Death of a Salesman

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. Plot Willy Loman has led a life consisting of 60 years of failure. Loman's wife supports him, but he soon begins to lose his grip on reality and slips between the past and the present, frantically trying to find where he went wrong. Finally exhausted between the emotional rift between him and his son Biff, and the emotional toll from being burnt out with his job, Willy starts his car in the garage and takes his own life. An insurance policy is paid out to the rest of the Loman family, as Willy felt he was worth more dead than alive. Cast Fredric March as Willy Loman Mildred Dunnock as Linda Loman Kevin McCarthy as Biff Loman Cameron Mitchell as Happy Loman Howard Smith as Charley Royal Beal as Ben Don Keefer as Bernard Jesse White as Stanley Claire Carleton as Miss Francis David Alpert as Howard Wagner Career of a Salesman Just before the film was about to be released, Arthur Miller threatened to sue Columbia Studios over the short that was to appear before Death of a Salesman. This short film, Career of a Salesman, showed what the producers believed was a more typical American salesman, and was an attempt to defuse possible accusations that Death of a Salesman was an anti-American film. Eventually, Columbia agreed to remove the 10-minute short from the film's theatrical run.