Isn’t he the bloke who banged Marilyn Monroe?
The very same – in fact they were married for five years after Miller divorced his first wife for the blonde bombshell. He was also married to photographer Inge Morath, andat the end of his life was seeing 34 year old minimalist painter Agnes Barley, who was ordered off the premises hours after his death because his sister didn’t approve of the 55 year age gap.
Sounds like a hell-raiser.
Yes, but he was also quite a good playwright! Like Pulitzer Prize for Drama-winning good. The very early stuff’s pretty forgettable, but he found a successful niche in his biting criticisms of the American Dream.
How’d that go down?
It being 1950s Cold War America, not brilliantly, and he found himself hauled before the Un-American Activities Committee. When he refused to give the names of politically involved friends in 1957, Miller was found guilty of being in contempt of Congress, sentenced to a fine, jailed for a month, and blacklisted by the US government (who had never been great fans of him anyway).
Didn’t he write something about witches?
Yes – The Crucible (you might have studied it for GCSE) is a vivid allegory of McCarthyism, and his most-read play, largely thanks to the British curriculum. It uses the allegory of the Salem witch trials to attack the US government’s hunt for alleged communist sympathisers during the Cold War. Deep.
What else?
Along the way, he’s become a national treasure, against all odds, and is rated one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century. We’re huge fans.
Tickle your fancy? Seek out these theatrical treasures:
All My Sons
Death of a Salesman
The Crucible
A View from the Bridge
