60 Fun Facts About Arthur Miller

In which part of New York City was Arthur Miller born in 1915?

His father ran a women's clothing business with 400 employees until the 1929 crash wiped the family out.

After the 1929 crash, Miller's family moved to which borough, later the setting for Death of a Salesman?

As a teenager he delivered bread every morning before school to help out.

Where did Miller study, winning the Avery Hopwood Award for his first play, No Villain?

He later gave his name to the university's Arthur Miller Theatre, the only theatre in the world named for him.

Miller was exempt from military service in World War II because of an old high-school injury to what?

He worked in a navy yard instead while writing radio plays for CBS.

Miller's first Broadway play, The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944), closed after how many shows?

He vowed to find another line of work if his next play, All My Sons, failed too.

What is the profession of David Beeves, the improbably lucky hero of The Man Who Had All the Luck?

The whole first act takes place in the barn that doubles as his repair shop.

All My Sons was based on a wartime engine scandal Miller's mother-in-law spotted in a newspaper from which state?

The Wright Aeronautical Corporation had conspired with army inspectors to pass faulty engines in 1941-43.

In All My Sons, Joe Keller's defective cylinder heads caused how many P-40 fighters to crash?

He let his partner and neighbour Steve Deever take the blame and the prison sentence.

Which Ibsen play gave Miller the All My Sons idea of one partner forced to take the blame for the other?

Miller also borrowed from Ibsen the notion of a character's idealism being the root of the problem.

Which New York Times critic's positive review did Miller credit with saving All My Sons from failure?

Most critics, Miller said, saw it as "a very depressing play in a time of great optimism".

Miller wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman in under a day in which Connecticut town?

He finished the rest within six weeks and died at his home there in 2005.

Death of a Salesman premiered on 10 February 1949 at which Broadway house?

The Willy Loman of that first production went on to a long screen career; the director would later become Miller's bitter ex-friend.

Who created the role of Willy Loman in the original Broadway production?

Mildred Dunnock played Linda, Arthur Kennedy was Biff and Cameron Mitchell was Happy.

How many performances did the original run of Death of a Salesman play?

It closed on 18 November 1950.

Death of a Salesman was the first play to win which three honours together?

Miller's Tony was for Best Author.

In which city's theatre lobby did Miller run into his uncle Manny Newman, sparking Death of a Salesman?

Without even greeting his nephew, Manny announced "Buddy is doing very well."

What is the subtitle of Death of a Salesman?

"The Inside of His Head" was Miller's working title, reflecting the montage of memories and dreams.

Which character in Death of a Salesman did Miller say he modelled on himself as a young man?

Bernard, the studious neighbour's boy, grows up to argue a case before the Supreme Court.

How old is Biff Loman when the play takes place?

His father has also served the Wagner Company for 34 years when he is fired.

What is the name of the restaurant where Willy, Biff and Happy meet for their disastrous dinner?

Willy retreats to the bathroom there and slips into the hotel-room flashback that explains Biff's collapse.

Who played Willy Loman in the 1985 CBS television film that drew 25 million viewers?

John Malkovich played Biff and Volker Schlöndorff directed; it earned ten Emmy nominations.

Which actor starred as Willy Loman in the 1999 Broadway revival marking the play's 50th anniversary?

It ran 274 performances at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and won the Tony for Best Revival.

In 1983 Miller went abroad to direct Death of a Salesman at the People's Art Theatre in which city?

His book about the experience, Salesman in Beijing, came out the next year.

The Crucible dramatises witch trials held in which year?

Miller researched them in Salem after a close friend named names to HUAC in 1952.

The Crucible opened on Broadway on 22 January 1953 at which venue?

Miller found the production too cold and stylised, but it still won the Tony for Best Play.

How was The Crucible generally regarded when it first opened in 1953?

It has since become his most frequently produced work worldwide.

In The Crucible, what does Reverend Parris discover the girls and his slave Tituba doing in the forest?

His niece Abigail insists it was only dancing, not witchcraft.

In The Crucible, what does the court find inside the poppet Mary Warren gave to Elizabeth Proctor?

Abigail had stabbed herself to frame Elizabeth for witchcraft.

In The Crucible, what does Deputy Governor Danforth reveal to John Proctor about Elizabeth in Act Three?

He promises to spare her for a year on that account, hoping Proctor will drop his case.

Which composer turned The Crucible into an opera in 1961?

Robert Ward's opera won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Who played John Proctor in the 1996 film of The Crucible, for which Miller wrote the screenplay?

Winona Ryder played Abigail and Paul Scofield made his final live-action film appearance as Danforth.

Which director's HUAC testimony in 1952 ended a close friendship with Miller for a decade?

The director answered critics with On the Waterfront; Miller answered back with A View from the Bridge.

Eddie Carbone, the tragic protagonist of A View from the Bridge, works as what?

The play is narrated by the lawyer Alfieri, who bridges Italian and American cultures.

A View from the Bridge is set in which New York waterfront neighbourhood?

Alfieri opens by describing the area's violent past and its second-generation Sicilians who now "settle for half".

What did Miller write to Kazan when the director jokingly asked to film A View from the Bridge?

Peter Brook directed the revised two-act version in London the following year.

In 1957 Miller was found guilty of what offence after refusing to name names to HUAC?

The conviction was overturned in 1958 because the committee chairman had misled him.

Why did the State Department deny Miller a passport in 1954?

When he later sought a routine renewal, HUAC used the application to subpoena him.

In what year did Miller marry Marilyn Monroe?

They had met in 1951 and had a brief affair; she converted to Judaism after the wedding.

What happened after Marilyn Monroe converted to Judaism on marrying Miller?

She wanted, a biographer wrote, to express loyalty and get close to Miller and his parents.

Who directed The Misfits, the 1961 film Miller wrote for Marilyn Monroe?

The director said he was "impertinent enough" to tell Miller that letting her take drugs was criminal.

The Misfits was released on 1 February 1961, which would have been the 60th birthday of which of its stars?

It was his last film; he refused to be dragged 400 feet across a dry lake bed at 30 mph for one stunt.

In The Misfits, Roslyn is horrified to learn the rounded-up mustangs are destined for what?

The film was set around Reno, where Roslyn had gone for a six-week residency divorce.

Miller's third wife, photographer Inge Morath, belonged to which agency?

Born in Graz, Austria, she joined the agency in 1953 and became a full member in 1955.

What is the name of the Monroe-like character whose appearance in After the Fall (1964) caused outrage?

Robert Brustein called it "a three and one half hour breach of taste".

In what year is Miller's one-act Incident at Vichy (1964) set?

Its characters include an Austrian prince, Von Berg, and a Nazi professor.

Miller's 1968 hit The Price, about two brothers, turns on the sale of what?

It lost the Tony for Best Play to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead but ran 429 performances.

Miller became the first American president of which writers' organisation in 1965?

He held the post until 1969 and organised the 1966 PEN congress in New York.

Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union in 1969 for what reason?

He had also been a pledged delegate for Eugene McCarthy at the 1968 Democratic convention.

Miller's 1945 novel Focus deals with antisemitism triggered by the protagonist getting what?

William H. Macy starred in the 2001 film version.

Miller's 1994 play Broken Glass takes its title from which 1938 event?

It follows a New York couple, Sylvia and Phillip Gellburg, in the same year.

What was the title of Miller's 1987 autobiography?

It was the first time he wrote at length about his marriage to Marilyn Monroe.

Miller died on 10 February 2005, which was the anniversary of what?

He was 89 and died at his Connecticut home of bladder cancer and heart failure.

Miller's daughter Rebecca studied at which university, rooming with feminist author Naomi Wolf?

Her 2017 documentary Arthur Miller: Writer profiles her father.

Who portrayed Arthur Miller in the 2022 Netflix film Blonde?

Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is also named after the playwright.

How old was Arthur Miller when he died of bladder cancer and heart failure in February 2005?

He had been in hospice care at his sister's New York apartment before returning to his Connecticut home.

What did Miller first major in at the University of Michigan before switching to English?

He wrote for The Michigan Daily and the satirical Gargoyle Humor Magazine while there.

What was the title of Miller's final play, which opened at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 2004?

It was reportedly drawn from the filming of The Misfits, though Miller insisted the characters were fictional.

In December 2004 the 89-year-old Miller announced plans to marry which 34-year-old minimalist painter?

She had been living with him at his Connecticut farm since 2002; he died two months after the announcement.

Miller attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention as a pledged delegate for which candidate?

A year later the Soviet Union banned his works after he campaigned for dissident writers.

Miller's 1944 book Situation Normal grew out of researching the dispatches of which war correspondent?

Miller himself was exempt from service because of an old football injury to his left kneecap.