diff --git a/fe/src/main/java/com/cloudera/impala/hive/executor/UdfExecutor.java b/fe/src/main/java/com/cloudera/impala/hive/executor/UdfExecutor.java
index 59365daff..b8ba01e23 100644
--- a/fe/src/main/java/com/cloudera/impala/hive/executor/UdfExecutor.java
+++ b/fe/src/main/java/com/cloudera/impala/hive/executor/UdfExecutor.java
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
 // Wrapper object to run hive UDFs. This class works with UdfCallExpr in the
 // backend to marshall data back and forth between the execution engine and
 // the java UDF class.
-// See the comments in be/src/exprs/udf-call-expr.h for more details.
+// See the comments in be/src/exprs/hive-udf-call.h for more details.
 // TODO: should we cache loaded jars and classes?
 @SuppressWarnings("restriction")
 public class UdfExecutor {
@@ -196,8 +196,9 @@ public class UdfExecutor {
       for (int i = 0; i < argTypes_.length; ++i) {
         if (UnsafeUtil.UNSAFE.getByte(inputNullsPtr_ + i) == 0) {
           if (isArgString_[i]) {
-            Preconditions.checkState(inputArgs_[i] instanceof ImpalaBytesWritable);
-            inputArgs_[i] = ((ImpalaBytesWritable)inputArgs_[i]).toString();
+            Preconditions.checkState(inputObjects_[i] instanceof ImpalaBytesWritable);
+            inputArgs_[i] =
+                new String(((ImpalaBytesWritable)inputObjects_[i]).getBytes());
           } else {
             inputArgs_[i] = inputObjects_[i];
           }
@@ -342,7 +343,7 @@ public class UdfExecutor {
   // These objects are allocated once and reused across calls to evaluate()
   private void allocateInputObjects() throws ImpalaRuntimeException {
     inputObjects_ = new Writable[argTypes_.length];
-    inputArgs_ = new Writable[argTypes_.length];
+    inputArgs_ = new Object[argTypes_.length];
     isArgString_ = new boolean[argTypes_.length];
 
     for (int i = 0; i < argTypes_.length; ++i) {
@@ -378,8 +379,7 @@ public class UdfExecutor {
             inputObjects_[i] = w;
           } else if (method_.getParameterTypes()[i] == String.class) {
             isArgString_[i] = true;
-            // String can be mapped to any String-like Writable class. We need
-            // to call toString on it before calling the UDF.
+            // String can be mapped to any String-like Writable class.
             ImpalaBytesWritable w = new ImpalaBytesWritable(inputBufferPtr_ + offset);
             inputObjects_[i] = w;
           } else {
diff --git a/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/hive-udf.test b/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/hive-udf.test
index ff12c8040..83d959276 100644
--- a/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/hive-udf.test
+++ b/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/hive-udf.test
@@ -71,11 +71,15 @@ double
 10
 ====
 ---- QUERY
-select udf_test.identity("why hello there");
+# IMPALA-1456. Each "identity" call below tests a different type (BytesWritable, Text,
+# and String).
+select udf_test.identity("why hello there"),
+       udf_test.identity("why", " hello there"),
+       udf_test.identity("why", " hello", " there");
 ---- TYPES
-string
+string, string, string
 ---- RESULTS
-'why hello there'
+'why hello there','why hello there','why hello there'
 ====
 ---- QUERY
 select udf_test.identity(NULL);
@@ -85,12 +89,13 @@ boolean
 NULL
 ====
 ---- QUERY
-# IMPALA-1134. Each "identity" call below tests a different type (BytesWritable and Text).
-# The different types are handled slightly differently.
+# IMPALA-1134. Each "identity" call below tests a different type (BytesWritable, Text,
+# and String). The different types are handled slightly differently.
 select length(udf_test.identity("0123456789")),
-       length(udf_test.identity("0123456789", "0123456789"));
+       length(udf_test.identity("0123456789", "0123456789")),
+       length(udf_test.identity("0123456789", "0123456789", "0123456789"));
 ---- TYPES
-int, int
+int, int, int
 ---- RESULTS
-10,20
+10,20,30
 ====
diff --git a/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/load-hive-udfs.test b/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/load-hive-udfs.test
index ea9f341b6..fdc6269fe 100644
--- a/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/load-hive-udfs.test
+++ b/testdata/workloads/functional-query/queries/QueryTest/load-hive-udfs.test
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ drop function if exists udf_test.identity(float);
 drop function if exists udf_test.identity(double);
 drop function if exists udf_test.identity(string);
 drop function if exists udf_test.identity(string, string);
+drop function if exists udf_test.identity(string, string, string);
 drop function if exists udf_test.identity(timestamp);
 
 create database if not exists udf_test;
@@ -79,4 +80,8 @@ symbol='com.cloudera.impala.TestUdf';
 create function udf_test.identity(string, string) returns string
 location '/test-warehouse/impala-hive-udfs.jar'
 symbol='com.cloudera.impala.TestUdf';
+
+create function udf_test.identity(string, string, string) returns string
+location '/test-warehouse/impala-hive-udfs.jar'
+symbol='com.cloudera.impala.TestUdf';
 ====
diff --git a/tests/test-hive-udfs/src/main/java/com/cloudera/impala/TestUdf.java b/tests/test-hive-udfs/src/main/java/com/cloudera/impala/TestUdf.java
index df0d7d850..fc5d3cf43 100644
--- a/tests/test-hive-udfs/src/main/java/com/cloudera/impala/TestUdf.java
+++ b/tests/test-hive-udfs/src/main/java/com/cloudera/impala/TestUdf.java
@@ -90,4 +90,8 @@ public class TestUdf extends UDF {
     if (a == null || b == null) return null;
     return new Text(a.toString() + b.toString());
   }
+  public String evaluate(String a, String b, String c) {
+    if (a == null || b == null || c == null) return null;
+    return a + b + c;
+  }
 }