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Robert Harling often bases his plays and screenplays on his past personal experiences. He originally studied to become a lawyer, but shortly before graduating from the Tulane University School of Law, he decided that acting was the better profession and never took his Bar exam. He lived in New York for several years, acting and working as a voiceover artist before penning the script for what remains his most famous work, Steel Magnolias, which he adapted, in 1989, into a popular film starring Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, and Sally Field. The story behind Harling's second screenwriting effort, Soapdish (1991), came from his personal experience as an actor. He made his directorial debut with his adaptation of novelist Larry McMurty's The Evening Star (1997), which in turn was a sequel to the popular melodrama Terms of Endearment (1983).