MILLER, Russell 1938-

PERSONAL: Born June 17, 1938, in Ilford, Essex, England; son of Albert Edward (a clerk) and Queenie Alice (Russel) Miller; married Stephenie Lesley Gardner, June 8, 1963 (divorced); married Renate Marie Charlotte Kohler (a journalist), September 21, 1977; children: (first marriage) Tamsin Lesley, Sasha Kate; (second marriage) Barnaby Charles Edward, Charlotte Alice.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brighton, England. Agent—Sterling Lord Literistic, 65 Bleecker St., New York, NY 10012-2420.

CAREER: East London News Agency, London, England, apprentice reporter, 1955-57; Ilford Recorder, Ilford, Essex, England, reporter, 1957-58, chief reporter and news editor, 1960-62; reporter for Daily Sketch and Sunday Dispatch, 1962-65; freelance writer for Sunday Times, 1972-98; freelance writer for Night and Day, 1998-2002; writer. Military service: British Army, 1958-60; served with British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany; became acting captain.

MEMBER: Groucho Club (London).

AWARDS, HONORS: Magazine Writer of the Year award, 1984 and 1992, for articles appearing in Sunday Times Magazine; British Press award commendations, 1987 and 1988; Colour magazine Writer of the Year, 1989.

WRITINGS:

(With Roger Boar) The Incredible Music Machine, edited by Jacques Lowe, Quartet/Visual Arts (London, England), 1983.

Bunny: The Real Story of "Playboy," Michael Joseph, 1984, Holt (New York, NY), 1985.

The House of Getty, Michael Joseph, 1985, Holt (New York, NY), 1986.

Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, Holt (New York, NY), 1988.

Nothing Less Than Victory: The Oral History of D-Day W. Morrow (New York, NY), 1993.

Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History, Grove Press (New York, NY), 1997.

Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

with the editors of time-life books

The Resistance, Time-Life Books, 1979, reprinted, 1998.

The East Indiamen, Time-Life Books, 1981.

The Commandos, Time-Life Books, 1982, reprinted, 1998.

The Soviet Air Force at War, Time-Life Books, 1983.

Continents in Collision, Time-Life Books, 1983.

ADAPTATIONS: The movie Lorenzo's Oil starring Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon, was based off one of Miller's features in Sunday Times Magazine.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A biography of a double agent in World War II.

SIDELIGHTS: British journalist Russell Miller has written books about three well-known Americans and their respective business empires: Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine; J. Paul Getty, oil magnate; and L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. Critics generally praised these books as lively, informative biographies.

In Bunny: The Real Story of "Playboy," Miller chronicles Hefner's unique place in American culture. After growing up in the Midwest and working as a cartoonist in Chicago, Hefner decided to start a magazine that catered to adult males. He compiled the first issue of Playboy—which featured nude photos of Marilyn Monroe—on his dining room table. Very soon the magazine was a huge success and Hefner became a celebrity, attracting attention for his lavish, freewheeling lifestyle—two magnificent mansions and a steady stream of beautiful women. The magazine's popularity continued to rise in the 1960s and 1970s but declined in the 1980s, due in part to increased competition. Heavily burdened by Hefner's expensive habits, the Playboy empire has lost much of its luster entering the 1990s. But under the leadership of Hefner's daughter, Christie, the magazine managed to avoid collapse.

Reviewers commended Miller for writing an entertaining portrait of Hefner and his empire. "This is no peep-and-wink production, but a solidly reported piece of cultural journalism," noted Washington Post Book World critic Jonathan Yardley. "Bunny is thorough, incisive, unsparing and deliciously funny." Times Literary Supplement contributor Craig Brown agreed, calling the book "witty and meticulous."

Miller's next book, The House of Getty, is a study of oil executive J. Paul Getty. Miller reveals Getty as a mean-spirited, greedy workaholic who neglected his family while becoming one of the world's richest men. Reviews of the book were mixed, with several critics lamenting the book's lack of comprehensive detail. New York Times Book Review contributor Jane O'Reilly, for instance, commented that Miller "seems to rely too heavily on the kind of information found in celebrity clip files, and he makes some startling omissions and mistakes." Washington Post reviewer L. J. Davis, who also expressed reservations about the book, nevertheless lauded the author's "powers of anecdote" and called The House of Getty "moderately interesting."

In Bare-Faced Messiah, Miller explores the life of L. Ron Hubbard, who founded the religion known as Scientology. Basing the religion on so-called "dianetic" theory, which proves the existence of a soul-like entity that maintains itself through reincarnation, Hubbard claimed that Scientology could "free the world from war and endow disciples with superhuman abilities," noted Charles Platt in the Washington Post. Hubbard gained many followers and amassed a fortune before his death in 1986. Platt termed the book "impressively thorough" in its treatment of Hubbard and Scientology.

Miller undertakes an oral history of one of World War II's more famous military operations in Nothing Less Than Victory: The Oral History of D-Day. Calling on dozens of interviews with witnesses and participants in D-Day—as well as documentary sources such as diaries, letters, news reports, and official documents—Miller presents a book that shows "what it was like on both sides to be young and at war in 1944," wrote Brian Bond in the English Historical Review. "Miller has succeeded very well in his stated aim of drawing out the participants' feelings, as distinct from more impersonal, factual recollections of what it was like," Bond observed. First-hand accounts from commanders such as Bradley, Eisenhower, and Montgomery mix with in-the-mud and on-the-beach stories from soldiers who carried the massive D-Day assault forward on their backs. Miller relates the fears of combat novices, the frustrations of commanders awaiting delayed orders, and the compassionate actions of civilians and medical personnel facing the result of the devastating fighting. Miller also gives a voice to German soldiers, which results in the other side having a "greater voice than in other recent D-Day histories," a Publishers Weekly critic wrote. Though Bond noted that Miller doesn't believe the book is strictly a military history since he accepted and reported material on faith as it was given to him, the book is still considered "a superb oral history," wrote the Publishers Weekly critic.

Tending once again to his journalistic roots, Miller examines the history of the Magnum photographic agency in his 1998 Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History. A pioneering cooperative agency, Magnum has throughout its history been loosely organized, even anarchic at times, noted Gretchen Garner in Booklist. However, its photographers consistently produce high-quality work. The agency is also known for its groundbreaking role in retaining copyrights for photographers. Despite persistent financial stress brought on by its structure, the agency persists, "part dysfunctional family, part brilliant brotherhood of talent," Garner remarked. In the book, "Miller affords a rich feast of personalities, adventure, world conflicts, and the issues of journalistic ethics," Garner wrote. Miller offers detailed information on the role of photography in politics since World War II, and "has written an engaging narrative, full of vivid characters saying memorable things," observed the Publishers Weekly critic.

Another military history by Miller appeared in 2002. In Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II, Miller again goes directly to the most reliable sources for his history: WW II survivors of both the British Special Operations Executives and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (later the Central Intelligence Agency). Miller knits together the interviews with other documentary sources such as letters and reports. The special operations forces worked to disable the enemy from within their own territory. Volunteer operatives "fomented industrial and military sabotage, labor agitation, disinformation, attacks against leaders like Hitler and Heydrich, boycotts, and riots," remarked a Kirkus Review critic. Others were specially trained in operations involving cryptography, hand-to-hand combat, document forgery, and radio telegraphy. Miller provides first-hand stories of fear of capture, brutal treatment in captivity, botched missions, and uncooperative elements. A Kirkus Reviews critic called Behind the Lines a "first-of-a-kind compilation," and Mark Ellis, writing in Library Journal, noted that it is "an enjoyable and fascinating read" of interest to generalists and military specialists alike.

While Miller's works address significant subjects and events—especially to those who lived them—the author holds a modest opinion of his own writing. Miller once told CA: "I have a faint hope that one day it will be possible to produce a piece of writing that might be something more than mere ephemera."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, May 1, 1998, Gretchen Garner, review of Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History, p. 1479; November 1, 2002, Gilbert Taylor, review of Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II, p. 453.

Books, spring, 1999, review of Magnum, p. 21.

English Historical Review, June, 2001, Brian Bond, review of Nothing Less Than Victory: The Oral History of D-Day, p. 762.

Entertainment Weekly, June 19, 1998, review of Magnum, p. 68.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2002, review of Behind the Lines, p. 1519.

Library Journal, October 15, 2002, Mark Ellis, review of Behind the Lines, p. 84.

Mademoiselle, September, 1985.

New Republic, October 14, 1985, Joseph Nocera, review of Bunny: The Real Story of "Playboy," pp. 36-40.

New York Times Book Review, September 8, 1985; March 30, 1986.

Observer, September 30, 1984.

Publishers Weekly, May 23, 1994, review of Nothing Less Than Victory, p. 75; March 23, 1998, review of Magnum, p. 85.

Tikkun, September 1, 2000, p. 68.

Time, March 17, 1986.

Times Literary Supplement, March 8, 1985; January 17, 1986.

Washington Post, March 14, 1986; June 28, 1988.

Washington Post Book World, August 18, 1985.