Known for movies

Short Info

DiedJune 7, 1980, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, United States
SpouseHiroko Tokuda, Eve McClure, Janina Martha Lepska, June Miller, Beatrice Sylvas Wickens
FactDropped out of college and became a Western Union messenger.


Henry Miller was born in New York City on December 26, 1891. His father, Heinrich Miller, was a German-born tailor, and his mother, Louise Neiting Miller, was a German-American homemaker. Henry was the second of four children; his older sister, Anna, and younger brothers, Herman and Frederick, were all born in New York.

Henry’s early education took place at home; his father taught him to read and write, and his mother taught him arithmetic and basic cooking skills. At the age of eight, Henry began attending public school. He excelled in his studies and was soon promoted to the highest level of his class.

In 1903, Henry’s father died suddenly of a heart attack. The family struggled financially in the aftermath of his death, and Henry was forced to drop out of school to help support them. He took a job as a clerk in a local department store.

In 1910, Henry met and married his first wife, Beatrice Wickens. The couple had two children together: Henry Jr. and Vali.

In 1918, Henry was drafted into the army and served in World War I. After the war, he returned to New York and took a job as a salesman for a local book company. It was during this time that he began writing his first novel, Tropic of Cancer.

The novel was published in 1934 and immediately caused a sensation. It was banned in several countries and denounced by the Vatican. Despite the controversy, Tropic of Cancer was a critical and commercial success, and established Henry Miller as one of the most important writers of his generation.

In 1940, Henry divorced Beatrice and married his second wife, June Mansfield. The couple moved to California, where they remained for the rest of their lives.

Henry’s health began to decline in the late 1960s, and he died of heart failure on June 7, 1980, at the age of 88.

General Info

Full NameHenry Miller
DiedJune 7, 1980, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, United States
Weight136 kg
ProfessionAuthor, Painter, Novelist
EducationCity College of New York

Family

SpouseHiroko Tokuda, Eve McClure, Janina Martha Lepska, June Miller, Beatrice Sylvas Wickens
ChildrenValentine Miller, Barbara Miller, Anthony Miller
ParentsLouise Marie Neiting, Heinrich Miller

Accomplishments

MoviesWomen & Men 2, Quiet Days in Clichy, Tropic of Cancer, L' Entretien

Social profile links

Quotes

#Quote
1What I want is to halt evolution, to go backward down the path we have taken, back to the world before childhood, to regress, regress, regress, further and further, until we get to the place we have only lately left behind, where culture and civilization do not figure. It is time we start to think, to feel, to see the universe in a way that is uncultivated, primitive - but this is also without a doubt the most difficult thing in the world to do.
2It may be that my works are not literary. Call them whatever you like. I couldn't care less!
3To be born in the street means to wander all your life, to be free. It means accident and incident, drama, movement. It means above all dream. A harmony of irrelevant facts which gives to your wandering a metaphysical certitude.... What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say, literature.
4We need their paper boxes, their buttons, their synthetic furs, their rubber goods, their hosiery, their plastic this and that. We need the banker, his genius for taking our money and making himself rich. The insurance man, his policies, and his talk of security, of dividends - we need him too. Do we? I don't see that we need any of these vultures.
5"If you stop still and look at things....the world looks absolutely crazy to you. And it is crazy, by God! .... From the time you wake up until the moment you go to bed it's all a lie, all a sham and a swindle." -- "Sexus" (1949)
6"Everywhere the grim, monotonous walls loomed up; behind them lived families whose whole life centred about a job. Industrious, patient, ambitious slaves whose one aim was emancipation. In the interim putting up with anything; oblivious of discomfort, immune to ugliness. Heroic little souls whose very obsession to liberate themselves from the thraldom of work served only to magnify the squalor and the misery of their lives." -- "Sexus" (1949)
7Strange as it may seem today to say, the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." -- essay, "Creative Death
8Meaningful acts require no stir. When things are going to rack and ruin the most purposeful act may be to sit still." -- "The World Of Sex
9We (Americans) take to dope, the dope which is worse by far than opium or hashish - I mean the newspapers, the radio, the movies. Real dope gives you the freedom to dream your own dreams; the American kind forces you to swallow the perverted dreams of men whose only ambition is to hold their job regardless of what they are bidden to do.
10Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.
11I've known it all. Every humiliation, degradation, poverty, starvation
12Don't look for miracles. YOU are the miracle.

Facts

#Fact
1Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960.
2Once estimated he had read over nine thousand books, of which only fifty had given him something he thought was irreplaceable.
3Was cremated; his ashes were scattered off Big Sur, California.
4His book 'Tropic of Cancer' was published in the US 30 years after it was published in France.
5Dropped out of college and became a Western Union messenger.
6Parents were from Germany.
7Children with Lepska, Anthony and Valentine.

Movies

Writer

TitleYearStatusCharacter
L'entretien1995Short short story
Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules1991TV Movie story "Mara"
Jours tranquilles à Clichy1990novel "Quiet Days in Clichy"
Martin Held liest 'Das Lächeln am Fuße der Leiter'1988TV Movie
Capitali culturali d'Europa1983TV Series documentary text - 1 episode
Quiet Days in Clichy1970novel "Quiet Days in Clichy"
Tropic of Cancer1970novel
Quest1961TV Series short story - 1 episode

Actor

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Tropic of Cancer1970Spectator

Thanks

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers1980Documentary special thanks

Self

TitleYearStatusCharacter
The Origin of Sound2013Documentary post-productionHenry Miller (voice)
Reds1981Himself - Witness
Nur der Name bleibt... Henry Miller - Erkenntnisse und Bekenntnisse1980TV Short documentaryHimself
Henry Miller Asleep & Awake1975Documentary shortHimself
Anais Nin Observed1974DocumentaryHimself
Henry Miller, poète maudit1974TV Movie documentaryHimself
Knef '73 - Was sie sagt, was sie singt und wie man über sie spricht1973TV MovieHimself
Obszönität als Gesellschaftskritik?1970TV Movie documentaryHimself
The Henry Miller Odyssey1969DocumentaryHimself
Quest1961TV SeriesHimself

Archive Footage

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Emile Norman: By His Own Design2007TV Movie documentaryHimself
Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man2003DocumentaryHimself
Margret Dünser, auf der Suche nach den Besonderen1981TV Movie documentaryHimself

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia

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