ARTHUR MILLER
His plays earned world-wide acclaim, including a Pulitzer Prize. Arguably the greatest American playwright, at the very least he should be mentioned with Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill. He provided hope for literary geeks everywhere when he wrested Marilyn Monroe from Hall-of-Famer Joe Dimaggio and married her in 1956. Arthur Miller died at 89, and left a legacy of great plays and films.
His best-known work, a marvelous play and a great movie, is Death of a Salesman (1951). Willie Loman is the American salesman, his flawed nobility and earnest dedication to the work ethic are both appealing and appalling.  We see ourselves and others in him. There are many good versions around, but my favorite features Frederic March and Mildred Dunnock. Very powerful stuff indeed. There is a DVD of the Broadway revival with Dustin Hoffman that is also excellent. 
All My Sons (1948) is the wrenching story of an American businessman who turns out to be a war profiteer to the dismay of his family. Still riveting, it features Edward G. Robinson as the father with feet of clay and Burt Lancaster as the soldier-son discovering the tarnished truth. 
The remake of The Crucible (1996), with Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder and Joan Allen, is very good. But I prefer a 1956 French version with Simone Signoret and Yves Montand. It is the story of the Salem witchcraft trials, and a compelling commentary on McCarthyism and political hysteria in America. 
The Misfits (1961) was never a play. Mr. Miller’s screenplay is, well, interesting. . The film features three American icons: Marilyn Monroe (yes, he wrote this for her), Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. Monroe is a divorcee coping with a new life with the help of cowboy companions Clift and Gable. They track wild horses in the American west, and the parable is there if you’ll be patient. 
A View From The Bridge (1952) is a fairly satisfactory dressed-up soap opera in which everyone seems to be in love with the wrong person. It started out to be about labor unions, and somehow became something else entirely. Raf Vallone, Maureen Stapleton and Carol Lawrence do their best. The language is really nice; the story a bit mixed. 
Finally, Mr. Miller’s last film work was Everybody Wins (1990) and I’m sorry but it is a howling dog of a movie. What was he thinking?
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.