Allan Miller | |
---|---|
Born | [1] | February 14, 1929
Occupation(s) | Actor, director, acting teacher, author, playwright |
Years active | 1956–current |
Spouses |
|
Children | 2 |
Allan Miller (born February 14, 1929) is an American stage, film, and television actor.
Miller served in the U.S. Army after World War II during the occupation of Japan. [2] Noticing an ad in Stars and Stripes that was looking for performers, he began performing in shows to entertain the troops. [2]
In 1948, after Miller returned to the U.S., he attended Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop at The New School for Social Research in New York. [2] He then studied acting under Uta Hagen (his classmates included Geraldine Page and Charles Nelson Reilly); and under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio (his classmates included James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Paul Newman). [2] In 1958, under Strasberg's sponsorship, he began teaching at the Dramatic Workshop. In 1960, he started teaching privately; one of his students was a teenaged Barbra Streisand. [2] [3] In the 1970s he taught at Yale Drama School. [4]
He is best known for his appearances on television, including Kojak , The Rockford Files , The Streets of San Francisco , Hawaii Five-O , Wonder Woman , Dallas , and The Paper Chase . [5] His film career included roles in Baby Blue Marine (1976), Two-Minute Warning (1976), Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Brewster's Millions (1985). He has performed on stages across the country and on Broadway, most notably in Brooklyn Boy. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] He was producing director of the Back Alley Theatre, which he created and ran with his wife, Laura Zucker, from 1979 to 1989. [2] [11] [12] He was also one of the primary plaintiffs in a landmark lawsuit between Actors' Equity Association and Los Angeles-based small theaters, focused on the Equity Waiver Plan. [13]
He is the author of the book, A Passion for Acting, and a DVD, Auditioning. He wrote the play, The Fox, based on the D.H. Lawrence novella, which was produced in Los Angeles, Off-Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre in New York City, and continues to be produced in the United States and around the world. [14] [15]
Miller has been married twice. His first wife was actress Anita Cooper, now deceased. [2] In 1976 he remarried, to Laura Zucker, [4] who for 25 years was executive director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. [2] [16]