Arthur Miller

Born at 5:12am-EST

Father (with Inge Morath ) of Rebecca Miller.

Father of Jane Ellen Miller and Robert A. Miller by first wife, Mary Slattery.

Older brother of Joan Copeland.

First wife Mary Slattery was his college sweetheart.

Met his late wife, Inge Morath , when she and other photographers from the legendary Magnum agency, was assigned to document the making of Millers and Marilyn Monroe s film, The Misfits .

Daughter Rebecca Miller is married to Daniel Day-Lewis , who starred in The Crucible , a film version of Millers play.

(May 8, 2002) Miller received the "Principe de Asturias" prize, in honour of his writing career.

(1 May 2002) Awarded Spains Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama." Previous winners include Doris Lessing , Gnter Grass and Carlos Fuentes.

Divorced his first wife, Mary Slattery, in Reno, NV, after a six-week residency period. It was while waiting for his divorce that Miller met a group of cowboys who inspired the short story "The Misfits", which he later adapted as a vehicle for his second wife, Marilyn Monroe.

His "Death of a Salesman" was the first play to take the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Was exempted from military service during World War II because of a football injury.

(31 May 1957) Was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to reveal to the House Un-American Activities Committee the names of members of a literary circle accused of Communist affiliations. His conviction was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on 8 August 1958.

Graduated from the University of Michigan in 1938, majoring in journalism. He was a reporter and night editor on the student paper, The Michigan Daily.

According to Martin Gottfrieds biography, "Arthur Miller: His Life and Work," he and his late wife, Inge Morath , had a son, Daniel, born with Down Syndrome. Miller put Daniel in an institution in Roxbury, Conn., and never visited him.

Was one of three children. His father was an Austrian Jewish immigrant. His mother was born in New York, to Austrian Jewish parents.

He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1995 (1994 season) BBC Award for Best Play for Broken Glass.

(12/04) The 89-year-old Miller announced that he has been living with 34-year-old artist Agnes Barley at his Roxbury, Connecticut, farm since 2002.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 132, pp. 287-295. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.

Miller died on the 56th anniversary of the opening night of his greatest success. "Death of a Salesman" opened at the Morosco Theatre on Feb 10, 1949 and closed on Nov 18, 1950, running for a total of 742 performances. The original production won two 1949 Tony Awards for Miller for Best Play and Best Author. It also won Tony Awards for Arthur Kennedy (Best Supporting or Featured Actor-Dramatic), Jo Mielziner (Best Scenic Design), Kermit Bloomgarden and Walter Fried (Producer-Dramatic), and Elia Kazan (Best Director). Cameron Mitchell won a 1949 Theatre World Award for Supporting Actor. Miller also was awarded the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play has been revived three times successfully on Broadway, in 1975, 1984 and 1999.

According to Miller in his autobiography "Timebends," he had written a screenplay dealing with corruption on the New York waterfront called "The Hook." Elia Kazan had agreed to direct it, and in 1951 they went to see Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures about making the picture. Cohn agreed in principle to make "The Hook," but his minions were troubled by the portrayal of corrupt union officials. When Cohn asked that the antagonists of the script be changed to Communists, Miller refused. Cohn sent Miller a letter telling him it was interesting that he had resisted Columbias desire to make the movie pro-American. Kazan later made a movie about corruption on the waterfront that did include corrupt union officials, based on articles by Malcolm Johnson. He asked Miller to write the script, but Miller declined due to his disenchantment with Kazans friendly testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Budd Schulberg , a fellow HUAC informer, developed the story and wrote the script. The movie was produced by Sam Spiegel and distributed through Columbia. On the Waterfront , which won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, is considered a classic and was one of the first films named to the National Film Preservation Boards National Film Registry in 1989.

He was forced to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1956, after he had sought a passport to accompany his wife, Marilyn Monroe , to England for the shooting of The Prince and the Showgirl . In 1954 the US State Department had refused to renew his passport (first issued in 1947) on the grounds that he was a "fellow traveler". Subsequent to his 1956 request, HUAC subpoenaed Miller to testify about the unauthorized use of American passports. The justification of the subpoena was that the State Department was withholding approval of his latest request due to derogatory information about Millers past. In his HUAC testimony, Miller admitted to involvement with many Communist-front organizations and having had sponsored many Communist-backed causes in the 1940s. When Miller was asked whether he had signed an application to join the Communist Party in 1939 or 40, he explained that he believed he had signed an application for a course on Marxism. The date was significant for it was the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, signed in Moscow on August 23, 1939 (thus enabling the launching of World War II by allying the USSR with Germany, partitioning Poland between the two countries, and allowing Adolf Hitler to concentrate his war machine on the West), that led many American Communist Party members, like friendly witness Elia Kazan , to repudiate the Party. To have stuck with the Party or to have joined after the Pact would tar one as a Stalinist. Claiming he could not remember, Miller refused to deny that he had signed statements attacking H.U.A.C. and the Smith Act, and signing a statement against outlawing the Communist party. The Alien Registration Act of 1940, a.k.a. the Smith Act, had been used to destroy the Communist Party. It banned knowingly or willfully advocating, abetting, advising, or teaching the necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing the government of the U.S. or any of its subdivisions by force or violence, or by assassination of its officials. It also outlawed the printing, publishing, editing and distribution of materials advocating violent revolution, and made it a crime to organize, help or make attempts to organize any group advocating the same. The U.S. Supreme Court had upheld the Smith Act in 1951. Upholding the conspiracy convictions of 11 Communist Party leaders, the Court, applying a clear and present danger test, held that free speech could be curbed in order to suppress a serious evil. Miller told H.U.A.C. that he opposed the Smith Act because it might limit "advocacy," which was essential to literature. The right to free expression for artists had to be preserved. Millers culpability hanged upon his helping a group, i.e., the Communist Party, which advocated the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Miller testified that he had attended Communist party writers meetings four or five times. When he was asked to confirm the identity of the chairman of a 1947 "meeting of Communist party writers" that he had attended, Miller refused to name names. He stated that though he "would not support now a cause dominated by Communists... my conscience will not permit me to use the name of another person and bring trouble to him." Section 6 of The Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950 made it illegal for any member of a registered Communist or Communist-front organization, or an organization under order to be filed as Communist or Communist-front, to apply for or use a passport if they had knowledge of the actual or impending registration. The provision was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964 as violating the Fifth Amendments due process clause. The Court held that the law infringed on the right to travel, and limited "freedom of association." Faulting Section 6 for being too broad in its application, the Court held it to be unconstitutional as it penalized organization members regardless of their knowledge of its illegal aims, whether they were active or not, and whether they intended to further the organizations illegal aims or not. The law was too broad as it effected "Communist-action" and "Communist-front" organizations whether or not a member believed or knew that they were associated with such an organization, or whether they knew that the organization sought to further the aims of world Communism. (However, the next year, the Court upheld State Department area restrictions on passports, finding that its passport policies did not violate the First Amendment as they inhibited action rather than expression. This distinction was again upheld in 1981.) In 1956, however, Section 6 of The Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950 was still the law of the land, and it was the law with which H.U.A.C. went after Miller. H.U.A.C. gave Miller an additional ten days to return and answer questions, with the implication that he would be cited for contempt if he did no do so. Millers lawyers counseled that since the committees line of questioning had nothing to do with passports, he was not in contempt of Congress for choosing not to answer a question about an unrelated subject. He refused to participate in any further questioning. The State Department issued Miller a six-month temporary passport to accompany Monroe to England, but upon his return, he was indicted by a federal grand jury after the U.S. House of Representatives voted 373 to 9 to cite him for contempt. He was convicted of contempt in federal court, fined $500 and given a thirty-day suspended prison sentence. In 1958, his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Citing a 1955 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that H.U.A.C had not sufficiently warned Miller of the penalty for refusing to answer a congressional committees questions. Miller won the respect of the left and libertarians for doing what many others in his position did not: Stand up to the House Un-American Activities Committee, regardless of the personal cost. His moral courage, which was on display in his life as well as his literature, made him a true American hero.

Won six Tony Awards: in 1947, as Best Author for "All My Sons;" in 1949, as Best Author as well as author of Best Play winner "Death of a Salesman;" in 1953, as Best Author as well as author of Best Play winner "The Crucible;" and in 1999, a Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. He was also Tony-nominated three other times as author of a Best Play nominee: "The Price in 1968, "Broken Glass" in 1994, and "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan" in 2000.

In his autobiography "Timebends," Miller speculates that his unconscious mind picked the name "Loman" for Willy Loman, the protagonist of his greatest play, "Death of a Salesman" , from the movie Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse , which featured a character named "Inspector Lohmann." (Kriminalkomissar Karl Lohmann also appeared in "Mabuse" director Fritz Lang s M ).

His play "Resurrection Blues" was chosen by Old Vic Artistic Director Kevin Spacey for an early 2006 production by the venerable London theatrical company. Director by Robert Altman in his London theatrical debut, the Miller play featured an eclectic cast, including Maximilian Schell , James Fox (who replaced John Wood before previews) and American movie actors Matthew Modine and Jane Adams. The critics mostly panned "Resurrection Blues", partly due to the clash in acting styles of the disparate cast. Adams walked out after a matine on April 5, 2006, and was replaced by her understudy for subsequent performances. No explanation was given for her departure from the production. The play was scheduled to close a week early in mid-April due to poor ticket sales. Altman claimed after the poor debut of the play that he was not very familiar with the script, and didnt really understand the play. Critics said that his confusion obviously affected the cast, many of whom seemed not to understand the play, and some of whom seemed to have trouble remembering lines. While not an outright debacle, the play is another relative failure characterizing Spaceys troubled tenure as Old Vic chief.

In his autobiography "Timebends," Miller says that Lee J. Cobb was his favorite Willy Loman. He also says that Cobb was never really a leftist as he was apolitical, but that he had been attracted to left-wing and anti-Nazi causes during the Depression as had many people who were trying to do right. Thus, Miller never held the fact that he was a friendly witness before HUAAC against him. A decade after his testimony, Cobbs Willy Loman was captured for posterity, with the 1966 video version. By then, Miller had even worked again with Elia Kazan , the most famous and unrepentant of the people who knuckled under and "named names, " whom he fell out with when Kazan refused to direct the Broadway staging of "The Crucible," Millers metaphorical denunciation of McCarthyism.

He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1993 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.

Won the University of Michigans prestigious "Hopwood Prize" for creative writing in 1938, while an undergraduate at the school. The prize is named for playwright Avery Hopwood (1882 - 1928), a vastly successful playwright in the teens and 1920s (most famous for the plays " The Bat (1926) " and "The Golddiggers", which became the basis of Gold Diggers of 1933 ) a Michigan alumnus who left a bequest in his will establishing the awards. The Hopwood Program at Michigan now administers the Arthur Miller Award of the U-M Club of New York Scholarship.

He and his then wife Marilyn Monroe commissioned famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for their Roxbury property in Litchfield County, Connecticut. Although the house was never built by the couple, the plans were purchased many years later by a country club in Hawaii and built as a clubhouse. The scale model is on exhibit at Taliesan West, Wrights winter compound in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Lived with his girlfriend Agnes Barley at the time of his death. Agnes was approximately 50 years younger than Miller.

After his divorce from Marilyn Monroe , his father was Marilyns date to JFKs birthday party at Madison Square Garden.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 373-376. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.

Won a 1999 Special Tony Award (New York City) lifetime achievement award.

His play, "Death of a Salesman," at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was awarded the 1999 Joseph Jefferson Award for Play Production.

His play, "The Price," at the Writers Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was awarded the 2002 Joseph Jefferson Award for Play Production.

His play, "All My Sons" at the TimeLine Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2010 Joseph Jefferson Award for Production-Play Midsize.

His play, "Death of a Salesman" at the Raven Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2010 Joseph Jefferson Award (Non-Equity Division) for Production of a Play.

Both his younger sister Joan Copeland and his second wife Marilyn Monroe were born on June 1: in 1922 and 1926 respectively.

Former son-in-law of Gladys Baker.

Son of Augusta Miller and Isidore Miller.

Two characters in Hollywood Mouth 2 get married as Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe in 1956. The groom, played by Matthew Glaser , wore a pair of glasses that belonged to director Jordan Mohr s father.

Attended Abraham Lincoln H.S. in Brooklyn, after his family moved there from Harlem.

Married Marilyn Monroe in a Jewish ceremony at the Westchester County Courthouse (White Plains, NY) 6/29/56 @ 7:30 PM.

His play, "A View from the Bridge" in a Long Wharf Theatre production on Broadway in New York City was nominated for a 1983 Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Reproduction.

His play, "All My Sons" on Broadway in New York City was awarded the 1987 Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award and 1987 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Revival.

Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard University (1987-2007).

University Professor at the New York University School of Law and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (2007-?).

The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home,to roost.

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.

Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.

By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play is to,arouse the passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may,be opened up new relationships between a man and men, and between men,and Man. Drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought,to help us to know more, and not merely to spend our feelings.

It can take a long time to accept that celebrity is a kind of,loneliness.

The task of the real intellectual consists of analyzing illusions in,order to discover their causes.

My father loved to stand in front of a theater where a play of mine was,on and every now and then stroll in to chat with the box office men,about business.

(On his play After the Fall) The best of our theater is standing on,tiptoe, striving to see over the shoulders of father and mother. The,worst is exploiting and wallowing in the self-pity of adolescence and,obsessive keyhole sexuality. The way out, as the poet says, is always,through.

She finally got furious and said to me, in effect, that she was acting,the truth, and that she was not going to prostitute herself to the,audience. That was the living end.

Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.

It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves,cleave not to faith when faith brings blood. " - Rev. John Hale,The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always.

Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.

Now, as the weeks passed, there was a future, there was a trouble that would not go away.

To admit what you see endangers principles.

I made a gift for you, Good Proctor. I had to sit long hours in a chair, and passed the time with sewing. " - Mary Warren,I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretence Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes! I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!,Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.

Great drama is great questions or it is nothing but technique. I could not imagine a theater worth my time that did not want to change the world.

A character is defined by the kinds of challenges he cannot walk away from.

An era can be considered over when its basic illusions have been exhausted.

Fear, like love, is difficult to explain after it has subsided, probably because it draws away the veils of illusion as it disappears.

The train resembles the Soviet type and is quite comfortable, but all socialist structures I have ever encountered have toilets stemming from a single model engineered by the Orthodox Church in Tsarist Russia to ensure that man never be allowed to forget the corruption of the flesh.

The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds come home to roost.

The task of the real intellectual consists of analyzing illusions in order to discover their causes.

A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself.

The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.

The word "now" is like a bomb thrown through the window and it ticks.

You never do any good until you get into some trouble.

The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less.

The problem was to sustain at any cost the feeling you had in the theater that you were watching a real person, yes, but an intense condensation of his experience, not simply a realistic series of episodes.

Without alienation, there can be no politics.

Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money. .