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| While her husband, playwright Arthur Miller
looks on, actress Marilyn Monroe (R) signs an autograph for a fan in
New York in this May 21, 1958 file photo. Miller died of heart
failure at the age of 89 on February 10, 2005, his assistant said on
Feb. 11 |
Playwright Arthur Miller, a titan of American theater who wrote "Death
of a Salesman" and was revered for works that spoke for the common man,
has died. He was 89.
Miller's personal life, including a stormy marriage to sex symbol
Marilyn Monroe, often captivated America. His left-wing views had brought
a face-to-face clash with the US Congress during the 1950s crackdown on
communist sympathizers.
The playwright died of congenital heart failure Thursday night at his
home in Roxbury, Connecticut, his assistant Julia Bolus said on Friday.
His son, Robert Miller, said he was surrounded by relatives and friends
when he died.
"Death of a Salesman," a tragedy whose central character, failed
businessman Willy Loman, became an archetype for shattered dreams, is
considered a 20th-century classic. The play won him a Pulitzer Prize and a
Tony Award at age 33.
His other major works included "All My Sons," "A View from the Bridge,"
and "The Crucible."
"He was a big man and a deeply American man," said Zoe Caldwell, one of
the great Broadway actresses who worked with Miller. "He was busy working
on plays right until he got sick. He had such a great life that you don't
feel sad for Arthur."
Fellow playwright and friend Harold Pinter told the BBC that Miller's
plays "are among the finest works that have been produced in the 20th
century."
Author Salman Rushdie, president of international writers association
PEN, said in a statement: "He made plays with the grandeur and power of
high tragedy, revealing what he called...the 'dream rising out of
reality."'
Broadway lights were to go dark at 8 p.m. on Friday as a tribute.
"Death of a Salesman" was drew rave reviews when it opened in 1949. "It
is so simple in style and so inevitable in theme that it scarcely seems
like a thing that has been written and acted," New York Times critic
Brooks Atkinson wrote.
"(Miller) has looked with compassion into the hearts of some ordinary
Americans and quietly transferred their hope and anguish to the theater,"
he added.
Miller emerged out of the 1930s Depression to write social dramas with
the power of Greek tragedy. His private life was equally dramatic, notably
his doomed marriage to Monroe.
He wrote his first produced screenplay, "The Misfits," for Monroe based
on a short story he wrote before their 1956 marriage. The 1961 film was
the last ever made by either Monroe or co-star Clark Cable, who died from
a heart attack soon after. Monroe divorced Miller after making the film
and died the following year.
At the end of his life, the playwright was battling cancer, pneumonia
and a heart condition. He had been released from the hospital some weeks
ago.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2005-02-13 10:54