Sunday, November 15, 2009

Death of a Salesman Unit

English 11 Honors - Mrs. Baker
*Many of the ideas in this unit came from a great site: http://ubdeducators.wikispaces.com/Dana+Death+of+a+Salesman+Unit
Essential Questions:
What is the American Dream? Why do some achieve it while others do not?
What is the importance of being "well liked" and popular?
How do we form our identities?
How do capitalism and modernization affect American workers?
Students will know...
The concepts of the tragic hero.
The plot and themes of Death of a Salesman.
Students will be able to...
Analyze the impact of globalization and modernization on society and compare it to the "outsourcing" of Willy Loman.
Synthesize information about globalization and modernization from various sources.
Determine what skills 21st century workers will need in order to be successful in a global economy.
Evaluate how globalization and modernization will impact the concept of the American Dream, how we form our identities, and how we define success or become successful.
Relate Death of a Salesman's themes and message to American life in the 21st century.
Assignments:

__________Class Notes: dramatic Irony, flashback, tragic hero, Freytag’s triangle
__________Blog Post: Read some biographical information about Arthur Miller. What are the subjects of his other writings? What have critics said about his importance in modern drama? In what ways are his experiences reflected in his writings?
__________Make a sketch of the stage set as you envision it from Miller’s description at the start of the play. (In notebook)
__________Read play and respond in your notebooks to the attached study guide questions.
__________View Film
__________The film version starring Dustin Hoffman differs from the staged version in having numerous sets. Compare the filmed version to the staged version described in your book. Does the film resemble a stage play in any way? Miller says the media of film in itself changes the play. How is this true? (In notebook)
__________Tragedy and The Common Man- Arthur Miller (attached)
__________Blog Post: Who are some tragic heroes from modern day literature, movies, and media? What qualities/flaws do these people/ characters possess?
__________Complete a plot diagram in your notebook
http://www.bard.org/education/studyguides/deathofasalesman/deathclassic.html
__________Watch: "Did You Know 2.0," aka "Shift Happens.” Write a brief reflection on this clip in your notebook.
http://huffenglish.wikispaces.com/Death+of+a+Salesman
__________Watch excerpt from "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore" episode of The Simpsons. Write a brief reflection on this episode in your notebook.
__________Watch "The Other Side of Outsourcing" Thomas Friedman/Discovery Times. Write a brief reflection on this program in your notebook.
http://huffenglish.wikispaces.com/Death+of+a+Salesman
__________Read Chapter Six "The Untouchables" (278-307) from The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Write a one paragraph response to this chapter in your notebook.
__________Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: A Celebration By Joyce Carol Oates
http://www.usfca.edu/~southerr/arthurmiller.html
__________SAT In Class Essay
Supplementary Material:
“The Death of a Salesman in a Flat World”
http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/neba/journal/v1n1p17.pdf
Yale Rep. Study Guide:
http://www.yalerep.org/about_rep/willpower/Salesman_Study_Guide.pdf
Arthur Miller’s Missing Act: Arthur Miller’s Son, Daniel:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=12914210&m=12914213
NPR Weekend Edition
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18607090
Death of a Salesman Vocabulary

1. mercurial-quick and changeable in temperament
2. sentiment- tender, romantic or nostalgic feeling
3. agitation- disturbance- disturbance; annoyance
4. idealist- one who sees the best things in life
5. avidly- enthusiastically; with great interest
6. enthralled- held spellbound; captivated
7. insinuates- becomes introduced gradually
8. incipient- beginning to emerge
9. liable- likely; at risk of experiencing something unpleasant
10. incarnate- personified; given a human form to
11. laconic- using few words
12. trepidation- a state of alarm or dread
13. dispel- to rid one’s mind of
14. philandering- engaging in many casual love affairs
15. remiss- not attending to duty; negligent; careless
16. subdued- made less intense; toned down
17. solidified- made strong, sturdy or stable
18. intent- concentrating; engrossed
19. dictation- to say aloud to be recorded and written by another
20. solitary- existing alone
21. comradeship- friendship; spirit of working together for the common good
22. incredulously- unbelievingly
23. carte blanche- with full permission; unrestricted authority
24. candidly- characterized by openness; frankly
25. raucous- rough-sounding; harsh; boisterous
26. agonized- suffering great anguish
27. gist- main idea
28. clinches- settles something conclusively
29. falters- stumbles; moves unsteadily
30. befuddled- confused
31. overstrung- pushed to one’s emotional limit
32. elegiacally- sadfully or mournfully
33. obstreperous- nosily or unruly
34. reticence- taciturn; reserved or reluctant
35. crestfallen- disheartened; dejected
36. requiem- 1. a. A mass for a deceased person.b. A musical composition for such a mass.
2. A hymn, composition, or service for the dead.
37. scrim-1. A durable, loosely woven cotton or linen fabric used for curtains or upholstery lining or in industry.
2. A transparent fabric used as a drop in the theater to create special effects of lights or atmosphere

22 comments:

  1. blog entry about arthur miller:

    Arthur Miller has written many plays and essays but his most famous are Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and All My Sons. The Crucible is fictionalization of the Salem witch-hunts of 1692. This play was given poor reviews and many of his colleagues didn’t like it either. All My Sons is another one of his plays. It is about a factory owner who sells bad parts for the airplanes during WWII. This play received very good reviews, winning the New York Drama Critics Circle award and two Tony Awards. Arthur’s works were influenced by his early life. He was discriminated because he practiced the Jewish religion. Miller also lived through the depression. This was a difficult time for everyone living during the depression. Even though Miller tried to make the best of his life during that time it still was a great hardship for him to go through.

    Maria p.5

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  2. I found many plays written by Arthur Miller.

    Honors at Dawn, 1936

    No Villain: They Too Arise, 1937

    The Man Who Had All the Luck, 1944

    All My Sons, 1947

    Death of a Salesman, 1949

    The Crucible, 1953

    A View from the Bridge, 1955

    A Memory of Two Mondays, 1955

    After the Fall, 1964

    Incident at Vichy, 1965

    The Price, 1969

    The Creation of the World and Other Business, 1972

    Up From Paradise, 1974

    The Archbishop's Ceiling, 1976

    The American Clock, 1980

    Elegy for a Lady (and) Some Kind of Love Story, produced together under title, Two-Way Mirror, 1983

    Playing for Time, 1986

    The Golden Years, 1990

    The Last Yankee, 1991

    The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, 1991

    Broken Glass, 1994

    Mr. Peters' Connections, 1998

    Resurrection Blues, 2002

    Finishing the Picture, 2004


    The Crucible by Arthur Miller was a box office success and the critics and audiences considered this play his second best. This play was about the events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It was about a terrible point in american history.

    Another play written by Arthur Miller is All My Sons. This play was awarded The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best authored play, best play and best directed play. This play is about a perfect all-american family, but, there are secrets within the family to tear the family apart. Arthur Miller is influenced greatly by lbsen. This is based on a true story that he read in the newspaper.

    Nicole Carangelo
    Period 3

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  3. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York City and spent his whole childhood in the city. He studied at the University of Michigan where he won awards along with Tennessee Williams. His most known work is “Death of a Salesman”. He is also well known for his marriage with Marilyn Monroe! He has also written such classics as “All My Sons”, “The Crucible”, and “A View From The Bridge.” Miller is also a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It has been said that Millers work was so popular in that his works did not enforce that audiences look at the lives of the successful. Miller was one of the first playwrights to base his plays on everyday people. This method has been copied endlessly toady and has greatly influenced modern drama. He has used New York City (his hometown) in many of his plays and his life influenced his work. It is said that when his marriage ended with Marilyn Monroe, his plays turned very dark. Arthur Miller died February 10, 2005 in Roxbury, Connecticut.

    Ryan B. Period 5

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  4. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York City, in 1915. During the Great Depression, his father lost his business and his family was forced to move to a smaller home in Brooklyn. After graduating highschool, Miller worked jobs ranging from radio singer to truck driver to a clerk in an auto-parts warehouse. The struggles he encountered during this years will greatly influence his plays to come. He began writing plays as a student at the University of Michigan. His first plays, along with many others, had to do with the common man and the struggles he faces on a daily basis. This is where his upbringing is evident in his work. His whole life was pretty basic and thus basic characters were created in his plays. His most famous works are The Crucible, All My Sons, and Death of a Salesman.

    -Allie K. p5

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  5. ~ Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York City
    ~He was an American playwright and essayist.
    ~He was a prominent figure in American theatre.
    ~Dramas created by him that include awards-winning plays are All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible.
    ~Best known for the play Death of a Salesman.
    ~Miller joined the Federal Theatre Project in NY, and wrote scripts for radio programs, such as Columbia Workshop (CBS) and Cavalcade of America (NBC).
    ~Miller's first play to appear on Broadway was The Man Who Had All The Luck. It closed after four performances.
    ~In 1940 Miller married a Catholic girl, Mary Slattery.
    ~His plays often show how families are destroyed by false values.
    ~In 1949 Miller was named an "Outstanding Father of the Year"
    ~ In 2002 Miller was honored with Spain's prestigious Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature. ~Miller died of heart failure in Roxbury, Connecticut, on February 10, 2005.
    -Shrija T. Per: 3

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  6. The subjects of Arthur Miller’s other righting are plays that continue the realistic tradition that began in the United States in the period between the two world wars. Also Miller’s plays depict how families are destroyed by false values. And most of his earliest efforts show his admiration for the classical Greek dramatists. Many critics have said that he was one of the best-known American playwrights after World War II. Other critics say that many of his plays are based off of his own personal experiences. For example, he lived in a small house surrounded by many apartment buildings which is a setting for his play Death of a Salesman. One very interesting fact about Arthur Miller was that he was married to Marilyn Monroe. Another interesting fact about Arthur Miller was that in 1949, Miller was named an "Outstanding Father of the Year". In 1965, Arthur Miller was elected president of P.E.N., the international literary organization. Some of his greatest works are The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, Focus, and All My Sons. To conclude, Arthur Miller had a very widespread and impressive life.

    Jonathan P.5

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  7. Aruthur miller was born on October 17, 1915, and just recently died, on February 10, 2005. He was a leading figure in playwriting and thearter, although he also was an very established essayist. Some of his other famous works include All My Sons, and The Crucible. Miller received the pulitzer prize for drama in the mid-1900's, among other prizes in his career. Arthur Miller was a highly esteemed and hard working man, who made a lot of acheivements and helped to set the bar for future playwrites and essayists.

    Kevin G. Per. 5

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  8. Miller said that any US writer is using the american dream to stem his writing off of. He has written of 30 plays which has won him awards. Miller has created characters that wrestle with power conflicts, personal and social responsibility, and the repercussions of past actions. The Crucible was about the salem witch trials, he was "laughed at" for this production. Death of a sales man was most popular. he would look to the Greeks for inspiration.he writes for humanity and to his audience. He knew theater could change the world.
    -christina

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  9. Aruthur miller was born on October 17, 1915 died, on February 10, 2005. He was born in Harlem, new York. He wrote a countless number of plays, most notable; The Crucible and All My Sons. He is now known as one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. He was married to Marilyn Monroe, which is interesting. Miller's plays often depict how families are destroyed by false values. n 1949 Miller was named an "Outstanding Father of the Year". He has been creating characters that wrestle with power conflicts, personal and social responsibility, the repercussions of past actions, and the twin poles of guilt and hope. He was politically in his time. A modern tragedian, Miller says he looks to the Greeks for inspiration, particularly Sophocles.

    nikin period 5

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  10. Arthur Miller Blogpost:

    Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York City. His father, Isidore, was an illiterate Jewish immigrant from Poland and his mother, Augusta Barnett, was born in New York. In 1932, he worked in an automobile warehouse in order to raise money for college. Miller went to the University of Michigan and studied journalism. He married Mary Slattery and had two children with her. Miller’s second marriage, which lasted 5 years, was to Marilyn Monroe and his third to Inge Morath, an Austrian photographer. He was named “Outstanding Father of the Year” in 1949. Generally, Miller’s plays depict the destruction of families as a result of false values. His initial plays demonstrate his admiration for the classical Greek dramatists. Many of his characters struggle through life with a variety of conflicts, such as personal and social responsibility. His plays featured everyday people. ‘Death of a Salesman” was one of Miller’s greatest plays and one of the major achievements of modern American theatre. The Crucible was also a notable work. In this play, he expressed his faith in the ability of an individual to resist conformist pressures. Arthur Miller died in 2005 in Connecticut.

    Ella Period 5

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  11. ·Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York City
    ·His father was an illiterate Jewish immigrant from Poland.
    ·University of Michigan in 1934
    ·Graduated in English in 1938

    some of his writings are:

    · No Villain (1936) which he wrote in just 6 days to win a $250 Hopwood award.(which he did) and then rewrote it into the work called They Too Arise.
    ·A View from the Bridge (1950’s) its basically about people living in the poor parts of town and how they carry on in their daily lives.
    ·The Crucible: which is written about the Salem witch trials in 1692, which was a very horrible part of our history. And critics of this drama have said that this was his second best play.

    I think he really just had a love for the overworked and underpaid people in this country. Its almost like he wanted to show all his readers what was going on around us that we might not even realize and instead of boring us with an article he simply chose to put it into play form.

    Emily. P 3

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  12. • Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York City
    • He worked in an automobile warehouse to earn money for college.
    • Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov inspired him to become a writer
    • He went to the University of Michigan
    • He married Marilyn Monroe in 1956 and then divorced her in 1961
    • Millers uncle Manny was a salesman and gave him the idea for Death of a Salesman
    • Death of a Salesman opened in theatre on February 10, 1949, and closed 742 performances later on November 18, 1950
    • He based his works on his family, friends, and his own life
    • Due to a football injury, Miller was unable to serve in the military during World War II. Instead, he wrote patriotic plays for the radio and also volunteered to repair military boats in New York harbor.
    • He died in 1996


    Billy C. per. 3

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  13. Arthur Miller has composed a variety of plays. His most famous are probably All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible. All My Sons was about a girl who informed to her father who sold fake parts to the U.S. military during WWII. Death of a Salesman is the play we are reading now which seems to be about a man who seems to be going crazy and remembering all of his memories from the past. The Crucible is about a witch-hunt in Salem. The Crucible was given bad reviews however; All My Sons received excellent reviews and was very popular. Arthur Miller had a very good and wealthy life when he was younger until the stock market crashed in 1929 and the family lost almost everything. He also had to pay for his own college tuition. I think that Millers life could definitely reflect in his writing since he had a hard life. He went from having everything to having nothing and that is expressed in different ways throughout his plays.


    jessica bainer
    period 5

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  14. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York City. His father was an immigrant from Poland. Arthur MIller experienced the Great Depression. When he was young he played a lot of sports, read adventure stories, and appeared nonintellectual. He decided to go on to be a writer and intellect.
    His plays usually depict the down fall of families due to false values. [tragic hero?] He is most famous for The Death of A Salesman. Miller was active in politics throughout his life. He died of heart failure in Roxbury, Connecticut on February 10, 2005.

    --Grace Hager period 5

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  15. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York City on October 17, 1915 and died on February 10, 2005. He was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing many award- winning plays. The most common being, All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible. Before his death in 2005, Miller had also written screenplays, novels, short stories, nonfiction, and an autobiography. Miller’s honors include the Pulitzer Prize, seven Tony Awards, two Drama Critics Circle Awards, an Obie, an Olivier, the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award, and honorary doctorate degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University. Many of Miller's plays show how families can be destroyed by false values. Many of his characters struggle through life with a variety of conflicts, such as personal and social responsibility. Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century.

    -Isabelle R. P-5

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  16. Arthur Miller has written a lot of plays

    Situation Normal, 1944
    Focus, 1945
    All My Sons, 1947
    An Enemy of the People, adapted from Henrik Ibsen's play, 1951
    Death of a Salesman, 1949
    The Crucible, 1953
    A View from the Bridge: A Play in Two Acts, 1957
    The Witches of Salem, 1958
    The Misfits, 1961
    The Misfits, United Artists, 1961
    Jane's Blanket, 1963
    After the Fall, 1964
    Incident at Vichy, 1965
    I Don't Need You Anymore: Stories, 1967
    The Price, 1968
    In Russia [with Inge Morath], 1969
    Poetry and Film: Two Symposiums [with Dylan Thomas], 1972
    The Creation of the World and Other Business, 1973
    In the Country [with Inge Morath], 1977
    Chinese Encounters [with Inge Morath], 1979
    Playing for Time, 1980
    The American Clock, adapted from Studs Terkel's Hard Times, 1980
    Final Edition, 1981
    Playing for Time, 1981
    Elegy for a Lady, 1982
    A Memory of Two Mondays: Play in One Act, 1984
    Up From Paradise, 1984
    Salesman in Beijing, 1984
    Some Kind of Love Story, 1984
    The Archbishop's Ceiling, 1985
    The Last Yankee, 1987
    Danger: Memory!: Two Plays: "I Can't Remember Anything" and "Clara," 1987
    Everybody Wins: A Screenplay, 1990
    The Golden Years, 1990
    Ride Down Mount Morgan, 1992
    Homely Girl: A Life, 1992
    Broken Glass, 1994
    Mr. Peter's Connections, 1999

    Many of his plays were awrd winners, and he recieved the pulitzer prize for drama. He was married to Marilyn Monroe, therefore was constantly in the public eye.

    Nicole period 3

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  17. Arthur Miller has more than thirty plays that have won him Pulitzer prizes and multiple Tony awards. for nearly six decades miller had been creating characters that wrestle with power conflicts and personal/social responsibility. He once said that he thought theater could "change the world." Death of a Salesman went on to become Miller's most celebrated and most produced play. Miller said that he looked at the greeks for inspiration. Miller believes. "It is time that we, who are without kings, took up this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possibly lead in our time-the heart and spirit of the average man."

    period 3
    Mary

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  18. Arthur Miller was born in New York City. He writes plays, novel, and screenplays. He’s most known for The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, and All My Sons. He usually writes dramas that are tragedies. It seems a lot of his plays are about relationships within families and the lives of working businessmen. I also found that critics think he was very important to modern drama. Some said he was really good at looking at the society of America because of the way he shined a light on some of America’s harsh past in The Crucible and the way he looks at the American dream in Death of a Salesman and many of his lesser known works as well. He also is said to have redefined what a tragic hero is like he is in the book we’re reading now. He grew up in the city and lived through the depression, making me wonder if there’s a link to this and the big focus on men’s relationships with work and society. He was also questioned when the government was searching for “communists” in the artistic community. I thought that was interesting.

    --Siena period 3

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  19. Arther Miller was born in Harlem New York, his father was a Jewish immigrant from Poland, and his mother lived in New York.They had later moved to Brooklyn, where he had set the stage for Death of a Salesman. After graduating in 1938, Miller worker for CBS and NBC in New York while writing the scripts for Death of the Salesman.
    His plays are mostly depicted by the misfortunes of a family, how they are destroyed by the misunderstandings that occur. He has written many plays including the Crucible, which is about the Salem witchcraft trials, Death of a Salesman. The play that has brought him the most fame is Death of a Salesman. During his life he was discriminated against his Jewish religion, while living during the depression. This was a hard time for everyone, Miller still continued to write and make life better for him.

    Anjali per. 3

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  20. Arthur Miller favors tragic stories as opposed to the cliche "happy ever after" stories. He started writing plays when he was a student attending the university of Michigan and they included The Man Who Had All the Luck and All My Sons which recieved the Drama Critics' Circle Award. His Death of a Salesman won a Pulitzer Prize also. He grew up in a difficulut environment due to the Depression, in which his fathers buisness failed. Perhaps this is why he favors tragedies, because his own life must have been somewhat tragic at times so he knows what is really tragic in life. He quotes "I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity." Arthur Miller seems to me like he was very well educated and that he enjoys writing his plays very much. From looking at his past i also believe he is a very hard worker because he had many jobs of all different kinds that i would assume helped payed for his education.

    ReplyDelete
  21. facts about Arthur Miller

    • Arthur Miller was one of the leading American playwrights of the twentieth century.
    • He was born in October 1915 in New York City to a women's clothing manufacturer, who lost everything in the economic collapse of the 1930s.
    • Living through young adulthood during the Great Depression, Miller was shaped by the poverty that surrounded him.
    • After graduating from high school, Miller worked in a warehouse so that he could earn enough money to attend the University of Michigan, where he began to write plays.

    • Miller's first play to make it to Broadway, The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944), was a failure, closing after only four performances.

    • Three years later, All My Sons won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award as the best play of 1947, launching Miller into theatrical stardom.

    • All My Sons, a drama about a manufacturer of faulty war materials, was strongly influenced by the naturalist drama of Henrik Ibsen. Along with Death of a Salesman (his most enduring success), All My Sons and The Man Who Had All the Luck form a common theme of plays about love triangles involving fathers and sons. The drama of the family is at the core of all of Miller's major plays, but nowhere is it more obvious than in the realism of All My Sons and the impressionism of Death of a Salesman.

    • Miller won a Tony Award for Death of a Salesman as well as a Pulitzer Prize.



    grace k. p 5

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  22. -Arthur Miller was born October 17, 1915 in Harlem, NY.
    -His first work was No Villain at the while he was in school at the University of Michigan
    -After College, Miller ended up working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard after the Federal Theater project was shut down
    -Miller was unable to serve during World War II because of a football knee injury.
    -In 1948, he moved into Roxbury, CT where he wrote the first act of Death of a Salesman in less than a day in 1949
    -Death of a Salesman was the first play to win the Tony Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the New York Drama Circle Critic's Award.
    -He was once married to Marilyn Monroe but soon divorced her
    -After having Cancer, Miller died from heart failure on February 10, 2005 in Roxbury

    Austin D. per. 3

    ReplyDelete