The Sheila Variations

RIP Arthur Miller

A long obituary in The New York Times - it looks back over Miller's extraordinary career. His later plays are, indeed, didactic (he always had a bit of the autodidact about him) - and the plays at the end of his life were much more issue-oriented, rather than character-oriented. Every playwright has a progression. Tennessee Williams, while he has an enormous body of work, spanning decades, will primarily be known for the plays he wrote in the 1940s and 1950s - when he reached his peak. Miller reached the pinnacle of his creative energies at the same time.

I'm pretty broken up about this. In a way, my own interest in acting, in theatre, in being an actress, can be traced back to my first encounters with reading Arthur Miller's plays. It's very personal, I guess. Who he is for me. He's one of THOSE people. His life, his work, really means something to me. And it always will, I suppose. I guess I just need to grieve the passing of this man.

Here's a photo of Arthur Miller and John Huston, on the famously troubled set of The Misfits (see that movie - if you haven't already!)

And here is the original cast of Death of a Salesman - Lee J. Cobb is the one sitting. Arthur Kennedy stands beside him. More on that play here.

Posted by sheila