ARTHUR MILLER
PLAYWRIGHT

ARTHUR MILLER (Playwright) was born in New York City in 1915 and studied at the University of Michigan, where two of his plays were produced in 1934. When he graduated in 1938 he began working with the Federal Theatre Project and wrote radio plays for CBS and the Cavalcade of America. His first Broadway production was The Man Who Had All the Luck in 1944. His plays include All My Sons (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), The American Clock (1980), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), and Broken Glass (1994), among many others. The Signature Theatre Company dedicated its 1997-98 season to Mr. Miller, which included the premiere of his latest play Mr. Peters' Connections. The 50^th anniversary production of Death of a Salesman received the Tony and Drama Desk awards for best revival of a play, as did the Roundabout Theatre's recent production of A View from the Bridge. Mr. Miller's screenplays include The Misfits and Everybody Wins, "Playing for Time" (for television), and the recent adaptation of The Crucible (Academy Award nomination for best screenplay). Awards: Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, two Drama Critics Circle Awards, an Obie, a BBC Best Play Award, an Olivier Award for best play, the George Foster Peabody Award, a Gold Medal for Drama from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Creative Arts Award from Brandeis University, the Literary Lion Award from the New York Public Library, the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Alger Meadows Award, the Pell Award for Excellence, the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contributions to the Arts,  and a 1999 Tony Award for lifetime achievement. Mr. Miller holds honorary doctorate degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University.

Further Exploration:

• The historical accuracy of The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• Read a chronology of Arthur Miller's life.
• An interview with Arthur Miller
• Online Chat Transcript with Arthur Miller in 1999
• Photograph of the shed at Arthur Miller's Connecticut home
• Life of Arthur Miller
• Literary Works of Arthur Miller
• Life and Works of Arthur Miller
• Arthur Miller's Suggested Reading
• Arthur Miller's Kennedy Centre Honor
• Purchase plays, books or videos.

Read some excerpts from Brenda Murphy's book: Miller: Death of a Salesman. (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995) to get a sense of Arthur Miller's approach to Broadway plays:

• Excerpt: The Writing

• Excerpt: Assembling the Production Team
• Excerpt: The Design Process