Jonathan Miller

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For other people named Jonathan Miller, see Jonathan Miller (disambiguation).
Jonathan Miller

Miller at the 1986 Miami Book Fair International.
Born Jonathan Wolfe Miller
(1934-07-21) 21 July 1934
London, U.K.
Alma mater University of Cambridge (MB BCh, 1959)
Spouse(s) Helen Rachel Collet
(1956–present; 3 children)
Parents Betty Miller (née Spiro)
Emanuel Miller

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (born 21 July 1934) is a British theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist, sculptor and medical doctor. Trained as a doctor in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in the early 1960s with his role in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe with fellow writers and performers Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. He began directing operas in the 1970s and has since become one of the world's leading opera directors with several classic productions to his credit. His best-known production is probably his 1982 "Mafia"-styled Rigoletto set in 1950s Little Italy, Manhattan. In its early days he was an associate director at the Royal National Theatre and later he ran the Old Vic Theatre. He has also become a well-known television personality and familiar public intellectual in both Britain and the United States.

Biography

Early life

Miller grew up in St John's Wood, London, in a well-connected Jewish family. His father Emanuel (1892–1970), who suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, was a military psychiatrist, and subsequently a paediatric psychiatrist in Harley House. His mother Betty Miller (née Spiro) was a novelist and biographer. Miller's sister Sarah (died 2006) worked in television for many years and retained an involvement with Judaism that he, an atheist, has always eschewed. He was educated at St Paul's School, London[1] where he developed an early (and ultimately lifelong) interest in the biological sciences. Miller studied natural sciences and medicine at St John's College, Cambridge (MB BCh, 1959), where he was a member of the Cambridge Apostles, before going on to University College London. While studying medicine, Miller was involved in the Cambridge Footlights, appearing in the revues Out of the Blue (1954) and Between the Lines (1955). Good reviews for these shows, and for Miller's performances in particular, led to him performing on a number of radio and TV shows while continuing his studies; these included appearances on Saturday Night on the Light, Tonight and Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He qualified as a medical doctor in 1959 and then worked as a hospital house officer for two years, including at the Central Middlesex Hospital as house physician for gastroenterologist Dr.(later Sir) Frances Avery Jones.

1960s: Beyond the Fringe

In 1960, Miller helped to write and produce a musical revue, Beyond the Fringe, at the Edinburgh Festival. This launched, in addition to his own, the careers of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Miller quit the show shortly after its move from London to Broadway in 1962, and took over as editor and presenter of the BBC's flagship arts programme Monitor in 1965. All these appointments were unsolicited invitations, the Monitor appointment arose because Miller had approached Huw Wheldon about taking up a place on the BBC's director training course, in which Miller was assured that he would "pick it up as he went along".[citation needed] In 1964, he directed the play The Old Glory by the American poet Robert Lowell in New York City. It was the first play produced at the American Place Theatre and starred Frank Langella, Roscoe Lee Brown, and Lester Rawlins. The play won five Obie Awards in 1965 including an award for "Best American Play" as well as awards for Langella, Brown and Rawlins.[2][3][4][5] In 1966, he wrote, produced, and directed a film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland for the BBC. In 1968 he directed Whistle and I'll Come to You starring Michael Hordern, a television adaptation of M. R. James's 1904 ghost story "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad". By 1970, his reputation in British theatre was such that he mounted a National Theatre production of The Merchant of Venice starring Sir Laurence Olivier.

1970s: Medical history and opera

Miller held a research fellowship in the history of medicine at University College, London from 1970 to 1973. In 1974, he also started directing and producing operas for Kent Opera and Glyndebourne, followed by a new production of The Marriage of Figaro for English National Opera in 1978. Miller has become one of the world's leading opera directors with classic productions being Rigoletto (in 1975 and 1982) and the operetta The Mikado (in 1987).

Miller drew upon his own experiences as a physician as writer and presenter of the BBC television series The Body in Question (1978),[6] which caused some controversy for showing the dissection of a cadaver. For a time, he was a vice president of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.[7]

1980s: Shakespeare and neuropsychology

In 1980, Miller was persuaded to join the troubled BBC Television Shakespeare project (1978–85). He became producer (1980–82) and directed six of the plays himself, beginning with a well received Taming of the Shrew starring John Cleese. In the early 1980s, Miller was a popular and frequent guest on PBS' Dick Cavett Show.

Miller wrote and presented the BBC television series States of Mind in 1983. In 1984, he studied neuropsychology with Dr. Sandra Witelson at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, before becoming a neuropsychology research fellow at Sussex University the following year.

1990s

In 1990, Miller wrote and presented a joint BBC/Canadian production entitled, "Born Talking: A Personal Inquiry into Language". The four-part series looked into the acquisition and complexities surrounding language production. Miller then wrote and presented the television series Madness (1991) and Jonathan Miller on Reflection (1998). The five-part Madness series ran on PBS in 1991. It featured a brief history of madness and interviews with psychiatric researchers, clinical psychiatrists, and patients in therapy sessions. In 1992, Opera Omaha staged the U.S. premiere of the 1819 Gioachino Rossini work Ermione, which Miller directed.

2000s: Atheism and return to directing

In 2004, Miller wrote and presented a TV series on atheism entitled Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief (more commonly referred to as Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief) for BBC Four, exploring the roots of his own atheism and investigating the history of atheism in the world. Individual conversations, debates and discussions for the series that could not be included due to time constraints were aired in a six-part series entitled The Atheism Tapes. He also appeared on a BBC Two programme in February 2004, called What the World Thinks of God appearing from New York. The original three-part series was slated to air on Public Television in the United States, starting 4 May 2007, cosponsored by the American Ethical Union, American Humanist Association, Center for Inquiry, the HKH Foundation, and the Institute for Humanist Studies.

In 2007, Miller directed The Cherry Orchard at The Crucible, Sheffield, his first work on the British stage for ten years. He also directed Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in Manchester and Bristol, and Der Rosenkavalier in Tokyo and gave talks throughout Britain during 2007 called An Audience with Jonathan Miller in which he spoke about his life for an hour and then fielded questions from the audience. He also curated an exhibition on camouflage at the Imperial War Museum. He has appeared at the Royal Society of the Arts in London discussing humour (4 July 2007) and at the British Library on religion (3 September 2007).

In January 2009, after a break of twelve years, Miller returned to the English National Opera to direct his own production of La Bohème, notable for its 1930s setting. This same production ran at the Cincinnati Opera in July 2010, also directed by Miller.

2010s

On 15 September 2010, Miller, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[8] In April and May 2011, Miller directed Verdi's La Traviata in Vancouver, Canada,[9] and in February and March 2012, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte in Washington DC, USA.[10]

Personal life

Miller married Helen Rachel Collet in 1956. They have two sons and a daughter.[11] He lives in Camden, North London.[citation needed] He is 6' 4" (1.93 m) tall.[citation needed]

Parodies and representations

  • Private Eye (which had a falling-out with Miller) occasionally lampooned him under the name 'Dr Jonathan', depicting him as a Dr Johnson-like self-important man of learning.
  • The Beatles film Yellow Submarine features a parody of polymath intellectuals in general and Miller in particular: Jeremy Hillary Boob, who describes himself as an "eminent physicist, polyglot classicist, prize-winning botanist, hard-biting satirist, talented pianist, good dentist too."[12]
  • The satirical television puppet show Spitting Image portrayed Miller as an anteater (lampooning his large nose), as well as featuring a segment entitled "Talk Bollocks" (the 'A' in 'Talk' combining with the 'ollo' in "Bollocks" below to create a penis), in which he discussed, with Bernard Levin, various cultural matters in a ridiculously pretentious way.
  • In the film for television Not Only But Always about the careers of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Jonathan Aris played Jonathan Miller as a young man; Aris reprised the role in the BBC Radio 4 play Good Evening (2008) by Roy Smiles.
  • Along with the other members of Beyond the Fringe, he is portrayed in the play Pete and Dud: Come Again, by Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde.

Honours and awards

Bibliography

Books

  • Miller, Jonathan (1971). McLuhan. Fontana Modern Masters. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1971). Censorship and the Limits of Personal Freedom. Oxford University Press. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1972). Freud: The Man, His World and His Influence. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1974). The Uses of Pain (Conway memorial lecture). South Place Ethical Society. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1978). The Body in Question. Jonathan Cape. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1982). Darwin for Beginners. Writers and Readers Comic Book/2003 Pantheon Books (USA). ISBN 0-375-71458-8. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1983). The Human Body. Viking Press.  (1994 Jonathan Cape [pop-up book])
  • Miller, Jonathan (1983). States of Mind. Conversations with Psychological Investigators. BBC /Random House. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1984). The Facts of Life. Jonathan Cape.  (pop-up book intended for children)
  • Miller, Jonathan (1986). Subsequent Performances. Faber. 
  • Miller, Jonathan & John Durrant (1989). Laughing Matters: A Serious Look at Humour. Longman. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1990). Acting in Opera. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.  (The Applause Acting Series)
  • Miller, Jonathan (1992). The Afterlife of Plays. San Diego State Univ Press.  (University Research Lecture Series No. 5)
  • Miller, Jonathan (1998). Dimensional Man. Jonathan Cape. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1998). On Reflection. National Gallery Publications/Yale University Press (USA). ISBN 0-300-07713-0. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1999). Nowhere in Particular. Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 1-84000-150-X.  [collection of his photographs]

Editor

  • Miller, Jonathan (1968). Harvey and the Circulation of Blood: A Collection of Contemporary Documents. Jackdaw Publications. 
  • Miller, Jonathan (1990). The Don Giovanni Book: Myths of Seduction and Betrayal. Faber. 

Contributor

  • Miller, Jonathan; Alan Bennett; Peter Cook; Dudley Moore (1963). Beyond the Fringe. A Revue. Souvenir Press/Samuel French. 
  • Miller, Jonathan; Margaret Drabble; Richard Hoggart; Adrian Mitchell et al. (1969). The Permissive Society. Panther. 
  • Miller, Jonathan; Alan Bennett; Peter Cook; Dudley Moore (1987). The Complete Beyond the Fringe. Methuen. ISBN 0-413-14670-7. 
  • Sokol, B.J. (ed.) (1993). The undiscover'd country: New Essays on Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare. Free Association Books. ISBN 1-85343-197-4.  – Jonathan Miller: 'King Lear in Rehearsal: A Talk' and seven other essays
  • Silvers, Robert B. (ed.); Jonathan Miller; Stephen Jay Gould; Daniel J Kevles; RC Lewontin; Oliver Sacks (1997). Hidden Histories of Science. Granta Books. 
  • Silvers, Robert B. (ed.) (2000). Doing It : Five Performing Arts. New York Review of Books (USA). ISBN 0-940322-75-7.  Essays by Jonathan Miller Geoffrey O'Brien, Charles Rosen, Tom Stoppard and Garry Wills

Introductions and forewords

  • Lowell, Robert (1966). Old Glory, The: Endecott and the Red Cross; My Kinsman, Major Molineux; and Benito Cereno.  (directors note)
  • Rothenstein, Julian (2000). The Paradox Box: Optical Illusions, Puzzling Pictures, Verbal Diversions. Redstons Press / Shambhala Publications (USA). 
  • Scotson, Linda (2000). Doran: Child of Courage. Macmillan. 

Filmography

Actor

Director

Presenter-writer

Interviewee

  • BBC. Great Composers of the World.  Miller appears on the Puccini and Bach DVDs of this BBC series. In the Bach episode, he discusses his affection for the famous "Erbarme Dich" aria of the St Matthew Passion.
  • PBS. Vermeer: Master of Light.  Miller appears in this one-hour program on the painter.

Selected stage productions

Musical revue

Oratorium

  • St. Matthew Passion (Director; St. George's Theatre, London, February 1994) with Paul Goodwin. A dramatised production of J.S. Bach's masterpiece, recorded for BBC Television.This production was also revived at London's National Theatre in September/October 2011 with Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by Paul Goodwin.

Drama

Opera

Over four decades, Miller has directed more than 50 operas in cities including London, New York, Florence, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Valencia and Tokyo.

Museum and gallery exhibitions

  • Miller curated an exhibition on "Reflexion" (1998) at the National Gallery and one on "Motion in Art and Photography" at the Estorik Gallery in Islington.
  • Miller had three exhibitions of his own art work at Flowers East, the Boundary Gallery and at the Katz Gallery in Bond Street, London.

See also

References

  1. ↑ BBC profile "14 June 2002 "Miller: Master of all trades"
  2. ↑ Revival Article in Playbill
  3. ↑ Publisher's play synopsis
  4. ↑ Obie Awards for 1965
  5. ↑ American Place Theatre History
  6. ↑ Closing Credits
  7. ↑ Allan Horsfall and Ray Gosling (14 March 2006). "History of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality". Gay Monitor. Retrieved 2 September 2008. 
  8. ↑ "Letters: Harsh judgments on the pope and religion". The Guardian (London). 15 September 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2010. 
  9. ↑ "Jonathan Miller's version of La Traviata is Verdi without the vulgarity". Vancouver, Canada. 28 April 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2011. 
  10. ↑ . Washington DC, USA. 23 February 2012 http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=OMOSB. Retrieved 23 February 2012.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ Who's Who 2009
  12. ↑ Hieronimus, Robert (2001). Inside the Yellow Submarine. ISBN 0-87349-360-5. 
  13. ↑ Editors (5 September 2006). "Viva el Presidente". New Humanist Newsletter (#72). Retrieved 2 September 2008. 
  14. ↑ Additionally, Miller was considered for the movie roles of Jim Dixon in Luck Jim (1957) and Fagin in Oliver! (1968).
  15. ↑ Produced 12 plays, directed 6.
  16. ↑ Title changed to Beyond The Fringe 1964 on 8 January 1964 (a "new edition" of the show). By then Miller had long since left the production.

Further reading

  • Kate Bassett (2012). In Two Minds: A Biography of Jonathan Miller. ISBN 978-1-84943-451-5. 
  • Ronald Bergan (1990). Beyond the Fringe...and Beyond: A Critical Biography of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Dudley Moore. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-175-2. 
  • Michael Romain (Ed) (1992). A Profile of Jonathan Miller. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-40953-5. 
  • Humphrey Carpenter (2000). That Was Satire, That Was: Beyond the Fringe, the Establishment Club, "Private Eye" and "That Was the Week That Was". Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-575-06588-5. 
  • Robert Hewison (1983). Footlights! – A Hundred Years of Cambridge Comedy. Methuen. ISBN 0-413-51150-2. 
  • Roger Wilmut (1980). From Fringe to Flying Circus – Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960–1980. Eyre Methuen. ISBN 0-413-46950-6. 

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