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Arthur Miller Facts

Arthur Miller Facts
Arthur Miller was an American playwright and essayist best known for his play Death of a Salesman. He was born Arthur Asher Miller on October 17th, 1915 in Harlem, New York, to Augusta and Isidore Miller. Following the Wall Street Crash in 1929 his family moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn where Arthur earned his high school diploma. He saved money from odd jobs and attended the University of Michigan, where his playwriting career began. Arthur returned to New York to pursue his writing. His 1940 play The Man Who Had All the Luck closed in New Jersey with poor reviews and only four performances, but six years later he would go on to win his first Tony for his Broadway play All My Sons.
Interesting Arthur Miller Facts:
While attending the University of Michigan Arthur Miller wrote for the school paper the Michigan Daily and majored in journalism. He switched his major to English and wrote the play No Villain which went on to win the Avery Hopwood Award.
Arthur Miller studied under the playwright Kenneth Rowe and learned a great deal from him about the art of constructing a play. The two men remained good friends for the rest of their lives.
Although Arthur's play The Man Who Had All the Luck closed with poor reviews it won the Theatre Guild's National Award.
Arthur Miller married Mary Slattery in 1940. They had two children together, Robert and Jane. Arthur and Mary would later divorce in 1956.
Arthur Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut as a place to write. There he wrote his play Death of a Salesman, in only one day.
Death of a Salesman opened at the Morosco Theatre on February 10th, 1949. The play was widely admired and won him the Pulitzer Prize, a Tony award, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.
Arthur Miller married Marilyn Monroe in 1956. They divorced in 1961.
The House of Un-American Activities Committee called Arthur Miller to appear before them because of his play The Crucible, but he refused to comply with their demands.
In 1962 Arthur Miller married Inge Morath, an Austrian-born photographer. They had two children together, Daniel and Rebecca. Daniel was born with down syndrome.
Arthur Miller wrote a large number of stage plays, radio plays, screenplays, fiction and non-fiction books and short stories, and many biographies and critical studies of his own work have been written by others.
Arthur Miller's screenplay The Misfits starred his soon-to-be ex-wife Marilyn Monroe. It was only 19 months after Arthur and Marilyn divorced that she died of a 'suspected' drug overdose.
Arthur Miller continued to write into his 80s, but his last notable play was The Price in 1968.
Arthur Miller's most famous works include Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, and All My Sons.
Arthur Miller's most notable awards include the 1949 Pulitzer Prize, the 1984 Kennedy Center Honors, the 2001 Praemium Imperiale, and the 2003 Jerusalem Prize.
Arthur Miller died of a heart attack on February 10th, 2005. It was the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman.


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