ROBERT ELLIS MILLER

(18 July 1932 - 27 January 2017)

Robert Ellis Miller’s career as a director began in 1958 with ten years working in American television. His first feature film in 1966 was Any Wednesday (aka Bachelor Girl Apartment) with Jane Fonda and Jason Robards. This was followed by Sweet November with Sandy Dennis, and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter from the novel by Carson McCullers, for which Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke were both Academy Award-nominated. The Buttercup Chain (1970) was nominated at Cannes but after that Miller mainly directed middle of the road films that were nothing too special. His version of Peter De Vries’s Reuben, Reuben gained Oscar nominations in 1983 for the film, its star Tom Conti and writer Julius J. Epstein. More TV work was followed by Hawks, Brenda Starr and Bed and Breakfast, his last feature film in 1991, a romcom with Roger Moore and Talia Shire. Miller retired after directing the TV movie The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue in 1996.

MICHAEL DARVELL