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Dateline: 11th February, 2005
Arthur Miller (1915 - 2005) Playwright Arthur Miller died on Thursday of heart failure at the age of 89. He had been suffering from a heart condition, cancer and pneumonia. His family was at his bedside as he died. Although an American, Miller's plays have been such an important part of the British theatre scene that, for many, he feels like a Brit. Certainly if there was a league table of plays produced by youth theatre and amateur groups, The Crucible would be very near to the top. His Death of a Salesman, for which he won at Pulitzer Prize in 1949 at the age of 33 and which continues to win awards to this day (it won the Tony for Best Revival in 1999 and its star, Brian Dennehy, won best actor: the production is to come to the West End in May), has become almost an icon of modern America. "Originally, it was a literal play about a literal salesman," he said, "but it has become a bit of a myth, not only here but in many other parts of the world." It was written in six weeks and made Miller a Broadway star overnight. His first play All My Sons, which won a New York Drama Critics' Circle award for best play in 1947, drew accusations that he was unpatriotic and during the fifties he was brought before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. He refused to name any of his friends who might have had communist sympathies and was held in contempt. He drew on this experience to write The Crucible, which won a Tony in 1953. In spite of his early success, he became incresingly disillusioned with Broadway, accusing it of empty commercialism and in 1991 The Ride Down Mt. Morgan premiered in London. His 1994 play Broken Glass did open on Broadway to good reviews and a Tony nominations, but business was not good. However the London production won an Olivier. He continued writing until very recently: Resurrection Blues premiered in Minneapolis in 2002 and in Octiber last year Finishing the Picture premiered in Chicago. He was also, of course, famous for his short marriage to Marilyn Monroe for whom he wrote the screenplay The Misfits in 1961. His last play, Finishing the Picture, is based on an event in that marriage. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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