Editing Arthur Miller (section)

=== 1950–1963: Critical years and HUAC controversy ===
In 1952, [[Elia Kazan]] appeared before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the [[Group Theatre (New York City)|Group Theatre]], including [[Clifford Odets]], [[Paula Strasberg]], [[Lillian Hellman]], [[J. Edward Bromberg]], and [[John Garfield]],<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/kazan/
|title=Postage Paid: In defense of Elia Kazan
|publisher=moderntimes.com
|access-date=February 25, 2009
|last=Mills
|first=Michael}}</ref> who in recent years had been fellow members of the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]].<ref name="AmMasters">{{cite web
|publisher=[[PBS]]
|title=American Masters: Elia Kazan
|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/kazan_e.html
|access-date=September 22, 2006| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060923064612/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/kazan_e.html| archive-date= September 23, 2006| url-status=live|date=September 3, 2003
}}</ref> Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended.<ref name="AmMasters" /> After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to [[Salem, Massachusetts]], to research the [[Salem witch trials|witch trials of 1692]].<ref name="Observer_obit" /> He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film ''[[On the Waterfront]]'', in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-film-preservation-board/documents/on_the_waterfront.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-film-preservation-board/documents/on_the_waterfront.pdf |archive-date=September 9, 2022 |url-status=live|title=On The Waterfront|last=Sklar|first=Robert|website=Library of Congress|access-date=December 27, 2018}}</ref> Miller would retaliate against Kazan's work by writing ''[[A View from the Bridge]]'', a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of [[stool-pigeons]]."<ref>{{cite web |date=April 2, 2021 |title=The Untold Story of On the Waterfront – As Time Goes By |url=https://sites.psu.edu/astimegoesby/2021/04/02/the-untold-story-of-on-the-waterfront/ |access-date=September 3, 2024 |publisher=CampusPress}}</ref>

In ''[[The Crucible]]'', which was first performed at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953, Miller likened the situation with the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] to [[Salem witch trials|the witch hunt in Salem in 1692]].<ref>For a frequently cited study of Miller's use of the Salem witchcraft episode, see Robert A. Martin, "Arthur Miller's The Crucible: Background and Sources", reprinted in James J. Martine, ed. (1979) ''Critical Essays on Arthur Miller'', G. K. Hall, {{ISBN|0816182582}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/miller-mccarthyism.html|title=Are you now, or were you ever?|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060910085108/http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/miller-mccarthyism.html|archive-date=September 10, 2006|url-status=live|access-date=September 25, 2006}}</ref><ref name=Cakirtas /> Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, ''The Crucible'' is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world.<ref name="Observer_obit" /> It was adapted into [[The Crucible (opera)|an opera]] by [[Robert Ward (composer)|Robert Ward]] in 1961. Earlier in 1955, a [[One-act play|one-act version]] of Miller's [[Verse drama and dramatic verse|verse drama]], titled ''[[A View from the Bridge]]'', opened on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, ''[[A Memory of Two Mondays]]''. The following year, Miller revised ''A View from the Bridge'' as a two-act [[prose]] drama, which [[Peter Brook]] directed in London.<ref>Miller, Arthur (1988) Introduction to ''Plays: One'', London: Methuen, p. 51, {{ISBN|0413175502}}.</ref> A French-Italian co-production ''[[A View from the Bridge (film)|Vu du pont]]'', based on the play, was released in 1962.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pecorari|first1=Mario|last2=Poppi|first2=Roberto|date=2007|title=Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film|language=it|location=Rome|publisher=Gremese Editore|isbn=978-8884405036}}</ref>

[[File:Chairman Dies of House Committee investigating Un-American activities.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|While newsmen take notes, Chairman [[Martin Dies Jr.|Dies]] of House Un-American Activities Committee reads and proofs his letter replying to Pres. Roosevelt's attack on the committee, October 26, 1938]]

The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after ''The Crucible'' opened, engineering the US State Department's denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954.<ref name="chronology" /> When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his [[United States passport|passport]], the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] used this opportunity to [[subpoena]] him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, [[Francis E. Walter]] (D-PA) agreed.<ref name="BBCOnThisDay">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_2946000/2946420.stm|title=BBC On This Day|date=August 7, 1958|access-date=October 14, 2006|publisher=BBC}}</ref> When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career,<ref name="Observer_obit" /> he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://partners.nytimes.com/books/00/11/12/specials/miller-front.html|title=Arthur Miller Admits Helping Communist-Front Groups in '40's|last=Drury|first=Allen|date=June 22, 1956|website=The New York Times|access-date=June 7, 2016}}</ref> Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities.<ref name="BBCOnThisDay"/> Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him."<ref name="BBCOnThisDay" /> As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of [[contempt of Congress]] in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, [[Hollywood blacklist|blacklisted from Hollywood]], and disallowed a US passport.<ref name="UMICH_Early">{{cite web
|publisher=University of Michigan
|title=Arthur Miller Files
|url=http://www.umich.edu/~amfiles/biography/earlycareer.html
|access-date=April 2, 2016}}</ref> In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.<ref name="BBCOnThisDay" />

Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including [[William Styron]] and [[Mike Nichols]]) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized [[Catherine Roraback#Peter Reilly murder case|Barbara Gibbons murder case]] helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence.<ref>Barthel, Joan:''A Death in Canaan''.  New York:  E.P. Dutton. 1976</ref> Barthel documented the case in her book ''A Death in Canaan'', which was made as a [[A Death in Canaan|television film of the same name]] and broadcast in 1978.<ref>''[[A Death in Canaan]]'' |url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077412/</ref> ''[[City Confidential]]'', an [[A&E Network]] series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the [[Connecticut State Police]] and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.<ref>
{{cite web
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 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-date = January 16, 2013
|title        = A Son's Confession DVD, Shows The First 48, A&E Shop
 |publisher    = shop.aetv.com
 |access-date  = January 11, 2009
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E1DF1031F930A3575AC0A9629C8B63
|title=Records on Exonerated Man Are Kept Off Limits to Press
|work=The New York Times
|access-date=January 11, 2009
|last=Stowe
|first=Stacey
|date=September 3, 2004}}</ref>

Miller began work on writing the screenplay for ''[[The Misfits (1961 film)|The Misfits]]'' in 1960, directed by [[John Huston]] and starring Monroe. It was during the filming that Miller's and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last=Celizic |first=Mike |author-link=Mike Celizic |title=New footage of Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable revealed |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/new-footage-marilyn-monroe-clark-gable-revealed-wbna24927803 |date=June 2, 2008 |access-date=April 22, 2018 |work=[[Today (U.S. TV program)|Today]]}}</ref> Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and other drugs to help her wake up, arriving on the set late, and having trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."<ref>Grobel, Lawrence. ''The Hustons'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York (1989) p. 489</ref>

Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage.<ref name="chronology"/> Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose.<ref>{{Cite web|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Marilyn Monroe is found dead|date=November 24, 2009|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marilyn-monroe-is-found-dead|access-date=September 2, 2020|website=History}}</ref> Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in ''[[The Asphalt Jungle]]'' in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of [[Hypnotic|sleeping pills]] and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."<ref>Badman, Keith. ''The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe: The Shocking True Story'', Aurum Press (2010) ebook, {{ISBN|9781781310519}}</ref>