A crucible is a container used for metal, glass, and pigment production as well as a number of modern laboratory processes, which can withstand temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents. Historically, they have usually been made of clay, but they can be made of any material with a higher temperature resistance than the substances they are designed to hold.

Crucible history

Typology and chronology

The form of the crucibles has varied through time, with designs reflecting the process for which they are used, as well as regional variation. The earliest crucible forms derive from the sixth/fifth millennium B.C. in Eastern Europe and Iran (Roberts et al. 2009).

Chalcolithic

Crucibles used for copper smelting were generally wide shallow vessels made from clay that lacks refractory properties which is similar to the types of clay used in other ceramics of the time (Thornton & Rehren 2009: p2701). During the Chalcolithic period, crucibles were heated from the top by using blow pipes (Hauptmann 2003: p93). Ceramic crucibles from this time had slight modifications to their designs such as handles, knobs or pouring spouts (Bayley & Rehren 2007: p47) allowing them to be more easily handled and poured. Early examples of this practice can be seen in Feinan, Jordan (Hauptmann 2003: p93). These crucibles have added handles to allow for better manipulation, however due to the poor preservation of the crucibles there is no evidence of a pouring spout. The main purpose of the crucible during this period was to keep the ore in the area where the heat was concentrated to separate it from impurities before shaping (Rehren 2003: p208).

Iron Age

The use of crucibles in the Iron Age remains very similar to that of the Bronze Age with copper and tin smelting was being used to produce bronze. The Iron Age crucible designs remain the same as the Bronze Age.

Roman period

The Roman period shows technical innovations, with crucibles for new methods used to produce new alloys. The smelting and melting process also changed with both the heating technique and the crucible design. The crucible changed into rounded or pointed bottom vessels with a more conical shape; these were heated from below, unlike prehistoric types which were irregular in shape and were heated from above. These designs gave greater stability within the charcoal (Bayley & Rehren 2007: p49). These crucibles in some cases have thinner walls and have more refractory properties (Tylecote 1976: p20).

During the Roman period a new process of metalworking started, cementation, used in the production of brass. This process involves the combination of a metal and a gas to produce an alloy (Zwicker et al. 1985: p107). Brass is made by mixing solid copper metal in with zinc oxide or carbonate which comes in the form of calamine or smithsonite (Rehren 2003: p209). This is heated to about 900°C and the zinc oxide vaporises into a gas and the zinc gas bonds with the solid copper (Rehren 1999: p1085). This reaction has to take place in a part-closed or closed container otherwise the zinc vapour would escape before it can react with the copper. Cementation crucibles therefore have a lid or cap which limits the amount of gas loss from the crucible. The crucible design is similar to the smelting and melting crucibles of the period utilizing the same material as the smelting and melting crucibles. The conical shape and small mouth allowed the lid to be added. These small crucibles are seen in Colonia Ulpia Trajana (modern day Xanten), Germany, where the crucibles are around 4 cm in size however these are small examples (Rehren 1999: p1084). There are examples of larger vessels such as cooking pots and amphorae being used for cementation to process larger amounts of brass; since the reaction takes place at low temperatures lower fired ceramics could be used (Rehren 2003: p209). The ceramic vessels which are used are important as the vessel must be able to lose gas through the walls otherwise the pressure would break the vessel. Cementation vessels are mass produced due to crucibles having to be broken open to remove the brass once the reaction has finished as in most cases the lid would have baked hard to the vessel or the brass might have adhered to the vessel walls.

Medieval period

Smelting and melting of copper and it alloys such as leaded bronze were smelted in crucibles similar to those of the roman period which have thinner walls and flat bases to sit within the furnaces. The technology for this type of smelting started to change at the end of the Medieval period with the introduction of new tempering material for the ceramic crucibles. Some of these copper alloy crucibles were used in the making of bells. Bell foundry crucibles had to be larger at about 60 cm (Tylecote 1976: p73). These later medieval crucibles were a more mass produced product.

The cementation process, which was lost from the end of the Roman to the early Medieval period, continued in the same way with brass. Brass production increased during the medieval period due to a better understanding of the technology behind it. Furthermore, the process for carrying out cementation for brass did not change greatly until the 19th century (Craddock 1995: p301). However, during this period a vast and highly important technological innovation happened using the cementation process, the production of steel. Steel production using iron and carbon works in the same way as brass with the iron metal being mixed with carbon to produce steel. The first examples of cementation steel is wootz steel from India (Craddock 1995: p276), where the crucibles were filled with the good quality wrought iron and carbon in the form of organics such as leaves, wood etc. However, no charcoal was used within the crucible. These early crucibles would only produce a little amount of steel and would have to be broken once the process has finished.

By the late Medieval period steel production had move from India to modern day Uzbekistan where new materials were being used in the production of steel crucibles, for example Mullite crucibles were introduced (Rehren & Papakhristu 2000; p56). These were sandy clay crucibles which had been formed around a fabric tube (Rehren & Papakhristu 2000: p56). These crucibles are used in the same way as other cementation vessels but with a hole in the top of the vessel to allow pressure to escape (Rehren & Papakhristu 2000: p59).

Post Medieval

At the end of the Medieval and into the Post Medieval new types of crucible designs and processes started. Smelting and melting crucibles types started to become more limited in designs which are produced by a few specialists. The main types used during the Post Medieval period are the Hessian Crucibles which were made in the Hesse region in Germany. These are triangular vessels made on a wheel or within a mould using high alumina clay and tempered with pure quartz sand (Martinon-Torres & Rehren 2009: p54). Furthermore another specialised crucible which was made at the same time was that of a graphite crucible from southern Germany. These had a very similar design to that of the triangular crucibles from Hesse but they also occur in conical forms (Martinon-Torres & Rehren 2009: p61). These crucibles were traded all across Europe and the New World.

The refining of methods during the Medieval and Post Medieval periods led to the invention of the cupel which resembles a small egg cup, made of ceramic or bone ash which was used to separate base metals from noble metals. This process is known as cupellation. Cupellation started long before the Post Medieval period, however the first vessels made to carry out this process started in the 16th Century (Rehren 2003: p208). Another vessel used for the same process is a scorifier which is similar to a cupel but slightly larger and removes the lead and leaves the noble metals behind. Cupels and scorifiers were mass produced as after each reduction the vessels would have absorbed all of the lead and become fully saturated. These vessels were also used in the process of assaying where the noble metals are removed from a coin or a weight of metal to determine the amount of the noble metals within the object.

Modern day crucibles uses

Laboratory crucibles

A crucible is a cup-shaped piece of laboratory equipment used to contain chemical compounds when heated to extremely high temperatures. Crucibles are available in several sizes and typically come with a correspondingly-sized crucible cover (or lid).

Crucible materials and description

Crucibles and their covers are made of high temperature-resistant materials, usually porcelain or an inert metal. One of the earliest uses of platinum was to make crucibles. Ceramics such as alumina, zirconia, and especially magnesia will tolerate the highest temperatures. More recently, metals such as nickel and zirconium have been used. The lids are typically loose-fitting to allow gases to escape during heating of a sample inside. Crucibles and their lids can come in ''high form'' and ''low form'' shapes and in various sizes, but rather small 10–15 ml size porcelain crucibles are commonly used for gravimetric chemical analysis. These small size crucibles and their covers made of porcelain are quite cheap when sold in quantity to laboratories, and the crucibles are sometimes disposed of after use in precise quantitative chemical analysis. There is usually a large mark-up when they are sold individually in hobby shops.

Use in chemical analysis

In the area of chemical analysis, crucibles are used in quantitative gravimetric chemical analysis (analysis by measuring mass of an analyte or its derivative). Common crucible use may be as follows. A residue or precipitate in a chemical analysis method can be collected or filtered from some sample or solution on special "ashless" filter paper. The crucible and lid to be used are pre-weighed very accurately on an analytical balance. After some possible washing and/or pre-drying of this filtrate, the residue on the filter paper can be placed in the crucible and fired (heated at very high temperature) until all the volatiles and moisture are driven out of the sample residue in the crucible. The "ashless" filter paper is completely burned up in this process. The crucible with the sample and lid is allowed to cool in a desiccator. The crucible and lid with the sample inside is weighed very accurately again only after it has completely cooled to room temperature (higher temperature would cause air currents around the balance giving inaccurate results). The mass of the empty, pre-weighed crucible and lid is subtracted from this result to yield the mass of the completely dried residue in the crucible.

A crucible with a bottom perforated with small holes which is designed specifically for use in filtration, especially for gravimetric analysis as just described, is called a Gooch crucible after its inventor, Frank Austen Gooch.

For completely accurate results, the crucible is handled with clean tongs because fingerprints can add weighable mass to the crucible. Porcelain crucibles are hygroscopic, i. e. they absorb a bit of weighable moisture from the air. For this reason, the porcelain crucible and lid is also pre-fired (pre-heating to high temperature) to constant mass before the pre-weighing. This determines the mass of the completely dry crucible and lid. At least two firings, coolings, and weighings resulting in exactly the same mass are needed to confirm constant (completely dry) mass of the crucible and lid and similarly again for the crucible, lid, and sample residue inside. Since the mass of every crucible and lid is different, the pre-firing/pre-weighing must be done for every new crucible/lid used. The desiccator contains desiccant to absorb moisture from the air inside, so the air inside will be completely dry.

Use in ash content determination

Ash is the completely unburnable inorganic salts in a sample. A crucible can be similarly used to determine the percentage of ash contained in an otherwise burnable sample of material such as coal, wood, or oil. A crucible and its lid are pre-weighed at constant mass as described above. The sample is added to the completely dry crucible and lid and together they are weighed to determine the mass of the sample by difference.

See also

Hessian crucible

Micro-Pulling-Down

References

Craddock P., 1995, ''Early Metal Mining and Production'', Edinburgh University Press Ltd, Edinburgh

Hauptmann A., 2003, ''Developments in copper Metallurgy During the Fourth and Third Millennia B.C. at Feinan'', Jordan, P. Craddock & J. Lang, Eds, Mining and Metal Production Through the Ages, British Museum Press, London, pp90–100

Hauptmann A., T. Rehren & Schmitt-Strecker S., 2003, ''Early Bronze Age copper metallurgy at Shahr-i Sokhta (Iran)'', reconsidered, T. Stollner, G. Korlin, G. Steffens & J. Cierny, Eds., Man and mining, studies in honour of Gerd Weisgerber on occasion of his 65th birthday, Deutsches Bergbau Museum, Bochum

Martinon-Torres M. & Rehren Th., 2009, ''Post Medieval crucible Production and Distribution: A Study of Materials and Materialities'', Archaeometry Vol.51 No.1 pp49–74

O. Faolain S., 2004, ''Bronze Artefact Production in Late Bronze Age Ireland'': A Survey, British Archaeological Report, British Series 382, Archaeopress, Oxford

Rehren, Th. and Papakhristu, O., 2000, ''Cutting Edge Technology – The Ferghana Process of Medieval crucible steel Smelting'', Metalla, Bochum, 7(2) pp55–69

Rehren T. & Thornton C. P, 2009, ''A truly refractory crucible from fourth millennium Tepe Hissar, Northeast Iran'', Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 36, pp2700–2712

Rehren Th., 1999, ''Small Size, Large Scale Roman brass Production in Germania Inferior'', Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 26, pp 1083–1087

Rehren Th., 2003, C''rucibles as Reaction Vessels in Ancient Metallurgy'', Ed in P. Craddock & J. Lang, Mining and Metal Production Through the Ages, British Museum Press, London pp207–215

Roberts B. W., Thornton C. P. & Pigott V. C., 2009, ''Development of Metallurgy in Eurasia'', Antiquity Vol. 83 pp 1012–1022

Scheel B., 1989, ''Egyptian Metalworking and Tools'', Shire Egyptology, Bucks

Vavelidis M. & Andreou S., 2003, ''Gold and Gold working in Later Bronze Age Northern Greece'', Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 95, pp 361–366

Zwicker U., Greiner H., Hofmann K. & Reithinger M., 1985, ''Smelting, Refining and Alloying of copper and copper Alloys in Crucible Furnaces During Prehistoric up to Roman Times'', P. Craddock & M. Hughes, Furnaces and smelting Technology in Antiquity, British Museum, London

Category:Laboratory equipment Category:Alchemical tools Category:Laboratory porcelainware Category:Analytical chemistry

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Coordinates	39°46′5.88″N86°9′29.52″N
name	Arthur Miller
nationality	American
birth date	October 17, 1915
birth place	Harlem, New York City, New York
death date	February 10, 2005
death place	Roxbury, Connecticut, USA
occupation	Playwright, essayist
Alma mater	University of Michigan
notableworks	''Death of a Salesman''''The Crucible''''A View from the Bridge''
awards	Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1949)Kennedy Center Honors (1984)
spouse	Mary Slattery (1940–56)Marilyn Monroe (1956–61)Inge Morath (1962–2002)
relatives	Joan Copeland (sister)Kermit Miller (brother)Rebecca Miller (daughter)Daniel Miller (son)Daniel Day-Lewis (son-in-law)
signature	Arthur Miller signature.svg }}

Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as ''All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' (1949), ''The Crucible'' (1953), and ''A View from the Bridge'' (one-act, 1955; revised two-act, 1956).

Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, a period during which he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was married to Marilyn Monroe.

Biography

Early life

Arthur Asher Miller was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, New York City, the second of three children of Isidore and Augusta Miller, Polish-Jewish immigrants. His father, a mostly illiterate but moderately wealthy businessman, owned a women's clothing store employing 400 people. The family, including his younger sister Joan, lived on East 110th Street in Manhattan and owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens. They employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. As a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition.

At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked as a reporter and night editor for the student paper, the ''Michigan Daily''. It was during this time that he wrote his first play, ''No Villain''. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for ''No Villain.'' The award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Miller enrolled in a playwriting seminar taught by the influential Professor Kenneth Rowe, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting; Rowe emphasized how a play is built in order to achieve its intended effect, or what Miller called "the dynamics of play construction". Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the university's Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. In 1937, Miller wrote ''Honors at Dawn,'' which also received the Avery Hopwood Award.

In 1938, Miller received a BA in English. After graduation, he joined the Federal Theater Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theater. He chose the theater project although he had an offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939. Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS.

On August 5, 1940, he married his college sweetheart, Mary Slattery, the Catholic daughter of an insurance salesman. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert. Miller was exempted from military service during World War II because of a high-school football injury to his left kneecap. Robert, a writer and film director, produced the 1996 movie version of ''The Crucible''.

Early career

In 1940 Miller wrote ''The Man Who Had All the Luck,'' which was produced in New Jersey in 1940 and won the Theatre Guild's National Award. The play closed after four performances and disastrous reviews. In his book ''Trinity of Passion'', author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was ''"a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946"'', using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine ''The New Masses''. In 1946 Miller's play ''All My Sons'', the writing of which had commenced in 1941, was a success on Broadway (earning him his first Tony Award, for Best Author) and his reputation as a playwright was established.

In 1948 Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut. There, in less than a day, he wrote Act I of ''Death of a Salesman''. Within six weeks, he completed the rest of the play, one of the classics of world theater. ''Death of a Salesman'' premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949 at the Morosco Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff, and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, winning a Tony Award for Best Author, the New York Drama Circle Critics' Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed 742 times.

In 1952, Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC); fearful of being blacklisted from Hollywood, Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, Joe Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts to research the witch trials of 1692. ''The Crucible'', in which Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692, opened at the Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its initial release, today ''The Crucible'' is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world and was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1962. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended, and they did not speak to each other for the next ten years. The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after ''The Crucible'' opened, denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. Kazan defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss.

Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s he became very interested in the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case, in which Gibbons' son Peter Reilly was convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. ''City Confidential'', an A&E; Network program about the murder, postulated that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-in with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.

1956–1964

In 1956, a one-act version of Miller's verse drama ''A View from the Bridge'' opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller's lesser-known plays, ''A Memory of Two Mondays''. The following year, Miller revised ''A View from the Bridge'' as a two-act prose drama, which Peter Brook directed in London.

In June 1956, Miller left his first wife Mary Slattery and on June 25 he married Marilyn Monroe. Miller and Monroe had met in April 1951, when they had a brief affair, and had remained in contact since then.

When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the HUAC used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman agreed.

When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a $500 fine or thirty days in prison, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.

Miller began work on ''The Misfits'', starring his wife. Miller later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life; shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, the pair divorced. 19 months later, Monroe died of an apparent drug overdose.

Miller married photographer Inge Morath on February 17, 1962 and the first of their two children, Rebecca, was born that September. Their son Daniel was born with Down syndrome in November 1966; he was institutionalized and excluded from the Millers' personal life at Arthur's insistence. The couple remained together until Inge's death in 2002. Arthur Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Arthur Miller to reunite with his adult son.

Later career

In 1964 Miller's next play was produced. ''After the Fall'' is a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. The play reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. ''After the Fall'' opened on January 23, 1964 at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. That same year, Miller produced ''Incident at Vichy''. In 1965, Miller was elected the first American president of International PEN, a position which he held for four years. During this period Miller wrote the penetrating family drama, ''The Price'', produced in 1968. It was Miller's most successful play since ''Death of a Salesman.''

In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as ''Fame'' and ''The Reason Why'', and traveling with his wife, producing ''In The Country'' and ''Chinese Encounters'' with her. Both his 1972 comedy ''The Creation of the World and Other Business'' and its musical adaptation, ''Up from Paradise'', were critical and commercial failures.

Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his ''Theater Essays'', edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his ''Collected Plays'', his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the ''Chicago Tribune,'' Studs Terkel remarked, "in reading [the ''Theater Essays'']...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."

In 1983, Miller traveled to the People's Republic of China to produce and direct ''Death of a Salesman'' at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. The play was a success in China and in 1984, ''Salesman in Beijing,'' a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, ''Death of a Salesman'' was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work, ''Timebends'', was published. Before it was published, it was well-known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in ''Timebends'' Miller talks about his experiences with Monroe in detail. During the early 1990s Miller wrote three new plays, ''The Ride Down Mt. Morgan'' (1991), ''The Last Yankee'' (1992), and ''Broken Glass'' (1994). In 1996, a film of ''The Crucible'' starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay to the film. ''Mr. Peters' Connections'' was staged Off-Broadway in 1998, and ''Death of a Salesman'' was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The play, once again, was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.

In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected Miller for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Miller's lecture was entitled "On Politics and the Art of Acting." Miller's lecture analyzed political events (including the recent U.S. presidential election of 2000) in terms of the "arts of performance", and it drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace", and George Will, who argued that Miller was not legitimately a "scholar".

In 1999 Miller was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” On May 1, 2002, Miller was awarded Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.

In December 2004, the 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises, having consistently opposed the relationship. Miller's final play, ''Finishing the Picture'', opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. Miller said that the work was based on the experience of filming ''The Misfits''.

When interviewed by BBC4 for The Atheism Tapes, he stated that he had been an atheist since his teens.

Miller died of heart failure after a battle against cancer, pneumonia and congestive heart disease at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of ''Death of a Salesman''), aged 89, surrounded by Barley, family and friends.

Legacy

Miller's career as a writer spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, Miller was considered to be one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to Miller, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect. Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March, 2007. Per his express wish, it is the only theatre in the world that bears Miller's name.

Christopher Bigsby wrote ''Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography'' based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".

Miller's papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

Works

Stage plays

''No Villain'' (1936)

''They Too Arise'' (1937, based on ''No Villain'')

''Honors at Dawn'' (1938, based on ''They Too Arise'')

''The Grass Still Grows'' (1938, based on ''They Too Arise'')

''The Great Disobedience'' (1938)

''Listen My Children'' (1939, with Norman Rosten)

''The Golden Years'' (1940)

''The Man Who Had All the Luck'' (1940)

''The Half-Bridge'' (1943)

''All My Sons'' (1947)

''Death of a Salesman'' (1949)

''An Enemy of the People'' (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen's play ''An Enemy of the People'')

''The Crucible'' (1953)

''A View from the Bridge'' (1955)

''A Memory of Two Mondays'' (1955)

''After the Fall'' (1964)

''Incident at Vichy'' (1964)

''The Price'' (1968)

''The Reason Why'' (1970)

''Fame'' (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)

''The Creation of the World and Other Business'' (1972)

''The Archbishop's Ceiling'' (1977)

''The American Clock'' (1980)

''Playing for Time'' (television play, 1980)

''Elegy for a Lady'' (short play, 1982, first part of ''Two Way Mirror'')

''Some Kind of Love Story'' (short play, 1982, second part of ''Two Way Mirror'')

''I Think About You a Great Deal'' (1986)

''Playing for Time'' (stage version, 1985)

''I Can’t Remember Anything'' (1987, collected in ''Danger: Memory!'')

''Clara'' (1987, collected in ''Danger: Memory!'')

''The Last Yankee'' (1991)

''The Ride Down Mt. Morgan'' (1991)

''Broken Glass'' (1994)

''Mr Peter’s Connections'' (1998)

''Resurrection Blues'' (2002)

''Finishing the Picture'' (2004)

Non-fiction

''Situation Normal'' (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.

''In Russia'' (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.

''In the Country'' (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut and profiles of his various neighbors.

''Chinese Encounters'' (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists as they try to regain the sense of freedom and place they lost during Mao Zedong's regime.

''Salesman in Beijing'' (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of ''Death of a Salesman''. He describes the idiosyncrasies, understandings, and insights encountered in directing a Chinese cast in a decidedly American play.

''Timebends: A Life'', Methuen London (1987) ISBN 0413414809. Like ''Death of a Salesman'', the book follows the structure of memory itself, each passage linked to and triggered by the one before.

Radio plays

''The Pussycat and the Plumber Who Was a Man'' (1941)

''William Ireland’s Confession'' (1941)

''Joel Chandler Harris'' (1941)

''Captain Paul'' (1941)

''The Battle of the Ovens'' (1942)

''Thunder from the Mountains'' (1942)

''I Was Married in Bataan'' (1942)

''Toward a Farther Star'' (1942)

''The Eagle’s Nest'' (1942)

''The Four Freedoms'' (1942)

''That They May Win'' (1943)

''Listen for the Sound of Wings'' (1943)

''Bernardine'' (1944)

''I Love You'' (1944)

''Grandpa and the Statue'' (1944)

''The Philippines Never Surrendered'' (1944)

''The Guardsman'' (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár’s play)

''The Story of Gus'' (1947)

Assorted fiction

''Focus'' (novel, 1945)

"The Misfits" (short story, 1957)

''I Don’t Need You Anymore'' (short stories, 1967)

"Homely Girl" (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)

"The Performance" (short story)

''Presence: Stories'' (short stories, 2007)

Screenplays

''All My Sons'' (1947)

''The Hook'' (1947)

''The Misfits'' (1961)

''Everybody Wins'' (1984)

''Death of a Salesman'' (1985)

''The Crucible'' (1995)

Collections

Kushner, Tony, ed. ''Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961'' (Library of America, 2006) ISBN 978-1-93108291-4.

Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978 ISBN 0140049037.

Steven R Centola, ed. ''Echoes Down the Corridor: Arthur Miller, Collected Essays 1944–2000'', Viking Penguin (US)/Methuen (UK), 2000 ISBN 0413756904

Biographies and critical studies of Miller

''File on Miller'', Christopher Bigsy (1988)

''Arthur Miller & Company'', Christopher Bigsby, editor (1990)

''Arthur Miller: A Critical Study'', Christopher Bigsby (2005)

''Remembering Arthur Miller'', Christopher Bigsby, editor (2005)

''Arthur Miller 1915–1962'', Christopher Bigsby (2008, U.K.; 2009, U.S.)

''The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller (Cambridge Companions to Literature)'', Christopher Bigsby, editor (1998, updated and republished 2010)

''Arthur Miller 1962–2005'', Christopher Bigsby (February 2011)

See also

Hollywood blacklist

International PEN

Notes

References

Bigsby, Christopher (ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller'', Cambridge 1997 ISBN 0521559928

Fisher, James, "Miller In An Hour," introduction by Robert Brustein, Hanover, NH: Smith and Kraus, 2009.

Martin Gottfried, ''Arthur Miller, A Life'', Da Capo Press (US)/Faber and Faber (UK), 2003 ISBN 0571219462

Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978.

Moss, Leonard. ''Arthur Miller'', Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.

External links

Arthur Miller Society, including a chronology

A Visit With Castro – Miller's article in ''The Nation'', January 12, 2004

Joyce Carol Oates on Arthur Miller

;Interviews

Miller interview, ''Humanities'', March–April 2001

;Obituaries

''New York Times'' Obituary

NPR Obituary

CNN Obituary

Category:American atheists Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:Jewish atheists Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:Writers from Connecticut Category:Writers from New York City Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Olivier Award winners Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Category:Tony Award winners Category:Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn, New York) alumni Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Connecticut Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:International PEN Category:Marilyn Monroe Category:People from New York City Category:1915 births Category:2005 deaths Category:Postmodern writers Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights

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Coordinates	39°46′5.88″N86°9′29.52″N
Name	Samuel West
Birth name	Samuel Alexander Joseph West
Birth date	June 19, 1966
Birth place	Hammersmith, London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	English
Occupation	Actor and theatre director
Parents	Timothy WestPrunella Scales
Footnotes	}}

Samuel Alexander Joseph West (born 19 June 1966) is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in ''Howards End'' and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ''ENRON''. His parents are well-known television and theatre actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales.

Early Life and Education

West is the son of actors Prunella Scales and Timothy West, and the grandson of the late actor Lockwood West. He was educated at Alleyn's School, a co-educational independent school in Dulwich, London, and at Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford, where he studied English Literature.

Career

West has worked as an actor in a variety of dramatic media including: theatre, film, television and radio. As well as being an actor West has also forged a career as a theatre director.

Stage

West made his London stage debut in February 1989 at the Orange Tree Theatre, playing Michael in Cocteau's ''Les Parents terribles'', of which critic John Thaxter wrote: "He invests the role with a warmth and validity that silences sniggers that could so easily greet a lesser performance of this difficult role, and he lets us share the tumbling emotions of a juvenile torn between romantic first love and filial duty." (Richmond & Twickenham Times, 10 February 1989). Since then, West has appeared frequently on stage and has worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking the title roles in ''Richard II'' and ''Hamlet'' both directed by Steven Pimlott.

In 2002, West made his stage directorial debut with ''The Lady's Not for Burning'' at the Minerva Theatre. He was appointed artistic director of Sheffield Theatres - succeeding Michael Grandage - in 2005. During his time as artistic director West revived the controversial ''The Romans in Britain'' and also directed ''As You Like It'' as part of the RSC's Complete Works Festival. Following his resignation in December 2006 from his role as artistic director, West marked his West End directorial debut with the first major revival of Dealer's Choice following its transferral to the Trafalgar Studios. He has also continued his acting career: in 2007 he appeared alongside Toby Stephens and Dervla Kirwan in ''Betrayal'' at the Donmar Warehouse, while in November 2008 he starred in the Donmar revival of T. S. Eliot's ''The Family Reunion''.

Film

West's acting career is not restricted to one medium; he combines stage work with film, television and radio. In 1991, he played the lower-middle-class clerk Leonard Bast in the Merchant Ivory film adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel ''Howards End'' (released 1992) opposite Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter and Anthony Hopkins. For this role, he was nominated for best supporting actor at the 1993 BAFTA Film Awards. His film career has continued with roles in a number of well known films, such as: ''Jane Eyre'', ''Notting Hill'', ''Iris'' and ''Van Helsing''. In 2004, he appeared in the year's highest rated mini-series on German television, "Die Nibelungen", which was released in the USA in 2006 as ''Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King'' (also known as Ring of the Nibelungs, Curse of the Ring, and Sword of Xanten).

Television

He is a familiar face on television appearing in many long running series: ''Midsomer Murders'', ''Waking the Dead'' and ''The Inspector Lynley Mysteries'' as well as one off dramas. He played Anthony Blunt in ''Cambridge Spies'' a BBC production about four British spies, starring alongside Toby Stephens (Philby), Tom Hollander (Burgess) and Rupert Penry-Jones (Maclean). November 2006 saw him take the lead role in BBC Television production of ''Random Quest'' adapted from the short story by John Wyndham.

West is much sought-after as a narrator of television documentaries, including the acclaimed series ''The Nazis: A Warning from History'' and ''The Planets''. He often appears as narrator with orchestras (see below) and performed at the Last Night of the Proms in 2002. On radio, West has voiced a range of programmes from one-off dramas and serials to recitations of poetry. In 2006, he narrated the BBC Radio 4 production ''A Passage to India''.

West has appeared alongside his actor parents on several occasions; with his mother Prunella Scales in ''Howards End'' and ''Stiff Upper Lips'', and with his father Timothy West on stage in ''A Number'', ''Henry IV Part I'' and ''Part II''. In two films - ''Iris'' (2001) and the 1996 television film ''Over Here'', Sam and his father have played the same character at different ages. In 2006, all three gave a rehearsed reading of the Harold Pinter play ''Family Voices'' as part of the Sheffield Theatres Pinter season.

Personal life

As a choral singer, West participated in the May 2006 Choir of London tour to Jerusalem and the West Bank, where he also gave poetry readings as part of the concert programme. In April 2007, he again joined the Choir of London in their tour of Palestine, directing ''The Magic Flute''. West became the patron of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus in February 2008, having been the narrator for a concert of theirs in February 2002. He is also a patron of London children's charity Scene & Heard, Eastside Educational Trust and Mousetrap Theatre projects.

While at university, West was a member of the Socialist Workers Party and later briefly the Socialist Alliance; West has been politically active for many years and was a strong critic of Tony Blair's New Labour government.

Between 2007 and 2010, he lived with playwright Laura Wade.

Filmography

''Reunion'' (1989) - Count Konradin von Lohenburg

''Howards End'' (1991, released 1992) - Leonard Bast

''Archipel'' (in French) (1993) - Alan Stewart

''A Feast at Midnight'' (1994) - Chef

''Open Fire'' (1994) - Steven Waldorf

''Carrington'' (1995) - Gerald Brenan

''Persuasion'' (1995) - Mr. Elliot

''Jane Eyre'' (1996) - St. John Rivers

''Stiff Upper Lips'' (1998) - Edward

''Rupert's Land'' (1998) - Rupert McKay

''The Dance of Shiva'' (1998 short) - Lt. Davis

''Notting Hill'' (1999) - Anna's Co-Star (as Sam West)

''Runt'' (1999 short) - Pork

''Bread and Roses'' (2000) - Samuel West - Party Guest (cameo)

''Complicity'' (2000) - Neil

''Bring Me Your Love'' (2000 short) - Doctor Jensen

''Pandaemonium'' (2000) - Robert Southey

''Iris'' (2001) - Young Maurice (as Sam West)

''Shrink'' (2002 short) - George

''101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure'' (2003) - Pongo (voice)

''Van Helsing'' (2004) - Dr. Victor Frankenstein

''Schweitzer'' (2009) - Phil Figgis

Television

''Edward the Seventh'' (1974) - Albert Victor 'Eddy' - Aged 8

''Nanny''

*"Goats and Tigers" (1981) - James Lamerton

''Frankie and Johnnie'' (1985) - Johnnie Mallett

''Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' (1989) - King Caspian

''Stanley and the Women'' (1991) - Stephen Duke

''Voices in the Garden'' (1993) - Mark

''Inspector Alleyn Mysteries''

*"Death in a White Tie" (1993) - Donald Potter

''The Maitlands'' (1993) - Jack Maitland

''Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time'' (1993) - Cyrian (as Sam West)

''As Time Goes By

*"We'll Always Have Paris" (1994) - Terry (as Sam West)

''A Breed of Heroes'' (1994) - Lt. Charles Thoroughgood

''The Vacillations of Poppy Carew'' (1995) - Victor

''Zoya'' (1995) - Nicolai (as Sam West)

''Heavy Weather'' (1995) - 'Monty' Bodkin

''Strangers''

*"Costumes" (1996) - Simon

''Over Here'' (1996) - Archie Bunting

''The Ripper'' (1997) - Prince Albert Victor Edward

''Battle of the Sexes: in the Animal World'' (1999) - Narrator

''Hornblower''

*"The Frogs and the Lobsters" (1999) - Major Edrington

''The Planets'' (1999) - Narrator

''Longitude'' (2000) - Nevil Maskelyne

''Waking the Dead''

*"Life Sentence" (2002) - Thomas Rice

''Akhenaten and Nefertiti'' (2002) - Narrator

''Cambridge Spies'' (2003) - Anthony Blunt

''Entertaining Mr. Soane'' (2003) - Wightwick

''Foyle's War''

*"The French Drop" (2004) - Lt Col James Wintringham

''Curse of the Ring'' (2004) - King Gunther

''E=mc²'' (2005) - Humphry Davy (as Sam West)

''The Inspector Lynley Mysteries''

*"Chinese Walls" (2006) - Tony Wainwright

''Random Quest'' (2006) - Colin Trafford

''Midsomer Murders''

*"The Animal Within" (2007) - Jeremy Thacker

''The Long Walk To Finchley'' (2008) - Ted Heath

''New Tricks''

*"Fresh Starts" (2009) - David Fleeting

''Desperate Romantics'' (2009) - Lord Rosterley

''Garrow's Law'' (2010) - Thomas Erskine

''Any Human Heart'' (2010) - Peter Scabius

''Agatha Christie's Poirot - Murder on the Orient Express'' (2010) - Doctor Constantine

''Law & Order: UK'' (2011) - Lucas Boyd

He has also narrated five BBC documentary series for the producer Laurence Rees:

''The Nazis: A Warning from History'' 1997

''War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin'' 1999

''Horror in the East'' 2001

''Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution'' 2005

''World War II: Behind Closed Doors'' 2008

Theatre credits

Acting

''The Browning Version'' - directed by Clive Perry, (Birmingham Repertory Theatre)

''Les Parents terribles'': Michael (February 1989) - directed by Derek Goldby, (Orange Tree Theatre)

''The Bread-Winner'' (1989) - directed by Kevin Billington, (Theatre Royal, Windsor and touring)

''A Life in the Theatre'' (October 1989-February 1990) - directed by Bill Bryden, (Theatre Royal Haymarket, transferred to Strand Theatre)

''Hidden Laughter'': Nigel (June 1990) - directed by Simon Gray, (Vaudeville Theatre)

''The Sea'': Willy Carson (1991) - directed by Sam Mendes, (Royal National Theatre)

''Cain'' (1992) - directed by Edward Hall (Minerva Theatre)

''Mr. Cinders'' A Musical Comedy: Jim Lancaster (December 1992-February 1993) - directed by Martin Connor (The King's Head Theatre)

''Arcadia'': Valentine (April–November 1993) - directed by Trevor Nunn, (Royal National Theatre)

''The Importance of Being Earnest'': Algernon - directed by James Maxwell, (Royal Exchange Theatre)

''Henry IV Part I'' and Part II: Hal (1996–1997) - directed by Stephen Unwin (English Touring Theatre)

''Journey's End'': Captain Stanhope (January–February 1998) - directed by David Evans-Rees (The King's Head Theatre)

''Antony and Cleopatra'': Octavius Caesar (1998) - directed by Sean Mathias, (Royal National Theatre)

''Richard II'': Richard II (2000) - directed by Steven Pimlott, (RSC)

''Hamlet'': Hamlet (2001) - directed by Steven Pimlott, (RSC)

''The Master and Margarita'': The Master (2004) - directed by Steven Pimlott, (Chichester Festival Theatre)

''Doctor Faustus'': Faustus (2004) - directed by Steven Pimlott, Martin Duncan and Edward Kemp, (Minerva Theatre)

''Much Ado About Nothing'': Benedick (2005) - directed by Josie Rourke, (Crucible Theatre)

''The Exonerated'': Kerry Max Cook (2006) - directed by Bob Balaban, (Riverside Studios)

''A Number'': B1/B2/Michael Black (2006) - directed by Jonathan Munby, (Studio Theatre (Sheffield) and Minerva Theatre)

''Betrayal'': Robert (2007) - directed by Roger Michell, (Donmar Warehouse)

''Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?'': Guy (2008) - directed by James McDonald, (Public Theater, New York)

''The Family Reunion'': Harry (2008) - directed by Jeremy Herrin, (Donmar Warehouse)

''ENRON'': Jeffrey Skilling (2009) - directed by Rupert Goold, (Minerva Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Noel Coward Theatre)

''A Number'' (revival): B1/B2/Michael Black (2010) - directed by Jonathan Munby, (Menier Chocolate Factory)

''Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer'': Man (2010) - directed by Sarah Giles (Australian Chamber Orchestra - on tour and at the Sydney Opera House)

Directing

''The Lady's Not for Burning'' (2002), Minerva Theatre

''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' (2003), Bristol Old Vic

''Cosi Fan Tutte'' (2003), English National Opera at Barbican Theatre

''Three Women and a Piano Tuner'' (2004), Minerva Theatre and Hampstead Theatre (2005)

''Insignificance'' (2005), Lyceum Theatre (Sheffield)

''The Romans in Britain'' (2006), Crucible Theatre

''The Clean House'' (2006), Studio Theatre (Sheffield)

''As You Like It'' (2007), Crucible Theatre and Swan Theatre (Stratford)

''Dealer's Choice'' (2007), Menier Chocolate Factory and Trafalgar Studios

''Waste'' (2008), Almeida Theatre

Audiobooks and narration

West has recorded over fifty audiobooks, among which are the Shakespeare plays ''All's Well that Ends Well'', ''Coriolanus'', ''Henry V'', ''The Merchant of Venice'', ''Much Ado about Nothing'' and ''Richard II'', the Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholson (''The Wind Singer'', ''Slaves of the Mastery'' and ''Firesong''), the Arthur trilogy by Kevin Crossley-Holland (''The Seeing Stone'', ''At the Crossing Places'' and'' King of the Middle March''), four books by Sebastian Faulks (''Charlotte Gray'', ''Birdsong'', ''The Girl at the Lion d'Or'' and ''Human Traces''), four by Michael Ridpath (''Trading Reality'', ''Final Venture'', ''Free to Trade'', and ''The Marketmaker''), two by George Orwell (''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' and ''Homage to Catalonia''), two by Mary Wesley (''An Imaginative Experience'' and ''Part of the Furniture''), two by Robert Goddard (''Closed Circle'' and ''In Pale Battalions'') and several compilations of poetry (''Realms of Gold: Letters and Poems of John Keats'', ''Bright Star'', ''The Collected Works of Shelley'', ''Seven Ages'' and ''Great Narrative Poems of the Romantic Age''). Also ''Bomber'', ''Doctor Who: The Vengeance of Morbius'', ''Empire of the Sun'', ''Brighton Rock'', ''Fair Stood the Wind for France'', ''Fluke'', ''Great Speeches in History'', ''How Proust Can Change Your Life'', ''Lady Windermere's Fan'', ''Peter Pan'', ''The Alchemist'', ''The Day of the Triffids'', ''The Hairy Hands'', ''The Lives of Christopher Chant'', ''The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous'', ''The Queen's Man'', ''The Solitaire Mystery'', ''The Swimming Pool Library'', ''The Two Destinies'', ''The Velveteen Rabbit'', ''The Way I Found Her'', ''The Way to Dusty Death'', ''The Woodlanders'', ''Under the Net'' and ''Wuthering Heights''. He has narrated many history programmes for the BBC, including most of the documentaries produced, written, and directed by World War II historian Laurence Rees: ''The Nazis: A Warning from History'' (1997), ''War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin'' (1999), ''Horror in the East'' (2000), ''Battle for the Atlantic'' (2002), ''Auschwitz: The Nazis and the “Final Solution” (2005), and ''World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis, and the West'' (2008).

As a reciter West has worked with all the major British orchestras, as well as the Strasbourg Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC. Works include Stravinsky's ''Oedipus Rex'' and ''The Soldier's Tale'', Prokofiev’s ''Eugene Onegin'', Beethoven's ''Egmont'', Schoenburg's ''Ode To Napoleon'', Saint-Saëns’ ''Carnival of the Animals'', Bernstein's ''Kaddish'', Walton's ''Façade'' and ''Henry V'', ''Night Mail'' and ''The Way to the Sea'' by Britten and Auden and the world premieres of ''Concrete'' by Judith Weir at the Barbican and Howard Goodall’s ''Jason and the Argonauts'' at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2007 West made his New York recital debut in the first performance of ''Little Red Violin'' by Anne Dudley and Steven Isserlis. He performed the suite version of ''Henry V'' at the 2002 Last Night of the Proms.

He has also appeared with The Nash Ensemble, The Raphael Ensemble, Ensemble 360° and The Lindsay, Dante and Endellion Quartets at the Wigmore Hall, London. Recordings include ''Eugene Onegin'' with Sinfonia 21 and Edward Downes, ''Salad Days'' and Walton's ''Henry V'' with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Leonard Slatkin.

In November 2010, West narrated in a performance of Grieg's complete incidental music to Ibsen’s play ''Peer Gynt'', using a new English translation. The concert was in Southampton Guildhall with Southampton Philharmonic Choir.

Awards and nominations

As actor

1993 - Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Howards End''

1999 - Nominated Genie Award for Best Actor for ''Rupert's Land''

2001 - Won London Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for ''Hamlet''

2001 - Won Whatsonstage Theatregoers' Choice Award Best Actor for ''Hamlet''

2008 - Nominated Whatsonstage Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Ensemble Performance for ''Betrayal''

2009 - Nominated TMA Award for Best Performance in a Play for ''ENRON''

2009 - Nominated Evening Standard Award Best Actor for ''ENRON''

2010 - Nominated Whatsonstage Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Actor for ''ENRON''

2010 - Nominated Olivier Award Best Actor for ''ENRON''

As reader

1999 - Won Talkie award for ''Charlotte Gray'' by Sebastian Faulks

2000 - Won Audie award for ''Realms of Gold: Letters and Poems of John Keats''

2001 - Won Spoken Word award (Silver) for ''The Seeing Stone'' by Kevin Crossley-Holland

2001 - Won Spoken Word award (Gold) for ''Birdsong'' by Sebastian Faulks

As director

2004 - Nominated Olivier Award for Best Opera Revival for ''Cosi Fan Tutte''

2008 - Nominated Olivier Award for Best Revival for ''Dealer's Choice''

2009 - Nominated Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Director for ''Waste'' and ''Dealer's Choice''

References

External links

Acting CV

Directing CV

Sheffield Theatres

Samuel West at spiffyjellybean

Category:1966 births Category:Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Category:English film actors Category:English radio actors Category:English socialists Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English theatre directors Category:Living people Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Socialist Workers Party (UK) members Category:People educated at Alleyn's School

de:Samuel West fr:Samuel West it:Samuel West he:סמואל וסט no:Samuel West ru:Уэст, Сэмюэл sv:Samuel West