shaped like?
An armadillo
An armadillo. Jackson's Aunt Fern bakes it from blood-red velvet cake under gray icing, so cutting into it looks like the animal is bleeding.
Q 11In Steel Magnolias, how does M'Lynn sum up Shelby's 'blush and bashful' wedding colors?
Pink and pink
Pink and pink. Shelby insists she chose two shades, one much deeper than the other, and M'Lynn says the church looks hosed down with Pepto-Bismol.
Q 12In Steel Magnolias, Truvy says that laughter through what is her favorite emotion?
Tears
Tears. Truvy says it at the cemetery, moments after the women's grief for Shelby has collapsed into helpless laughter at a joke made at a friend's expense.
Q 13Robert Harling, who wrote both the play and the film of Steel Magnolias, held an unused degree in which subject?
Law
Law. Harling skipped his bar exam to take a stage acting job, and he was still getting by on TV commercials in New York when he wrote his first play.
Q 21How did the cast of the original Steel Magnolias play differ from the 1989 film's?
It was entirely all-female
It was entirely all-female: on stage the husbands and sons are only talked about, heard at most as a radio DJ's voice, and the film put them on screen.
Q 22Where does the entire stage play Steel Magnolias take place?
Truvy's beauty parlor
Truvy's beauty parlor is the play's only set, across four scenes; the film opened the story up to a wedding, a Christmas festival and a hospital ward.
Q 23Which cable network aired the 2012 remake of Steel Magnolias with an all-Black cast?
Lifetime
Q 14Robert Harling wrote Steel Magnolias after the 1985 death of which family member, the model for Shelby?
His sister
His sister Susan, a pediatric nurse, died in 1985; Harling first wrote her story as a short piece so that her young son would know who his mother was.
Q 15Which real town, Robert Harling's hometown, hosted the 1988 shoot of the film Steel Magnolias?
Natchitoches
Natchitoches kept a souvenir: one house used in the shoot became a bed-and-breakfast, the Steel Magnolia House, with rooms named for the characters.
Q 16Julia Roberts lost the Oscar for Steel Magnolias but won which award for playing Shelby?
A Golden Globe
A Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress went to Roberts, the newcomer in a cast with three Oscar winners, and she was also the film's only Oscar nominee.
Q 17Which actress was first cast as Shelby in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias but left before filming began?
Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan left to make When Harry Met Sally and Julia Roberts stepped in; years later Roberts passed on the lead in You've Got Mail, which went to Ryan.
Q 18Who plays Drum Eatenton, Shelby's father, in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias?
Tom Skerritt
Tom Skerritt's Drum spends the wedding morning firing blanks into the trees so birds won't spoil the reception, to the fury of a neighbor whose dog he terrifies.
Q 19Which actor plays Jackson Latcherie, Shelby's husband, in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias?
Dylan McDermott
Dylan McDermott and Julia Roberts became a couple while playing newlyweds and got engaged, but the relationship ended in 1990 before any wedding.
Q 20Which Pulitzer-winning playwright plays Truvy's husband Spud Jones in the 1989 film Steel Magnolias?
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard's Spud is out of work for most of the film, then leads Truvy, eyes shut, to a second salon he has opened for her; 'I'm a chain!' she cries.
Lifetime said yes without a second's delay, the remake's producers recalled, asking only when they could start shooting; the premiere drew 6.5 million viewers.
Q 24Who plays M'Lynn in the 2012 television remake of Steel Magnolias?
Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah was also an executive producer, reuniting with the producers of Chicago and Hairspray, two earlier films she had made with them.
Q 25Which singer plays Truvy in the 2012 remake of Steel Magnolias?
Jill Scott
Jill Scott, the remake's producers said, built the salon owner from the script and made no attempt to recreate the performance in the 1989 film.
Q 26Who earned an Emmy nomination as the town grouch in the 2012 remake of Steel Magnolias?
Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard said it was fun to play someone 'not accommodating at all'; hers was the remake's only Emmy nomination, and she won the NAACP Image Award.
Q 27Which relative of Phylicia Rashad, who plays Clairee, plays Shelby in the 2012 remake of Steel Magnolias?
Her daughter
Her daughter Condola Rashad, Tony-nominated months earlier for Stick Fly, shared the film with her mother but played another woman's child.
Q 28Which European film festival opened in February 1990 with a screening of Steel Magnolias?
Berlin
Berlin. It was the first Berlinale held on both sides of the newly opened Wall: the film was also shown in East Berlin, and Julia Roberts posed at the Wall itself.
Q 29Which studio released the film Steel Magnolias in November 1989?
Tri-Star Pictures
Tri-Star Pictures released it for producer Ray Stark, who had bought the screen rights within months of the play's 1987 Off-Broadway opening.
Q 30In Steel Magnolias, Shelby says she would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a whole life of what?
Nothing special
Nothing special. Shelby says it at Christmas to win her mother's support for a pregnancy her doctor had warned her against.