Celebrating Martin Miller (1899-1969)

Today we celebrate the 125^th birthday of actor, director and writer Martin Miller. Born Johann Rudolf Müller on 2 September 1899 in Kroměříž in the Czech Republic (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Miller began acting in Vienna in 1921. He spent a decade as actor/director in small provincial towns, returning to Vienna in 1935, where he was part of the thriving anti-fascist political cabaret scene until 1938. 

After the Nazis annexed Austria in March 1938 Miller left Austria for Berlin, where he joined the Jüdisches Kulturbund [Jewish League of Culture]. Miller’s first performance in Benjamin wohin[1], a Yiddish tale of two travellers in the style of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, was very well received: ‘This was an excellent performance, heralding an actor who possessed not only ability and maturity, but also a heart and personality’.[2] During his six month-contract Miller starred in three plays before moving to London in March 1939.

Arriving in London just as the idea of an Austrian Centre was being discussed, Miller was welcomed with open arms. Directed by Miller Das Laterndl [The Little Lantern] opened in June 1939. For the next three years Miller was the mainstay of the exile theatre group, playing a leading part in all shows and directing most of them. Until 1942 most of the shows were in the style of Vienna’s anti-fascist political cabaret: a mix of sketches, poems, and songs. Miller also contributed a few sketches, his best known being a parody of a speech by Hitler. 

Miller was a gifted impressionist and as ‘Hitler’ he announced German territorial claims against the USA on the basis that Columbus’s discovery of America was only made possible by German technology. A revised version of the speech was broadcast on the BBC on 1 April 1940. Miller captured Hitler’s style of speaking so well that the American broadcaster CBS contacted the BBC to enquire how they had acquired this recording. 

To listen to a recording of this speech click here: https://exileresearchcentre.omeka.net/items/show/10

To read a transcript and translation, click here: https://exileresearchcentre.omeka.net/items/show/442

Following the German occupation of France in April 1940, fears of invasion led to many of the actors and a large part of the audience being interned, and the Laterndl had to close temporarily. Miller himself was lucky to escape internment: living in Putney, South London, and not having much money, Miller would walk all the way to Swiss Cottage in North London. As he had to leave very early in the morning to walk the seven miles, he had already set out when the police came for him.

From 1942 the Laterndl focused on plays, almost exclusively by Austrian authors who were either in exile or banned by the Nazis. Performances continued in German but there were always some British attendees who recognised the quality of the acting. In 1942 the celebrated actor Michael Redgrave, who had studied Modern Languages at Cambridge, saw Miller in Volpone, in an adaption by Stefan Zweig. Afterwards Redgrave wrote to Miller: ‘I wish all actors –especially all those who ever act in classical plays – could see your Volpone. The technical qualities took my breath away – most particularly the control and shaping of all your varied effects so that, while no “point” was ever lost none was overemphasised or allowed to interrupt the flow, or rather flight, of the whole’.[3]

That year Miller was also cast in his first big role on the English stage, as a larger-than-life Jewish patriarch in Clifford Odet’s Awake and Sing.  Miller and his stage wife Lilli Kann were clearly chosen because they were refugees and his accents were an asset to their roles. The play proved so popular that it ran beyond the usual three weeks, the first of many plays which Miller was involved in which exceeded their expected run. According to  his wife ‘People always said, “Oh, Martin is in it, good, then it’ll be a long run”’.[4] Miller’s reputation for being in long-running plays was cemented by his inclusion in the original cast of The Mousetrap in 1952; Miller played Dr Paravicini in over 1,000 performances.

Alongside his burgeoning stage career Miller regularly appeared on the BBC German Service. Juggling work at the BBC and on stage wasn’t always easy. Luckily he was based in Bush House, not far from the Strand Theatre where Miller featured in Arsenic and Old Lace from 1942 to 1946. And he would often rush over to the theatre, arriving just in time for his first appearance as Dr Einstein at the end of the first act.

More stage roles followed. Post-war theatre in London focused on light-hearted entertainment and comedy, but Miller was able to bring depth to every character he portrayed. He was often singled out by critics and the Daily Graphic summed up a review simply: ‘it [the play] was saved by a delightful comic performance by Martin Miller’.[5] Though he would have liked to play serious roles, he was typecast as a comic actor. According to his entry in the Who’s Who in the Theatre his favourite roles were Shylock and Caliban, and he regretted never having been able to play Shakespeare in England.[6]

Parallel to his success on the stage Miller was able to establish himself as a film actor. His first substantial film role was in Squadron Leader X (1943). He went on to act in over fifty films, including Exodus, The VIPs, and Peeping Tom. He was rarely out of work, with roles in theatre, film, and later television, including that of Kublai Khan in the very first series of Dr Who. According to an article in Aufbau commemorating his fiftieth birthday: ‘He seems to have had a much easier time establishing himself than his better-known colleagues, and his willingness to participate in all kinds of emigration charity events is limitless’.[7]

After the war Miller settled in London. He married fellow émigré actor Hannah Norbert in 1946 and in 1947 successfully applied for British citizenship. They had a son and lived in North London, alongside many other former refugees from Austria and Germany. Miller never returned to the stage in Austria but died filming on location in Austria in 1969. 

Further Reading

A Light in Dark Times: Das Laterndl, Austrian Exile Theatre in London 1939-1945 (online exhibition https://exileresearchcentre.omeka.net/exhibits/show/laterndltheatre/)

George, Clare, Cataloguing the Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Archive (blog [2012] featuring highlights of the Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Papers at Senate House Library, University of London) https://norbertmiller.wordpress.com/category/welcome/

Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Papers at Senate House Library, University of London https://archives.libraries.london.ac.uk/Details/archive/110043242

Interview with Hannah Norbert-Miller, 1995 (EXS/1/RCGAES/3/Mill) available at Senate House Library, University of London https://archives.libraries.london.ac.uk/Details/archive/110049252

Brinson, Charmian, ‘The Go-Between: Martin Miller’s Career in Broadcasting’ in German-speaking exiles in the Performing Arts in Britain after 1933 (Brill, 2013).

Brinson, Charmian and Dove, Richard, ʻMit österreichischem Akzent: Der Schauspieler Martin Miller in London 1945–1969̛  in Echo des Exils (Arco, 2006)

Brinson, Charmian and Dove, Richard, ‘Just about the best actor in England’: Martin Miller in London, 1939 bis 1945’ (Exilforschung, 21, 2003).

Kat Hubschmann, Miller Archivist