Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller

Author: Krista McCloud
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-03-01
Features: In 1956, Arthur Miller, one of America's most celebrated playwrights, and Marilyn Monroe, the idol of countless Hollywood boyfriends, got married, beginning a marriage filled with beautiful hopes. "Hope, hope, hope," Marilyn wrote on the wedding photo. Miller had the words "This is forever" engraved on the wedding ring. The world watched with bated breath. Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe met in 1951. Miller felt he had become the kind of man he had never wanted to be—a man easily seduced. He already had a family, and he had a plan for his next play, starting with the success of Death of a Salesman. Miller had tried to suppress his feelings. "If you are desperately in love with someone you admire, why not choose Abraham Lincoln?" he frankly admitted in a reply: "Most people admire their father, but I never did." Marilyn Monroe confided in Miller about the profound impact of her dreamlike childhood and her vulnerability. He was reluctant to explicitly take on the responsibility of protecting her, and communication was temporarily interrupted.