ARTHUR MILLER Biography - Writers

 
 

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ARTHUR MILLER

Full Name: Mr. Arthur Asher Miller                                                 
Date of Birth: October 17, 1915                                                     
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA                                       
Died: February 10, 2005                                                             
Place of Death: Roxbury, Connecticut, USA                                           
                                                                                   
Literally setting the stage and defining American theater for the seven decades     
he wrote plays, Arthur Miller?s works depict the everyday, common man fighting     
for his place in life and society. With a keen sense of what is real and           
important, Miller's work is reminiscent of Greek Tragedy, but adapted for the       
modern audience ? who he claims is whom all artists, especially playwright?s       
should aim to inform.                                                               
                                                                                   
Arthur Miller's better known works include All My Sons, Death of A Salesman, and   
The Crucible. His plays have won Tony Awards, New York Drama Critics Circle         
awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. These plays display middle-class Americans           
attempting to make it against a corrupt system and government with the odds         
against them. He was believed to be a communist sympathizer, which can be seen     
in his play An Enemy of the People.                                                 
                                                                                   
Miller attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While there, he first     
majored in Journalism, then went onto pursue a degree in Literature after           
studying ancient Greek drama. He married his college sweetheart Mary Slatter,       
but divorced her later after his fame. He then married the Marilyn Monroe. The     
two also divorced. However, it was Marilyn Monroe?s public support for him that     
Miller was able to have charges dropped against him for being found in contempt     
of Congress for not revealing the names of Communists in the House Committee for   
Un-American Activities.                                                             
                                                                                   
Miller and Marilyn Monroe spent endless amounts of time together during the         
shooting of the film The Misfits. Monroe?s drug habits and open promiscuity with   
Yves Montand during the shooting led to emotional breakdowns for the two and the   
eventual ending of their marriage. The story is depicted in the autobiography of   
Arthur Miller called Timebends: A Life, which was released in 1987. It was with     
Inge Morath that Miller would have two children and would stay married until her   
death in 2004. Further showcasing the playwright?s interesting personal and         
public life was a biography sketch in the PBS documentary called The Making of     
the Misfits by John Huston. Before his death in 2005, Miller had announced his     
engagement to painter Agnes Barley.