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.
Sheila. Just thought I’d mention that I’m watching the national 7pm News here and they’ve lead with the announcement of the death of Arthur Miller – iconic and a titan of American literature are just a couple of the references they, rightly, used.
He is a neighbor and recently did an introduction to the Misfits at a local theater as a benefit for the women and children of Afghanistan. I couldn’t make it but will see if tapes or DVD’s are available.I’m sure many who read your site would be interested as much as I am. He will be missed around here as well although lately he has been much less active.
It feels like a piece of theatre has fallen away. I feel him like I feel Tony Kushner. It goes somewhere spiritual. Very sad.
A shame, indeed, but he lived to see 90, and almost all of it doing what he loved.
We should all be so lucky.