Background
Henry Miller was born on February 1, 1860, in London, England. He was the child of John Miller, a railroad contractor, and Sophia (Newton) Miller.
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Henry Miller
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The family moved to Toronto, Canada, before Henry was thirteen, and he was but fifteen when he attended, in Montreal, a performance of Romeo and Juliet which determined his career. There and then he decided to be an actor; by eighteen he was on the stage; within thirteen years thereafter he had become "leading man" in support of such established "stars" as Helena Modjeska, Adelaide Neilson, Clara Morris, Mme. Janauschek, and Dion Boucicault. He then received from the best players and directors in America a thorough training both in the older classical tradition and in the heavily emotional, or sentimental, drama then in vogue. It was, however, to Dion Boucicault that he looked back with the truest admiration and affection almost as pupil to master, regarding him as the great example of all around "man of the theatre" actor, manager, director, playwright. It can hardly be questioned that Boucicault's varied career was the immediate inspiration of his own. Henry Miller was a "man of the theatre" in the fullest and most honorable sense of that phrase; his love for the theatre was as deep as his knowledge of it was profound.
In 1899, at the Herald Square Theatre, the name "Henry Miller" appeared in electric lights as star of The Only Way, a drama extracted from A Tale of Two Cities, in which Miller's performance of the romantically tragic role of Sidney Carton was widely admired. The play ran for three years, in New York and on the road, and was followed by other, less impressive, stellar vehicles, such as D'Arcy of the Guards and Heartsease. Up to this point Miller's career, while successful, had followed conventional lines; but he was now, in his maturity, to prove that his love for the theatre (and, more specifically, for the American theatre) was a deeper thing than the normal stellar desire for continued personal popularity in "vehicles" specially manufactured for him and his too easily contented public. In the autumn of 1906, he entered upon his final phase as actor-manager and director, producing at the Princess Theatre the first prose play of an American poet, William Vaughn Moody's The Great Divide. Never was a play more happily named, for its production marked a new era in the history of the American stage. Leaving ultimate values out of the question, The Great Divide was an enormous advance artistically upon contemporary American play writing; it took insight and courage and taste to back and produce and direct it successfully; and if the American theatre owes much to William Vaughn Moody, it owes hardly less to his manager, director, and "star. " The amazing popularity of this play then considered so daringly unconventional firmly established Miller as actor-manager and made possible his excellent production of other dramas. In 1908, he dared greatly again, and brought forward Charles Rann Kennedy's symbolic drama The Servant in the House which made, at the time, a profound impression and scored an emphatic popular success, and in 1910, he produced Moody's far less successful, though possibly more valuable, second play, The Faith Healer. The production of The Great Divide, The Servant in the House, and The Faith Healer, form unquestionably the climax of Henry Miller's career. He made his first appearance in London in 1909, when he presented both The Great Divide and The Servant in the House. His last productions were made at the Henry Miller Theatre, designed and built under his personal supervision in 1918. His last illness, pneumonia, struck him down suddenly on the eve of a new production at this theatre; he rose from bed, hoping to play his part, but collapsed on reaching his dressing-room. Death followed within the week.
Achievements
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Miller's career falls naturally into three main divisions: his connection as leading man with the Empire Theatre Stock Company of New York, in the early nineties; his period of stardom; and, finally, the fulfillment of his life's ambitions as an actor-manager. As leading man of the Empire Theatre Stock Company, he first became nationally known as a forceful and finished actor, scoring one personal success after another in plays of such varying value as The Younger Son, Sowing the Wind, The Masqueraders, Sweet Lavendar, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Michael and His Lost Angel. The reputation thus gained could, in those days, when the individual "star" ruled the American stage, lead to but one result. He was to produce and appear in many another successful play The Rainbow, Daddy Longlegs, The Famous Mrs. Fair, The Changelings but he will be remembered longest and most justly and gratefully for his faith in and successful championship of The Great Divide.
Connections
On February 1, 1884, Miller married Helen (Stoepel) Miller. They had three children.
