89 Fun Facts About Death of a Salesman

In Death of a Salesman, how did Willy's older brother make his fortune after walking into the African jungle?

Diamond mines: Willy never stops regretting that he turned down his brother's invitation to join him in Alaska.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Willy try to plant in his backyard in the middle of the night?

Seeds: as he plants, he talks with the ghost of his brother about a plan to leave his family $20,000 in life insurance.

In which New York borough is the play set?

The Loman home sits amid a typical row of urban apartment buildings in the late 1940s.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Linda find hidden behind the fuse box in the cellar?

A rubber hose: she believes Willy meant to gas himself with it, and Biff later quietly takes it away.

In Death of a Salesman, what new gadget does Willy's boss insist on demonstrating during their meeting?

A wire recorder: he makes Willy sit through recordings of his wife and children, then turns down Willy's request anyway.

Death of a Salesman won which pair of major honours in 1949?

The Pulitzer and the Tony: Miller had written the first act in a single day, in a small studio he built in Connecticut.

Whose chance encounter with Arthur Miller in a theatre lobby in 1947 sparked Death of a Salesman?

His uncle Manny Newman: a salesman, he ignored Miller's success and only boasted that his own son was doing very well.

What does Linda urge Willy to ask his boss for at the start of Death of a Salesman?

A job in New York: seeing that he can no longer handle the travelling, she wants him to work from the office close to home.

In Death of a Salesman, where had Biff been for the three months his parents couldn't reach him?

In jail: Biff tells Willy he has stolen from every employer he has had since high school.

In Death of a Salesman, which subject did Biff fail in high school, costing him his college scholarships?

Mathematics: when Charley's studious son warned that Biff would flunk, Willy told the boy to give Biff the answers.

In Death of a Salesman, what is the first name of the boss who fires Willy?

Howard: Willy had worked for his late father and says he even chose Howard's name at birth, but that earns him no mercy.

At the start of Death of a Salesman, how is Willy being paid?

Commission only: Linda tells the boys his salary has been taken away, so the veteran now works like a beginner.

In Death of a Salesman, which former employer does Biff wait hours to see, only to be forgotten?

Bill Oliver: Biff had hoped to borrow money from him to start a sporting goods business with his brother.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Biff impulsively steal from the former employer who snubbed him?

A fountain pen: Biff wants to confess the failed meeting to Willy that night, but Happy urges him to keep up the pretence.

In Death of a Salesman, Charley's son grows up to become a lawyer about to argue a case where?

The Supreme Court: when Willy asks him why Biff's life went wrong, he asks what happened when Biff went to see Willy in Boston.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Charley accuse Willy of when Willy refuses his job offer?

Being jealous of him: Willy has just been fired by his boss, yet he still refuses to work for his neighbour.

In Death of a Salesman, after Willy turns down Charley's job offer, what does Charley hand him anyway?

Some money: moments later Willy shocks him by remarking that a man is worth more dead than alive.

In Death of a Salesman, at which restaurant do Willy, Biff and Happy meet for dinner?

Frank's Chop House: Biff and Happy walk out on Willy there, leaving with two women they have just met.

In Death of a Salesman, what did teenage Biff travel to Boston to ask Willy to do?

Change his teacher's mind: instead Biff walked in on his father with another woman in a hotel room.

In Death of a Salesman, what gift from Willy does his mistress thank him for?

Stockings: moments later, back home in his memory, Willy orders Linda to throw out the pair she is mending.

In Death of a Salesman, what is the name of Willy's rich older brother, who appears in his daydreams?

Ben: in the middle of a card game Willy starts talking to him aloud, baffling Charley, who cannot see anyone there.

How does Willy Loman die in Death of a Salesman?

A car crash: Linda had already told the boys that his earlier smash into a bridge railing was deliberate.

Which words does Linda repeat, sobbing, at the end of Death of a Salesman?

We're free: the last payment on the house has just been made, yet there is nobody left to live in it.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Willy believe matters more for success than good grades?

Being well liked: he assures his sons that the studious boy next door, though smart, will fall far behind them in business.

In Death of a Salesman, which instrument's melody is heard as the curtain rises and again as it falls?

A flute: Willy's father made flutes and sold them on the road, a travelling salesman before his son.

In Death of a Salesman, what is Happy's position at the department store where he works?

Assistant to an assistant: even in that lowly post, Happy takes bribes at work.

Who played Willy Loman in the original 1949 Broadway production of Death of a Salesman?

Lee J. Cobb: yet when Hollywood filmed the play in 1951, Fredric March took the role of Willy instead.

Who directed the original 1949 Broadway production of Death of a Salesman?

Elia Kazan: he and Miller were close friends until 1952, when Kazan named names to the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Which actress played Linda in Death of a Salesman on Broadway in 1949 and in the 1951 film?

Mildred Dunnock: the film earned her an Oscar nomination, but the award went to Kim Hunter for A Streetcar Named Desire.

Which future Hollywood bombshell acted in a 1953 Texas production of Death of a Salesman?

Jayne Mansfield: soon after, her Paramount audition in Hollywood went nowhere, and she took a job selling candy at a movie theater.

Who starred as Willy Loman in the 1975 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman at Circle in the Square?

George C. Scott: four years earlier he had refused to accept his Best Actor Oscar for Patton.

Which actor played Willy Loman in the 1984 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman?

Dustin Hoffman: his revival restored the original jibe calling Willy a 'shrimp', which had been rewritten as 'walrus' for the burly actor who first played him.

In Death of a Salesman, what does teenage Biff burn after coming home from a visit to his father?

His sneakers, which carried the name of the University of Virginia: after that trip he refused to go to summer school.

Who played Biff in Mike Nichols's 2012 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman?

Andrew Garfield: Nichols's staging recreated the original 1949 set by Jo Mielziner and the music by Alex North.

Where had Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke played the Lomans before their 2022 Broadway Death of a Salesman?

London's West End: the staging, which began at the Young Vic, reimagined the Lomans as a Black family.

Which British actor won an Olivier Award as Willy Loman in the National Theatre's 1979 Death of a Salesman?

Warren Mitchell: best known on TV as the bigot Alf Garnett, he drew praise from Miller himself.

Who played Willy Loman in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2015 Death of a Salesman?

Antony Sher: after its Stratford-upon-Avon run, the staging transferred to London.

Who won the Golden Globe for Best Director for the 1951 film adaptation?

Fredric March played Willy and was Oscar-nominated.

In 1983 Miller directed Death of a Salesman himself in which city, then wrote a book about it?

Beijing: with Ying Ruocheng translating the script and playing Willy, the production became a hit with Chinese audiences.

In Death of a Salesman, how did the 84-year-old salesman who inspired Willy make his sales?

By telephone, without ever leaving his room, and Willy says that when he died hundreds of salesmen and buyers came to his funeral.

Which country made The Salesman, the Oscar-winning 2016 film about a couple acting in Death of a Salesman?

Iran: director Asghar Farhadi stayed away from the ceremony in protest at the US travel ban, sending a statement instead.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Willy boast of having put up in his living room himself?

A ceiling: when Charley can't see how he managed it, Willy sneers that a man who can't handle tools is not a man.

In Death of a Salesman, which phrase does Biff use to tell Willy that they are both ordinary men?

A dime a dozen: Willy roars that he is Willy Loman, yet when Biff breaks down in tears he marvels that his son likes him.

Which future Young Frankenstein star appeared in the 1966 CBS television film of Death of a Salesman?

Gene Wilder: he made it while still waiting on a film role Mel Brooks had promised him, which became Leo Bloom in The Producers.

In Death of a Salesman, what do the teenage Loman boys steal from a nearby building site?

Lumber: when Charley warns that the watchman will call the cops, Willy boasts that his sons are a couple of fearless characters.

At the funeral in Death of a Salesman, what does Biff say was wrong with Willy?

He had the wrong dreams: Charley objects that nobody should blame Willy, since a salesman has got to dream.

In Death of a Salesman, where has Biff spent more than a decade drifting between farm jobs?

The West: at the funeral Biff asks Happy to leave the city with him, but his younger brother vows to stay and beat the racket.

Where on Broadway did Death of a Salesman open in February 1949?

The Morosco: despite protests, the theatre was torn down in 1982 to make way for the Marriott Marquis hotel.

What was Arthur Miller's first title for Death of a Salesman?

The Inside of His Head: Miller first pictured a face as tall as the stage that would open up to show the inside of a man's head.

In Death of a Salesman, which basic fact about Willy's job does the play never reveal?

What he sells is never revealed: Willy hauls his sample cases on and off stage, yet the play keeps their contents a secret, as if the only thing he really has to sell is himself.

When a burly actor first played Willy in Death of a Salesman, the script's insult 'shrimp' became which animal?

A walrus replaced the shrimp because Miller had written Willy as a physically small man. Later productions use whichever insult fits their actor.

In Death of a Salesman, where was Willy's older brother trying to go when he ended up in Africa instead?

Alaska was where their father had gone, but the brother's hopeless sense of geography took him far off course and made him rich.

Which actor who has played Hercule Poirot starred as Willy in a 2015 BBC radio Death of a Salesman?

David Suchet played the salesman for BBC Radio 3 with Zoë Wanamaker as Linda, a long way from the tidy Belgian detective he played on television for 24 years.

Which Hollywood star married Death of a Salesman author Arthur Miller and starred in his screenplay The Misfits?

Marilyn Monroe was married to Miller for five years. They divorced in 1961, shortly before the film's premiere, and he later called the shoot one of the lowest points of his life.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Linda tell Willy at his grave she finished paying for that very day?

The house is theirs after twenty-five years of mortgage payments, on the very day Linda has nobody left to share it with.

Which voice star of The Lion King played Willy in the 2026 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman?

Nathan Lane, the voice of Timon the meerkat and a star of stage comedies, took on the doomed salesman at the Winter Garden Theatre in April 2026.

Which title did Arthur Miller give the short graveside scene that follows the two acts of Death of a Salesman?

Requiem is the last word of the play's full subtitle, Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. Only a handful of mourners appear in it.

In which state did Arthur Miller build the studio where he wrote Act One of Death of a Salesman?

Connecticut was home to the small studio Miller built at Roxbury in 1948, and he wrote the whole first act there in less than a day.

In Death of a Salesman, what do Biff and Happy plan to sell in the scheme the family calls the Florida idea?

Sporting goods was the pitch: the brothers would form rival teams and face each other in exhibitions to advertise the line, an idea Happy says first came to him in Florida.

In Death of a Salesman, which part of the United States is the sales territory Willy says he opened up?

New England is Willy's beat, and he boasts to his young sons that the police there will protect his car on any street.

In Death of a Salesman, which veteran salesman's example persuaded young Willy to make selling his career?

Dave Singleman was still selling at eighty-four and drew hundreds of mourners, the send-off Willy wants for himself; the surname hints at how alone the old man really was.

In Death of a Salesman, what does the cast list call the buyer's secretary Willy has an affair with?

The Woman is how the script lists her, though Willy introduces her as Miss Francis when Biff finds them together in a Boston hotel room.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Willy's brother aim at young Biff's eye after tripping him in a mock fight?

An umbrella tip hovers over the boy's eye, the brother's way of teaching that winners do not play fair, and it leaves Linda frightened of him.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Happy admit he takes from manufacturers who want his store's orders?

Bribes are one of two bad habits Happy confesses to Biff. The other is seducing the girlfriends of executives above him, then going to their weddings.

In Death of a Salesman, at which famous baseball park does teenage Biff play the biggest game of his school career?

Ebbets Field, the Dodgers' ballpark, hosts the game Willy keeps reliving as the high point of Biff's life, before everything went sour for the family.

Which actor made his Broadway debut as Biff, then won an Emmy in the 1985 TV film of Death of a Salesman?

John Malkovich won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actor, repeating on screen the performance he had given in the Broadway revival a year earlier.

Which Arthur Miller play about the Salem witch trials reached Broadway four years after Death of a Salesman?

The Crucible used the hunt for witches in 1692 as an allegory for the anti-communist investigations of Miller's own day, which later put him in front of a congressional committee.

In Death of a Salesman, which flowers does Happy bring home to Linda, who throws them angrily to the floor?

Roses are Happy's peace offering after he and Biff walk out of the restaurant with two girls, leaving their father alone in the washroom.

Which star of the sitcom Roseanne played Linda in the 2026 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman?

Laurie Metcalf, the sitcom's Jackie, won three Emmys for that part, and her Linda later brought her a third major theatre award.

In Death of a Salesman, which city just beyond the Bronx had Willy reached when he gave up and drove home?

Yonkers is barely outside the city limits, so Willy has abandoned his sales trip almost before it began, after the car kept drifting onto the shoulder of the road.

In Death of a Salesman, which heavyweight champion's signature is on the punching bag Willy brings his sons?

Gene Tunney held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928 and retired undefeated in that division, just the kind of winner Willy wants his boys to copy.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Happy claim to sell when he flirts with a girl at the restaurant?

Champagne is his invention for Miss Forsythe, who says she is a cover model, and he goes on to pass Biff off as a famous professional athlete.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination as Willy in the 1951 film of Death of a Salesman?

Fredric March had turned down the chance to create the role on stage, a decision he came to regret, and the film finally gave him the part.

Which play gave Arthur Miller his first Broadway hit, two years before Death of a Salesman?

All My Sons, about a factory owner who supplied defective aircraft engine parts in wartime, ran for 328 performances in 1947. Miller's one earlier Broadway play had failed.

In Death of a Salesman, which real tycoon does Charley cite to argue that wealth, not charm, wins respect?

J. P. Morgan is Charley's proof that Willy has it backwards: he asks whether anyone would have cared for the banker without his fortune.

In Death of a Salesman, what does Biff finally confess he stole in Kansas City before coming home?

A suit is the theft he owns up to in the final quarrel, where he also admits that stealing has cost him every job he has held since high school.

In Death of a Salesman, which college had given teenage Biff the athletic scholarship he never took up?

Virginia had already accepted him, but his high school would not let him graduate, and he refused to make up the failed course over the summer.

Which Hollywood star of the 1930s played Willy in the first British production of Death of a Salesman?

Paul Muni, the original Scarface, opened as the salesman at the Phoenix Theatre in July 1949, only five months after the Broadway premiere.

In Death of a Salesman, which sport made Biff a high school hero with scholarship offers from three universities?

Football is the one thing Biff ever shone at, and Willy prizes the big game so far above the classroom that he waves away every warning about failing grades.

In Death of a Salesman, the younger Loman son goes by Happy, but what is his real first name?

Harold is the name behind the nickname, and it is an ironic nickname: Happy has lived in his brother's shadow and admits he is far from content.

In Death of a Salesman, what job had Biff really held at the firm where his family thought he was a salesman?

Shipping clerk was all he ever was there, and the truth hits Biff after six hours in a waiting room, when his old boss gives him one look and walks away.

In Death of a Salesman, Willy boasts to his sons of having coffee with the mayor of which city?

Providence supplies the only important person Willy can actually name when he brags about his powerful friends on the road, a hint at how thin the boast is.

In Death of a Salesman, on which exam does Charley's son refuse to feed Biff the answers, fearing arrest?

The Regents is a state exam, so the boy who usually slips Biff his answers warns that this time he could be arrested for it.

In Death of a Salesman, which offstage sound haunts Willy as a reminder of his affair in Boston?

Shrill laughter breaks in whenever guilt catches up with Willy, and it is the sound from the bathroom that gives him away when Biff arrives at the hotel room.

In Death of a Salesman, which newborn farm animal does Biff tell Happy is an inspiring and beautiful sight?

A colt being born is what he loves about farm work, yet in the same conversation he admits he came home feeling he was wasting his life.

Which five-time Oscar nominee created the role of Biff in the original Broadway Death of a Salesman?

Arthur Kennedy originated major roles in three other Miller plays as well, and his Biff won him Broadway's award for best featured actor.

Which designer created the Loman home for the original Broadway Death of a Salesman, a set rebuilt for the 2012 revival?

Jo Mielziner also designed the first productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, South Pacific and Guys and Dolls, and his Salesman set was re-created on Broadway six decades later.

Which composer wrote the music for both the original Broadway production and the 1951 film of Death of a Salesman?

Alex North earned an Oscar nomination for the film version of his score, and went on to write the music for Spartacus and Cleopatra.

Which actor played Biff in the first British staging and then in the 1951 film of Death of a Salesman?

Kevin McCarthy gave his first credited film performance in the part and was nominated for an Oscar, five years before his best-known film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.