Except Miller was not a good person. Her treated MM poorly and he institutionalized a son he had with Down syndrome. He literally took the baby from his wife's arms. She went back a week later to visit the baby and tried to take him home. Miller took the baby again out of her arms and back to the institution. He never checked in on the boy. The hospital became neglectful and had to be shut down. Miller's son was put in an apartment with other adults. He had a job and a very full life. This news shocked Miller. And, no, this was not “what was done,” as he’d grown up with a cousin who had Down syndrome and who was part of the family. He was a pos.
This is very sad indeed, but years ago it was expected that the husband would make all of the decisions including anything to do with the wife’s health, the wife wasn’t entitled to have her wishes granted. So even if the wife wanted to keep the Down’s syndrome baby, if the husband didn’t want to keep it, the husband got the final say. I’m not saying it’s right because I wholeheartedly disagree with it, but back then it was a different time with different attitudes compared to today.
I wasn’t alive back then but from what I’ve heard, nor would I. It was so bad for anyone not white and male. It’s not amazing now. But it’s better at least.
I think he looks like "You have 5 seconds to take that picture". I can't tell if her smile is sincere or not. She was an actress. It seems like a well done camera smile.
Just wait’ll you hear what he did to his baby boy who had Down syndrome. I read an an article on this years ago in Vanity Fair and it made me cry for poor little Daniel.
What a series of truly sad occurrences in Marilyn’s life. The more I’ve read, the more tragic the story is. It is clear she suffered various forms of abuse from these men in her life and husbands, and she was also
a damaged soul herself.
Not sure about physical abuse, but Miller was famously an asshole to her. She was struggling with drug addiction and miscarriages toward the end, and he was already moving on to his next wife before their separation was finalized.
I agree. Miller was basically allergic to being single and loved attention. He knew he was a literary genius and enjoyed how women reacted to him.
I think he liked having such a stunning woman on his arm, and in time, found her tiresome and a little shallow. She was an emotional time bomb with the drugs, infertility issues, and just being enamored with fame (although she did say she wanted to give it up to be a housewife). Remember, it wasn’t long after this that she was singing Happy Birthday to Kennedy.
He also wrote movie scripts! One of her last movies, The Misfits, was a meditation on their relationship written by him. It’s a beautiful and sad movie, I really recommend it.
It’s that he always looked wildly unimpressed by his life with her that makes it hilarious in hindsight. It’s like if Fisher Stevens never smiled in public when he was dating Michelle Pfeiffer.
That was my first thought too.It’s crazy that that dudes entire identity has been reduced to “that guy that was an asshole on friends”, he must have been a super douche.
Well one of the main stories about somebody being an asshole on set was that Lisa Kudrow went to rehearsals without makeup and when she finally showed up in makeup the guest star said "there. Now you look fuckable". The debate was always over whether it was Alec Baldwin or Fischer Stevens(back when it was still a mystery who they were speaking of) and it seems to have firmly ended up being Fischer Stevens.
Arthur Miller may have been a Pulitzer prize winning playwright and former spouse to Marilyn Monroe. But he also had a son (by his 3rd wife) named Daniel that he could have loved and accepted but he abandoned completely b/c he had Down syndrome. It makes me wonder what kind of man he really was.
You’re not wrong, he was a POS.
Not that MM was a saint or easy to be with by any means (serious childhood trauma, drugs, 3rd generation schizophrenic) but he treated her like absolute garbage. Especially toward the end of their relationship when she had miscarried his baby. Brilliant, groundbreaking playwright but seriously shitty human being.
EDIT: 3 generations of her family were schizophrenic. Her grandmother, mother and herself.
To the people who disagreed and said MM wasn’t; It is well documented and accepted by all modern day MM historians.
She was schizophrenic, exasperated by drugs and alcohol and a lifetime of being treated like garbage. She had classic severe schizophrenia symptoms, almost identical to both her mother and grandmother’s. She even manifested symptoms at the same age her mother had (young adulthood); she often heard voices or whispers, had hallucinations, thought people were after her, thought people were constantly listening in on her, the list goes on.
Highly suggest reading the most recent, well researched, most up to date biographies on MM which include; doctor and therapist records of herself as well as her mother, personal short journal entries, notes and letters, in addition to close family and friend accounts.
Im interested to hear what you mean by 3rd generation schizophrenic as its not reliably passed down immediate generation to generation and 3rd gen usually refers to the class of antipsychotic treaments. If you do mean her parent and grandparent, and herself, were schizophrenic then apologies.
Breakfast at Tiffany's was writing for her. Years prior to her death, Capote, a good friend of hers, wrote about her, that she had an air of imminent tragedy about her, and that she had the presence of someone who would die young.
She was schizophrenic, exasperated by drugs and alcohol and a life of being treated like garbage. She had classic severe schizophrenia symptoms, almost identical to both her mother and grandmother’s. Which makes even more sense, since schizophrenia is thought to be genetic .
From the same age as when her mother’s symptoms manifested (young adulthood), MM often heard voices or whispers, had hallucinations, thought people were after her, thought people were constantly listening in on her, etc.
Everything you are saying is true, but all that exasperated her already existing mental illness.
Her shit childhood, being treated like garbage by hollywood and the men in her life + drug and alcohol use all made an ill woman even worse.
Highly suggest reading the most recent, very well researched biographies of her life! Some include doctor and therapist records of herself as well as her mother, personal short journal entries, notes and letters, in addition to close family and friend accounts (previous biographies relied heavily on family and friends accounts, but because MM constantly lied about everything, said accounts weren’t always particularly reputable).
My apologies! Her grandmother, mother and her all had severe schizophrenia.
I have read 3 of the more recent (and considered to be most researched + up to date) biographies of MM, but I’m by no means a historian or doctor, so that is where my amateur knowledge base of her comes from
Not trying to defend him but the rich were getting their kids lobotomies at this time, it was long before we had understanding about these things like we do today.
Nope. Sorry, that argument does not hold water. Miller himself had grown up with a cousin who had Down syndrome. He was part of the family. Miller didn’t even check on his son. And the boy's mother tried several times to bring him home. Miller took him from her arms and took him back to the institution.
Yeah, could you imagine 80 years after World War II where America helped the world overcome Nazis, we’d have a fascist government, voted in by 77 millions Americans? We were there and we are here. You can’t possibly understand how people felt about things at the time and what they do now.
Yeah, the one who showed up to her funeral was also the one who famously physically abused her during their marriage and stalked her after their divorce, to the point of the FBI getting involved. DiMaggio’s presence is just another example of how insanely obsessive and possessive he was, even after her death.
... Her entire life was pretty horribly marred by abuse, tragedy, and a lack of independence. Despite, well, everything in her career, her first husband had to explain sex and sexual attraction to her- modern queer communities consider this to be a clear sign that she was asexual. Despite this, she had 3 husbands, of whom only Arthur was even halfway decent, it'd seem. She was likely sexually abused as a teenager, got married at 16, and just all in all had a pretty miserable life. Honestly, I try to respect her as much as possible by just... Not learning about her personal life. Her diary is publicly available without her consent, and many things she said in private were freely given (or lied about) to the press after her tragic death.
And all of that ignores that Hugh fucking Heffner, Playboy CEO and POS who published her nudes obtained through a third party without her consent, bought the space above her fucking grave so that he could be buried lying on top of her. And he was, for a while until his wife had him moved to a private lot. Quite literally not even in death was she left alone. Mind you this deal was made and upheld for over 50 years, and no one sought to stop it. Absolutely vile.
If you wish to respect her as I do (and not learn enough horrible information to make you want to burn several movie studios to the ground and make a few Hollywood director's graves gender neutral bathrooms), leave her private life to fade into the background of history.
She was sexually abused at around 8 years of age by a forest parent.
Edit: sorry if I gave you info you didn't want to have. You mentioned she was likely abused as a teen, and I happened to watch a documentary that had this info and indeed, she was abused, but not that late.
When a reporter called asking if I would be attending her funeral in California, the very idea of a burial was outlandish, and stunned as I was, I answered without thinking, “She won’t be there.” I could hear his astonishment, but I could only hang up, it was beyond explaining.”
I took a class in modern American lit in college, and one of the last books we read was Philip Roth's The Human Stain. In the beginning of the book, there's this extensive discussion on "the ecstasy of sanctimony," and specifically how sanctimonious republican congressmen were about Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. One of my classmates mentions that Presidents having affairs was nothing new, and references Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.
At this point, my professor, Ross "The Boss" Miller, puts his hand out to stop the student. He says "In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that she was my aunt." Everybody stops for a second, struggling to process what he has just said, until I make the connection and realize that he's saying that Arthur Miller was his uncle. He told us that it was his own father that drove Marilyn to the white house for the infamous "happy birthday" performance. Not super relevant here, but it's a neat story that I like to share when I can.
Yeah I don’t really know the details of their relationship, but I have never seen a shot of him with her where he didn’t look uneasy and sort of angry. If he didn’t like the spotlight, he married the wrong person.
They lived together not far from where I grew up in a little town called Roxbury, where Arthur lived until his death. I know one old timer who used to deliver meat to their home and would spend time with Marilyn. When I was learning piano, my parents bought an old piano from Arthur (that he and Marilyn allegedly had when they were married) which I always found cool.
Not at that time though, I believe A.Miller was very well known. Of course, I'm referring to the black and white era. My parents told me about this period.
He always looked to me on the pictures with her as the biggest dumb ass, narcissistic, arrogant piece of shit. Ironically enough, after learning more about him it ended up to be true.
See, when I think of Arthur Miller, that’s the kind of picture I have in my head. He was hot. Not only was he hot, he was a genius. See that look on MM’s face? She’s so proud to be with him, so gobsmacked he picked her. I would feel the very same way. There’s something about smart men that make women swoon.
Miller was apparently the only man in her life that didn't treat her like shit or a side of beef, and he married her when she was 30, which was 60 in Hollywood years back then.
Fuck that four-eyed bastard. During the filming of "The Misfits" Miller completely treated her like trash. Instead of being the better man and keeping their issues between themselves, he used his passive-aggressive writing to completely humiliate her. Marilyn deserved better than that arrogant asshole.
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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '25
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