William "Willy" Loman is a fictional character and the protagonist of Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, which debuted on Broadway with Lee J. Cobb playing Loman at the Morosco Theatre on February 10, 1949. Loman is a 63-year-old travelling salesman from Brooklyn with 34 years of experience with the same company who endures a pay cut and a firing during the play. He has difficulty dealing with his current state and has created a fantasy world to cope with his situation. This does not keep him from multiple suicide attempts.
Willy Loman is an aging Brooklyn, New York salesman whose less than spectacular career is on the decline. He has lost the youthful verve of his past and his camaraderie has faded away. His business acumen is still at its peak, but he is no longer able to leverage his personality to get by. Time has caught up with him.[2] The play presents Loman's struggle "to maintain a foothold in the upward-striving American middle class" while combating his own self-doubt that plagues him in reminders from the past that his life rests on unsolid ground.[3] According to Charles Isherwood, Loman is the play's dominant character because "It is his losing battle against spiritual and economic defeat that provides the narrative spine of the play."[4] Loman is a symbolic representation of millions of white collar employees who outlived their corporate usefulness.[5] He lives in a world with delusions about how popular, famous, influential and successful he is and about the prospects for the success of his sons. His wife not only allows these delusions, but also buys into them, somewhat.[5] His misplaced values of importance and popularity are shaken to the core by his declining ability to leverage those self-perceived traits successfully as he grows older.[6]
"And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there'll be open sesame for all of us, 'cause one thing, boys: I have friends."
—Willy Loman
Loman's world crumbles around him during the play.[7] According to Associated Press correspondent Cynthia Lowry's review of the drama, "we watched an aging, defeated traveling salesman move inexorably toward self-destruction, clinging desperately to fantasies".[6] The play begins with the 63-year-old Loman dealing with a recent pay cut after 34 years on the job at a time when he is having difficulty meeting his financial responsibilities. In the second act, he deals with being fired.[8] He is fired by the son of the man who had hired him 36 years prior.[5] In the play, Loman reveals his past in scenes from his memory that the audience is challenged to judge for accuracy.[9] Loman had succeeded in large part due to his ability to ingratiate himself with his bosses and appeal to his potential clients; thus, he continually impresses upon his sons the importance of popularity.[3][8]
Although the play was performed earlier in Philadelphia,[10] the February 10, 1949 Broadway opening is considered the debut and on February 11, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times said the following: "Mr. Cobb's tragic portrait of the defeated salesman is acting of the first rank. Although it is familiar and folksy in the details, it has something of the grand manner in the big size and the deep tone."[2] While reviewing a touring production of Death of a Salesman, Los Angeles Times critic Laurie Winer described Loman as "...the saddest, self-centeredest soul in American drama, a character who will continue to haunt the landscape as long as there are fathers and sons."[11]United Press International critic Rick Du Brow described Loman as "...the aging failure of a salesman who has wasted his life by living in a world of delusions and shallow values..."[12] Willy is described as a "suffering. . .middle-aged man at the end of his emotional rope".[13] Lowry described the production as depicting "the end of a man when his dream world is shattered".[6]
The play's author, Arthur Miller, described the role of Willy Loman as one for a large character in a small physical body, and noted he had difficulty finding the right actor at first.[14] The part was originally written for a physically small man, with Willy at one point saying to his wife, "I'm short. I'm very foolish to look at." When Cobb was cast, the line was changed to "I'm fat. I'm very foolish to look at," and a reference to Willy being called a "shrimp" was changed to a "walrus."[15] Subsequent productions used whichever version was appropriate to the actor playing Willy; Dustin Hoffman, for example, used the original.[15] Loman's Brooklyn accent is part of the challenge of the role.[16] In 1950, Miller described Loman as a man who upon hearing society's "thundering command to succeed" found himself staring at a failure in the mirror.[3] The Amazon.com editorial review by Ali Davis states that "Willy Loman is a salesman desperately hustling for a living even as he slides into old age."[17]Rovi Corporation's Matthew Tobey describes him as an everyman who has to cope with the sudden realization that he is over the hill, and retreats into a fantasy world in which he remains important.[18]The Huffington Post's theater critic, Wilborn Hampton, describes the role as "one of the most complicated characters in dramatic literature".[19]
The play is a statement on the idea that a man is valued by his position in life.[3][8] Loman never matures enough to realize that being popular without any substance or skill is meaningless in the end, and Miller uses Loman to make a point against anti-intellectualism.[12] In the end, Loman gives way to the belief that his inability to be a successful man and father means that his life has been a failure.[3]
Family
Willy's marriage to his wife Linda is described as "symbolic".[17] Linda is a devoted wife who understands her husband's needs, dreams and shortcomings.[7] Linda has emotional scenes as she attempts to manage Willy's emotional collapse and deals with her two adult sons, who have both wasted their lives following the easy road of pursuing popularity, as guided by their father.[12] She breaks down as she confides in her sons about Willy's disintegration and reveals that he has attempted suicide before.[10]
Willy has always made the point to his sons that being popular and having contacts is the key to success.[12] His older, less successful son, Biff, causes "old hopes and boiling resentments" to return by visiting home after losing yet another job.[17] Biff and Willy love each other, but do not get along; Biff resents Willy for insisting he pursue a life he doesn't want, while Willy thinks Biff has failed on purpose to spite him.[7] Their relationship is the emotional lynchpin of the production.[10] Biff attempts to help his father see what has become of him.[12] In the end, Biff decides that he must force his father to see the truth rather than his fanciful images, for his own good, regardless of its toll on his father.[3] This is the emotional climax of the show as he bares his soul, saying, "Pop, I'm nothing! I'm nothing, Pop! Can't you understand that? There's no spite in it any more. I'm just what I am, that's all."[10] At Willy's funeral, Biff states that "He had the wrong dreams...He never knew who he was."[12]
Although Willy's younger son, Happy, is self-absorbed, he attempts to humor his father.[12] He views his Uncle Ben (his father's dead brother) as his role model rather than his father because Ben went out to the world as a teenager and was rich by the age of 21. He repeatedly reminds Willy of this. In the end, he is determined to not only adopt his father's dream (even when it killed him), but to surpass him as he states "It's the only dream you can have—to come out No. 1 man."[5]
Besides interacting with his wife and his sons, Willy spends much time during the play in fantasy conversations with his long-dead brother Ben, whom Willy still idolizes, calling on him for guidance, for instance, when he is fired from his job. Toward the end of the play—when Willy has dreamed up a scheme to kill himself so that Biff can receive the money from his insurance policy and finally become successful—he "debates" the merits of his plan with Ben, finally deciding to go ahead with it after Ben (in his mind) comes to agree with him that it's a good idea.
Each of the four Broadway revivals has brought critical acclaim to the role. In addition, the role has been reprised in film with six English-language film portrayals of this character, at least four of which received critical acclaim. Three actors have won Golden Globe Awards playing the role, two have won Drama Desk Awards playing the role and actors playing the role have also won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Tony Award. The role has been nominated for an Oscar Award, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, three Tony Awards and three Primetime Emmy Awards. At least two West End productions have earned Olivier Awards for this role.
Although Cobb did not earn critical acclaim when he originated the role, he did when he reprised it for television. Other actors who have played the role on Broadway or in English-language cinema or television have almost all received critical acclaim. On Broadway, the role was reprised by George C. Scott (1975, Tony nomination), Dustin Hoffman (1984, Drama Desk award), Brian Dennehy (1999, Tony and Drama Desk awards), Philip Seymour Hoffman (2012, Tony nomination), and Wendell Pierce (2022). In cinema and on television, the role has also been highly acclaimed: Fredric March (1951, Golden Globe award and both Oscar and BAFTA nominations), Cobb (1966, Emmy and Grammy nominations), Rod Steiger (1966), D. Hoffman (1985, Golden Globe and Emmy awards), Warren Mitchell (1996) and Dennehy (2000, Golden Globe and SAG awards and Emmy nomination).
Time described Scott's performance as "...a performance of staggering impact....When his head is bowed, it is not in resignation but rather like that of a bull bloodied by the picador yet ready to charge again."[32] Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance came at a time when the Occupy Wall Street movement echoed the play while its actors could not afford the $120 ticket price.[8] The March version of Loman presented him as more mentally unstable than other versions.[33]
Influences
Miller noted that although he wrote the play in 1947 and 1948, the play grew out of his life experiences, that included his father losing everything in the 1929 stock market crash.[8] Miller claims that the role was actually modeled on one of his uncles.[3]
Dustin Hoffman says that the play was the first one he ever read and predated his interest in becoming an actor. He noted that the play resonated with him because his father was a travelling salesman and he had an older brother.[8] Hoffman eventually played the role in a high-school production.[3] In 1965, Hoffman served as the assistant director in an off-Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge at the Sheridan Square Playhouse with a cast that included Robert Duvall and Jon Voight.[34] The show's director Ulu Grosbard suggested to Miller that Hoffman had the potential to make a great Willy Loman. Miller was unimpressed and later wrote that "My estimate of Grosbard all but collapsed as, observing Dustin Hoffman's awkwardness and his big nose that never seemed to get unstuffy, I wondered how the poor fellow imagined himself a candidate for any kind of acting career."[35]
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Hoffman has received numerous honors, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. Actor Robert De Niro has described him as "an actor with the everyman's face who embodied the heartbreakingly human".
Fredric March was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated stars of the 1930s and 1940s. As a performer he was known for his versatility. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Tony Awards as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and three Emmy Awards.
John Arthur Kennedy was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the original casts of Arthur Miller plays on Broadway. He won the 1949 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Miller's Death of a Salesman. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the 1955 film Trial, and was a five-time Academy Award nominee.
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montage of memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is despondent with his life and appears to be slipping into senility. The play addresses a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and infidelity. It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. It is considered by some critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. The play was selected as one of the best plays of 1948–1949, with an excerpted version published in The Burns Mantle Best Plays of 1948–1949.
Nathan Lane is an American actor. Since 1975, he has been seen on stage and screen in both comedic and dramatic roles. Lane has received numerous awards, including three Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards, the Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage, as well as for his television role in the series, The Virginian. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectable figures such as judges and police officers. Cobb originated the role of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's 1949 play Death of a Salesman under the direction of Elia Kazan, and was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for On the Waterfront (1954) and The Brothers Karamazov (1958).
Jeffrey Warren Daniels is an American actor. He is known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, in addition to nominations for three Tony Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards.
Cleavon Jake Little was an American stage, film, and television actor. He began his career in the late 1960s on the stage. In 1970, he starred in the Broadway production of Purlie, for which he earned both a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. His first leading television role was that of the irreverent Dr. Jerry Noland on the ABC sitcom Temperatures Rising (1972–1974). While starring in the sitcom, Little appeared in what has become his signature performance, portraying Sheriff Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy film Blazing Saddles.
Brian Manion Dennehy was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Dennehy had roles in over 180 films and in many television and stage productions. His film roles included First Blood (1982), Gorky Park (1983), Silverado (1985), Cocoon (1985), F/X (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), Tommy Boy (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Ratatouille (2007), and Knight of Cups (2015). Dennehy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Willy Loman in the television film Death of a Salesman (2000). Dennehy's final film was Driveways (2020), in which he plays a veteran of the Korean War, living alone, who befriends a young, shy boy who has come with his mother to clean out his deceased aunt's hoarded home.
Kevin McCarthy was an American stage, film and television actor, remembered as the male lead in the horror science fiction film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
Robert Alan Morrow is an American actor and director. He is known for his portrayal of Dr. Joel Fleischman on Northern Exposure, a role that garnered him three Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series, and later for his role as FBI agent Don Eppes on Numb3rs.
The 64th Golden Globe Awards honored the best in film and American television of 2006, as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). The ceremony was held on January 15, 2007, from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California and were broadcast on NBC in the United States. Indicating the impact that animated films have had on the film industry, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced in early 2006 that a Golden Globe would be awarded for the Best Animated Feature for the first time at this award ceremony.
Death of a Salesman is a 1985 American made-for-television film adaptation of the 1949 play of the same name by Arthur Miller, directed by Volker Schlöndorff, and starring Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, John Malkovich, Stephen Lang and Charles Durning. The film follows the script of the 1949 play, with only minor differences, and premiered on CBS September 15, 1985. The film earned 10 Emmy nominations at the 38th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, and four Golden Globe nominations at the 43rd Golden Globe Awards ceremony, winning three and one, respectively.
Death of a Salesman is a 2000 American made-for-television film adaptation of the 1949 play of the same name by Arthur Miller and directed by Kirk Browning. The film stars American actor Brian Dennehy as Willy Loman. The film earned two nominations at both the 7th Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2001 and the 52nd Primetime Emmy Awards in 2000.
Death of a Salesman is a 1951 American drama film adapted from the 1949 play of the same name by Arthur Miller. It was directed by László Benedek and written for the screen by Stanley Roberts. The film received many honors, including four Golden Globe Awards, the Volpi Cup and five Oscar nominations. Alex North, who wrote the music for the Broadway production, was one of the five Academy Award nominees for the film's musical score.
Death of a Salesman is a 1966 American made-for-television film adaptation of the 1949 play of the same name by Arthur Miller. It was directed by Alex Segal and adapted for television by Miller. It received numerous nominations for awards, and won several of them, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Directors Guild of America Award and a Peabody Award. It was nominated in a total of 11 Emmy categories at the 19th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1967. Lee J. Cobb reprised his role as Willy Loman and Mildred Dunnock reprised her role as Linda Loman from the original 1949 stage production.
"Death of a Salesman" is a television play episode of the BBC One anthology television series Play of the Month, based on the 1949 play of the same name by Arthur Miller. It was directed by Alan Cooke, starred Rod Steiger as Willy Loman. and originally aired on 24 May 1966
American actor Dustin Hoffman began his career by appearing in an episode of Naked City in 1961. His first theatrical performance was 1961's Shmem needs a shink as Ridzinski. Following several guest appearances on television, he starred in the 1966 play Eh?; his performance garnered him both a Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award. Hoffman made his film debut in 1967 when he appeared in the comedy The Tiger Makes Out. In the same year, his breakthrough role as Benjamin "Ben" Braddock, the title character in Mike Nichols' comedy-drama The Graduate, led to Hoffman achieving star status and his first Academy Award nomination. He then acted in the play Jimmy Shine as the eponymous character and the comedy film Madigan's Millions. In 1969, he starred alongside Jon Voight in the Academy Award for Best Picture winner Midnight Cowboy, for which Hoffman was nominated a second time for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Bill Camp is an American actor. He has played supporting roles in many films such as Lincoln (2012), Compliance (2012), Lawless (2012), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Love & Mercy (2015), Loving (2016), Molly's Game (2017), Vice (2018), Wildlife (2018), Joker (2019), News of the World (2021), and Sound of Freedom (2023); the HBO miniseries The Night Of in 2016 and The Outsider in 2020; and the Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit in 2020. He had a recurring role in the HBO drama series The Leftovers from 2015 to 2017 and the Hulu space drama series The First in 2018.
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