Arthur Miller Biography

More than any other playwright, Arthur Miller drew together strands of the American experience and wove them into plays that attempted to make sense of the dysfunction of modern lives.

Miller was born in 1915 to a well-off New York Jewish family that was able to endure the Great Depression thanks to its ancestral fortunes. His childhood homes in Brooklyn and Harlem became settings for his plays, and his memories of a rapidly developing New York and its complex inhabitants also featured in his storylines.

Miller’s breakthrough play All My Sons was about the moral failings of a father and the resultant disintegration of his family. This was followed by Death of a Salesman, his masterpiece documenting the disintegration of Willy Loman’s pursuit of the “American Dream,” which subsequently went on to win a Pulitzer prize in 1988.

The former’s success gave Miller fame and fortune, but he was soon on the radar of the HUAC for what was seen as his communist tendencies. Like many intellectuals, Miller had attended communist meetings in the 1930s. Miller was consequently forced to testify before the committee, but unlike his friend, Eli Kazan, he refused to disclose information about any of the other attendees. His deep disillusionment with the vindictive forces that led the hearings led him to write one of his most famous works, The Crucible, his take on the 17th-century witch trials of the Massachusetts town of Salem.

Miller’s profile increased greatly in 1956 when he left his first wife to marry Marilyn Monroe at the height of her fame. She converted to Judaism before her marriage to Miller. In his autobiography, Time Bends, Miller wrote tenderly and compassionately about Monroe and the bouts of insecurity and drug addiction that undermined their marriage. Over time, Miller grew frustrated at unprofessional journalists who routinely depicted Monroe as the quintessential “dumb blonde woman.”

At the height of media attention over their relationship, Miller was subpoenaed by the HUAC and found guilty for not naming people with communist ties. However, the conviction was overturned the following year. Shortly after their marriage, the couple traveled to England so that Monroe could star in the Prince and Showgirl and Miller could supervise the London production of his work, A View from the Bridge. When Monroe became pregnant, the couple returned to America, but sadly she suffered the first of two miscarriages here. Miller wrote the screenplay for The Misfits especially for Monroe. In turn, her performance as a damaged divorcee in the film is regarded as one of her best.