Arthur Miller, RIP

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News just in.
LATEST: Playwright Arthur Miller has died at age of 89, his assistant says. More soon.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 11 February 2005 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Dang, what a fucked-up week!

RIP though to be honest I think of him more as a popularizer of certain issues than anything else. That I always found Willy Loman to be an utterly *non*-sympathetic character undercut Death of a Salesman's impact, whatever else it may have signified in terms of subject matter.

Still -- I've never seen The Misfits and probably should one day at that. Is there anything more to it other than being Gable and Monroe's last film?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 February 2005 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Awww. RIP.

― Huk-L, Friday, 11 February 2005 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a shame

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 11 February 2005 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.gregkucera.com/images/david_marilyn_miller.jpg

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 11 February 2005 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4258065.stm

― Andy Jay, Friday, 11 February 2005 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

He lived 'til the age of 89, was world famous, wrote a couple of seminal 20th century plays and got to have sex with Marilyn Monroe. About as good as a life gets I'd say.

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

People Who've Tagged Marilyn Monroe tontine status please.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never seen The Misfits and probably should one day at that. Is there anything more to it other than being Gable and Monroe's last film?

its kind of melodramatic, and i found some characters, scenes and plot twists intensely annoying, but its very striking to look at, and satisfyingly dark and uncomfortable where you want it to be.

― stevie (stevie), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate dark and uncomfortable! Now excuse me while I scar my flesh. GLOOM GLOOM.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i hate to say it, but i think almost everything hokey and overwrought that i hate about american drama can be laid at death of a salesman's doormat. like getting hit over the head with a dishrag shaped like a hammer.(although all that stuff probably goes back further to the whole prole/waiting for lefty school of overdone hammery.) i did enjoy reading the crucible in high school along with the rest of my class.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 11 February 2005 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, he may be more significant culturally than artistically. But kind of a giant either way. The Crucible took some guts at the time. So did seducing Marilyn, I suppose. (Or did she seduce him? Whichever.) He wrote several political essays in the last few years showing his heart and brain were in the right place as much as ever. Much respect.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The Misfits is a very good film. I don't know if I buy Monty Clift as a cowboy (after all we know), but it's definitely Marilyn's most important roll, and she says some sadly prophetic lines at the house in Reno.

I've always wondered when Arthur Miller would die. He had a good run, that's for sure, and had new plays opening within the last few years. Can playwrites be stars anymore?

― andy --, Friday, 11 February 2005 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Sam Shepard, maybe, but that's probably because he acts, too. August Wilson is the only one I can of who's been elevated to a certain status within the last 15 years, but even then, he's not exactly in the public eye.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

"only one I can think of"

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Tony Kushner's a star. So are David Mamet and Neil LaBute. I mean, they're not Brad Pitt-famous... but even Arthur Miller wasn't Cary Grant-famous.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Pinter, Stoppard, Albee. There are well-known ones. but yeah, nothing like miller in his day, probably.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

One of the greatest of a truly great era of american theatre (and screen for that matter)

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

actually a great period in theatre in general and english language theatre in particular.

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

In mid-century, new American plays were events. No longer. Kushner's stuff since AIA either runs in Brooklyn or for 3 months on Broadway.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 11 February 2005 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

after marilyn met him (long before they were married) she never wanted to appear in a bad film just in case he might be watching and think less of her.

― piscesboy, Friday, 11 February 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

RIP

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn this sucks. One of the good guys is gone. At least he had a long and fascinating life and did so with honour and integrity intact. America has lost a great civilising voice, another victory for the neocon philistines.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

RIP, I think it's interesting that his very last play tackled his relationship with Marilyn Monroe, and he didn't give her character any lines. (so relays my dad who saw it in Chicago)

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry that was me not suzy

― Ed (dali), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Frankly, he wrote a few plays in the last 40 years about MM, starting with After the Fall, yes? All generally misfires or worse. As with Brando, let's not kid ourselves that he was a major voice after the '50s (tho AM at least stayed interested in his craft).

I'm pretty sure the only sproductions I saw were both on Broadway, the Hoffman-Malkovich "Salesman" in '84 and Anthony LaPaglia in "A View from the Bridge" a few years ago.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I should say his late work has been *described* as lacking; I haven't seen or read any of it.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 11 February 2005 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

He was important to me as a kid. RIP.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Saturday, 12 February 2005 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

the misfits is fantastic. rip.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 12 February 2005 06:29 (twenty-one years ago)

the last thing i read by him was a really great memoir about joke-writers in the 50s in harper's.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 12 February 2005 06:29 (twenty-one years ago)

so hot right now.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1415764,00.html

― NRQ, Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Scarlett J as an Italian girl in Eisenhower-era Brooklyn, jeezusgodalmighty. Clearly AM picked the right time to go!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Barry Levinson is to direct

Sorry, I fell asleep after this part.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 14:39 (twenty-one years ago)

ten years pass...

I missed that last October was his centennial. The NYT did a feature last Sunday about his life in Brooklyn, w/ a very Timesian passage that went ~ "Guilty over his affair with Marilyn Monroe, he re-floored the family kitchen."

Tonight I'm going to that Ivo van Hove production of A View from the Bridge with Mark Strong et al, and i've been telling ppl i've never seen or read it. ILX as backup memory once again:

(I saw) the Hoffman-Malkovich "Salesman" in '84 and Anthony LaPaglia in "A View from the Bridge" a few years ago.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, February 11, 2005

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 15:41 (ten years ago)

i guess we don't care about theatre...

in that '98 production of View i saw, the late Brittany Murphy played Catherine.

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 27 January 2016 21:51 (ten years ago)

saw the ivh avftb almost two years ago hope they're still enjoying it and that you enjoy it too have a nice evening

― conrad, Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:22 (ten years ago)

Just read 'Resurrection Blues', was surprised how feeble it was. Comedy definitely not his thing.

― like Uber, but for underpants (James Morrison), Thursday, 28 January 2016 01:30 (ten years ago)

View pretty good, tho i had a few quibbles with the celebrated "abstracted" approach (not the expressionist set, that was OK). Mark Strong was excellent, glad after the 3 high-profile supporting film roles in movies i didn't care for; also best Brooklyn accent in the cast by far.

Of course the gay press coverage here has always included shirtless Russell Tovey.

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 January 2016 21:15 (ten years ago)

two years pass...

I've now seen three films by his daughter Rebecca--Personal Velocity, Maggie's Plan, and, tonight, Pippa Lee--and liked them all. Had no idea who her husband was until I read up on her a bit.

― clemenza, Friday, 4 May 2018 03:19 (seven years ago)

two years pass...

Hot tip, the Goodman Theatre here is streaming the acclaimed 1999 production of "Death of a Salesman" starring Brian Dennehy (by some accounts the greatest of all Lomans) free until 10/25:

https://www.goodmantheatre.org/salesman

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 24 October 2020 17:36 (five years ago)

^^ it’s a fantastic, surreal production.

― ... (Eazy), Saturday, 24 October 2020 18:46 (five years ago)

I somehow, against all odds, got my family to sit through the whole thing. Three hours of yelling and intensity is a lot to ask, but they did it. They didn't necessarily like it, but they did it! To be fair, it's a really tough play.

Dennehy is of course larger than life, but Elizabeth Franz is something else, too.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 25 October 2020 02:42 (five years ago)

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