Arthur Miller, Dan O’Herlihy, Ossie Davis, John Raitt
by Andre Soares
On February 10, Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Arthur Miller died of congestive heart failure at his Roxbury home. He was 89
Miller was best known for his play about the unachievable "American Dream," Death of a Salesman, which, under the direction of Elia Kazan, opened on Broadway to rave reviews in 1949.
Two years later, Death of a Salesman was filmed by László Benedek with Fredric March as the All-American loser and Kevin McCarthy as his defiant son. Miller also made headlines the world over when he married Marilyn Monroe in 1956. They were divorced five years later.
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Actor Dan O’Herlihy (right, with Marsha Hunt in an episode of the TV series Profiles in Courage) died at his home in Malibu, California, on February 17. He was 85.
Born in Ireland in 1919, O’Herlihy became an actor the Gate Theatre and the Abbey Players, where he appeared in more than 70 plays, including the original production of Sean O’Casey’s Red Roses for Me.
O’Herlihy’s film career began with a supporting role in Carol Reed’s 1947 IRA-type drama Odd Man Out, starring James Mason. Although O’Herlihy never became a film star, he worked in dozens of motion pictures until the late 1990s. Among his most important films are Luis Buñuel’s Mexican-made The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1954), for which O’Herlihy received a Best Actor Academy Award nomination (he lost the Oscar to Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront); Sidney Lumet’s suspense thriller Fail Safe (1964), and John Huston’s last film, the haunting The Dead (1987). O’Herlihy’s last film was the TV-movie The Rat Pack (1998).
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Ossie Davis was found dead in his hotel room in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 4. Davis, a recent Kennedy Center honoree, was married to actress Ruby Dee. He was 87.
Besides working together in numerous stage, film, and television productions, Davis and Dee were actively involved in the Civil Rights movement. In the 1950s they were targeted by anti-Communism crusaders, but were never officially charged with any wrongdoing. Among Davis’s films are The Cardinal (1963), Let’s Do It Again (1975), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and, in an memorable cameo as a judge, The Client (1994).
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Actor-singer John Raitt died on February 20 of complications from pneumonia at his Pacific Palisades home. A musical stage star, Raitt saw his roles in Carousel and Oklahoma! go to Gordon MacRae when the musicals were transposed to the screen.
Raitt appeared in bit parts in several films, but had only one leading role, opposite Doris Day in the 1957 film version of The Pajama Game, which he had also done onstage.
John Raitt was 88. His daughter, Bonnie, is a blues singer.
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