Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American actor and writer of plays in the 20th-centuryAmerican theater. Among his most popular plays areAll My Sons (1947),Death of a Salesman (1949),The Crucible (1953), andA View from the Bridge (1955). He wrote several screenplays, includingThe Misfits (1961). The dramaDeath of a Salesman is considered one of the best American plays of the 20th century.
At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored injournalism and wrote for the student newspaper,The Michigan Daily, and the satiricalGargoyle Humor Magazine. It was during this time that he wrote his first play,No Villain.[13] He switched his major toEnglish, and subsequently won theAvery Hopwood Award forNo Villain. The award led him to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. He enrolled in a playwriting seminar with the influentialProfessor Kenneth Rowe,[14] who emphasized how a play was built to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction".[15] Rowe gave Miller realistic feedback and much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend.[16] Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater through the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and the Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000.[17] In 1937, Miller wroteHonors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.[13] After his graduation in 1938, he joined theFederal Theatre Project, aNew Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for20th Century Fox.[13] However,Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939.[9] Miller began working in theBrooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to writeradio plays, some of which were broadcast onCBS.[9][13]
Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high schoolfootball injury to his left kneecap.[9] In 1944 Miller's first play was produced:The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guild's National Award.[18] The play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews.[19]
In 1947, Miller's playAll My Sons, the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success onBroadway (earning him his firstTony Award,for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established.[20] Years later, in a 1994 interview withRon Rifkin, Miller said that most contemporary critics regardedAll My Sons as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism" and that positive reviews fromBrooks Atkinson ofThe New York Times had saved it from failure.[21]
In 1949, Miller exchanged letters withEugene O'Neill regarding Miller's production ofAll My Sons. O'Neill had sent Miller a congratulatory telegram; in response, he wrote a letter that consisted of a few paragraphs detailing his gratitude for the telegram, apologizing for not responding earlier, and inviting Eugene to the opening ofDeath of a Salesman. O'Neill replied, accepting the apology, but declining the invitation, explaining that hisParkinson's disease made it difficult to travel. He ended the letter with an invitation toBoston, a trip that never occurred.[23]
In 1952,Elia Kazan appeared before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of theGroup Theatre, including Arthur Miller,Clifford Odets,Paula Strasberg,Lillian Hellman,J. Edward Bromberg, andJohn Garfield,[24] who in recent years had been fellow members of theCommunist Party.[25] Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended.[25] After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled toSalem, Massachusetts, to research thewitch trials of 1692.[26] He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his filmOn the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss.[27] Miller would retaliate against Kazan's work by writingA View from the Bridge, a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think ofstool-pigeons."[28]
While newsmen take notes, ChairmanDies of House Un-American Activities Committee reads and proofs his letter replying to Pres. Roosevelt's attack on the committee, October 26, 1938
The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long afterThe Crucible opened, engineering the US State Department's denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954.[13] When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of hispassport, theHouse Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity tosubpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman,Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed.[34] When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career,[26] he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities.[35] Miller emphasized that his cooperation with various Communist-front organizations had been unfortunate and a mistake. He stressed his own patriotism and portrayed himself as a changed man who regretted his errors. “I think it would be a disaster and a calamity if the Communist Party ever took over this country,” said Miller. “That is an opinion that has come to me not out of the blue sky but out of long thought.”[36] Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities.[34] Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him."[34] As a result, a judge found Miller guilty ofcontempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence,blacklisted from Hollywood, and disallowed a US passport.[37] In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.[34]
Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (includingWilliam Styron andMike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicizedBarbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence.[38] Barthel documented the case in her bookA Death in Canaan, which was made as atelevision film of the same name and broadcast in 1978.[39]City Confidential, anA&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by theConnecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.[40][41]
Miller began work on writing the screenplay forThe Misfits in 1960, directed byJohn Huston and starring Monroe. It was during the filming that Miller's and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life.[42] Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and other drugs to help her wake up, arriving on the set late, and having trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."[43]
Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage.[13] Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose.[44] Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role inThe Asphalt Jungle in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict ofsleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."[45]
In 1964,After the Fall was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. It reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan; they collaborated on the script and direction. It opened on January 23, 1964, at theANTA Theatre inWashington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, Maggie, on stage.[26] Robert Brustein, in a review in theNew Republic, calledAfter the Fall "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... There is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing."[46] That year, Miller producedIncident at Vichy. In 1965, he was elected the first American president ofPEN International, a position which he held for four years.[47] A year later, he organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. He also wrote the penetrating family dramaThe Price, produced in 1968.[26] It was his most successful play sinceDeath of a Salesman.[48]
Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978, he published a collection of hisTheater Essays, edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to hisCollected Plays, his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in theChicago Tribune,Studs Terkel remarked, "In reading [theTheater Essays] ... you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."[52]
In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and directDeath of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre inBeijing. It was a success in China[48] and in 1984,Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time,Death of a Salesman was adapted intoa television film starringDustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. The film was broadcast on CBS, and garnered an audience viewership of 25 million.[13][53] In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,Timebends, was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; however, in the book, he wrote extensively in detail about his experiences with Monroe.[26]
Mr. Peters' Connections was stagedOff-Broadway in 1998, andDeath of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The 1999 revival ran for 274 performances at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, starringBrian Dennehy as Willy Loman. Once again, it was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.[54]
In October 1999, Miller receivedThe Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life".[61] Additionally in 1999,San Jose State University honored Miller with theJohn Steinbeck "In the Souls of the People" Award, which is given to those who capture "Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of people who by circumstance are pushed to the fringes."[62] In 2001, he received theNational Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.[63] On May 1, 2002, he received Spain'sPrincipe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died oflymphatic cancer[64] at the age of 78. The following year, Miller won theJerusalem Prize.[13]
In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-oldminimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry.[65] Miller's final play,Finishing the Picture, opened at theGoodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley.[66] It was reportedly based on his experience during the filming ofThe Misfits,[67] though Miller insisted the play was a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.[68]
In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery.[26] The couple had two children, Jane (born September 7, 1944) and Robert (May 31, 1947 – March 6, 2022).[69]
In June 1956, Miller left Slattery and wed film starMarilyn Monroe.[26] Miller and Monroe had met in 1951, had a brief affair, and remained in contact.[9][26] Monroe had just turned 30 when they married; she never had a real family of her own and was eager to join the family of her new husband.[70]: 156
Monroe began to reconsider her career and the fact that trying to manage it made her feel helpless. She admitted to Miller, "I hateHollywood. I don't want it any more. I want to live quietly in the country and just be there when you need me. I can't fight for myself any more."[70]: 154 Monroeconverted to Judaism to "express her loyalty and get close to both Miller and his parents", writes biographer Jeffrey Meyers.[70]: 156 Soon after Monroe converted,Egypt banned all of her movies.[70]: 157 Away from Hollywood and the culture of celebrity, Monroe's life became more normal; she began cooking, keeping house, and giving Miller more attention and affection than he had been used to.[70]: 157
Later that year, Miller was subpoenaed by theHouse Un-American Activities Committee, and Monroe accompanied him.[31] In her personal notes, she wrote about her worries during this period:
I am so concerned about protecting Arthur. I love him—and he is the only person—human being I have ever known that I could love not only as a man to which I am attracted to practically out of my senses—but he is the only person—as another human being that I trust as much as myself...[71]
During the filming of the 1961 filmThe Misfits, which Miller wrote the script for, Miller and Monroe's marriage dissolved.[42] Monroe obtained aMexican divorce from Miller in January 1961.[72]
In February 1962, Miller married photographerInge Morath, who had worked as a photographer documenting the production ofThe Misfits. The first of their two children,Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son Daniel was born withDown syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had himinstitutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, then at theSouthbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him; Daniel left Southbury at the age of 17 and gradually went from living in a group home to living in an apartment with occasional visits by a social worker.[73][74] Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Miller's son-in-law, actorDaniel Day-Lewis, visited Daniel frequently and persuaded Miller to meet with him. At one point, Miller answered a question about his son by stating, "Well, he knows I’m a person, and he knows my name, but he doesn’t understand what it means to be a son.” When Inge died, Miller stated that they had only had one child together; Daniel did not attend her funeral. When Miller died, Daniel was named as an heir along with his three other children.[75]
Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut ofDeath of a Salesman), at age 89 ofbladder cancer andheart failure, at his home inRoxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from the hospital the previous month.[76] He was surrounded by his companion (painter Agnes Barley), family, and friends.[77][78] His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller, who had been consistently opposed to the relationship with Barley, ordered her to vacate the home she shared with Arthur.[79]
Miller's writing career spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, he was considered one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists.[22] After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to him,[80] some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage,[81] and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.[82]Miller's alma mater, theUniversity of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. Per his express wish, it is the only theater in the world that bears his name.[83]
The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and the New York City Public School education. Its mission is "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum."[90] Its other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools, increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current[as of?] estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools, supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers, and providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in theNew York City school system. Its current chancellor is Carmen Farina, a prominent proponent of theCommon Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includesAlec Baldwin,Ellen Barkin,Bradley Cooper,Dustin Hoffman,Scarlett Johansson,Tony Kushner,Julianne Moore,Michael Moore,Liam Neeson,David O. Russell, andLiev Schreiber. Miller's son-in-law,Daniel Day-Lewis, has served on the current board of directors since 2016.[91]
The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night performance of his seminal works in November 2015.[92] The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn, in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. Its objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.[93]
Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962.[94] This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts forDeath of a Salesman,The Crucible,All My Sons, and other works. In January 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive, totaling over 200 boxes.[95][96] The full archive opened in November 2019.[97]
Christopher Bigsby wroteArthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005.[98] The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".[98] In his bookTrinity of Passion, authorAlan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of theCommunist Party around 1946", using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazineThe New Masses.[99]
In 1999, the writerChristopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing theMonica Lewinsky investigation to theSalem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel.[100] In his memoir,Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support authorSalman Rushdie during the Iranianfatwa involvingThe Satanic Verses.[101]
Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence ofErnie Pyle.
In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.
In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.
Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of theCultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists duringMao Zedong's regime.
Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production ofDeath of a Salesman. He describes directing a Chinese cast in an American play.
Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987)ISBN0-413-41480-9. Miller's autobiography.
On Politics and the Art of Acting, Viking 2001 {ISBN 0-670-030-422} an 85-page essay about the thespian skills in American politics, comparing FDR, JFK, Reagan, Clinton.
^abcdefghThe Times Arthur Miller Obituary, (London: The Times, 2005)
^Applebome, Peter."Present at the Birth of a Salesman",The New York Times, January 29, 1999. Accessed February 8, 2019. "Mr. Miller was born in Harlem in 1915 and then moved with his family to the Midwood section of Brooklyn."
^Hechinger, Fred M."Personal Touch Helps",The New York Times, January 1, 1980. Accessed September 20, 2009. "Lincoln, an ordinary, unselective New York City high school, is proud of a galaxy of prominent alumni, who include the playwright Arthur Miller, Representative Elizabeth Holtzman, the authors Joseph Heller and Ken Auletta, the producer Mel Brooks, the singer Neil Diamond and the songwriter Neil Sedaka."
^For Rowe's recollections of Miller's work as a student playwright, see Kenneth Thorpe Rowe, "Shadows Cast Before," in Robert A. Martin, ed. (1982)Arthur Miller: New Perspectives, Prentice-Hall,ISBN0130488011. Rowe's influential bookWrite That Play (Funk and Wagnalls, 1939), which appeared just a year after Miller's graduation, describes Rowe's approach to play construction.
^Arthur Miller,Timebends: A Life. New York: Grove Press, 1987, pp. 226–227
^Dan Isaac, "Founding Father: O'Neill's Correspondence with Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams",The Eugene O'Neill Review, Vol. 17, No. 1/2 (Spring/Fall 1993), pp. 124–133
^For a frequently cited study of Miller's use of the Salem witchcraft episode, see Robert A. Martin, "Arthur Miller's The Crucible: Background and Sources", reprinted in James J. Martine, ed. (1979)Critical Essays on Arthur Miller, G. K. Hall,ISBN0816182582.
^Martin, Robert A., ed. (1978).The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller. Viking.ISBN0670698016.
^Wilmeth, Don B.; Bigsby, Christopher, eds. (2006).The Cambridge History of American Theatre Volume III: Post-World War II to the 1990s.Cambridge University Press. p. 296.ISBN978-0-521-67985-5.
^"Arthur Miller creates a new work".USA Today. Chicago. October 10, 2004. RetrievedSeptember 23, 2014.And in the play's sweetest moments, he's found a new romance – Kitty's tenderhearted secretary, played by Fisher, a union perhaps mirroring Miller's reported new relationship with Agnes Barley, a 34-year-old artist.
^Wald, Alan M (2007)."7".Trinity of passion: the literary left and the antifascist crusade. NC: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 212–221.ISBN978-0-8078-3075-8. RetrievedMay 6, 2009.
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