NEW YORK, Feb 11: Arthur Miller, the great American playwright and author for nearly 60 years, died on Thursday night, his assistant announced on Friday.

According to Mr Miller's assistant, the 89-year-old giant of American literature passed away at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut.

He had been suffering from cancer, pneumonia and a cardiac problems. The son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, Mr Miller's comfortable middle-class New York childhood was shattered when his father lost his fortune during the Great Depression.

The experience would later form the basis of his breakthrough play, 1949s Death of a Salesman, a savage assault on the American dream says a biography released here. Other classic Miller plays include" All My Sons", "The Crucible" and "View>From a Bridge".

He also wrote a novel, Focus, and an acclaimed autobiography Time bends. A leading light of the left-wing theatre scene, Mr Miller was called to testify in front of House of Un-American Activities Commission in 1956.

Other artists buckled when targeted by Joe McCarthy's witch-hunters. Miller did not, steadfastly refusing to provide the names of friends with communist sympathies.

Mr Miller lambasted his tormentors in his work: "The Crucible" which was nominally set in 17th-century Salem, most viewers knew precisely that its target was rather close to home. Many people, however, say that Mr Miller will be best remembered for his marriage to Marilyn Monroe.

The couple - nicknamed the hourglass and the egg head by the US press - wed in 1956 but the marriage fell apart on the set of the film The Misfits in 1961, which he scripted.

The writer later explored their turbulent relationship in his 1962 play "After the Fall," and in his last play, "Finishing the Picture" (2004), he turned back the clock to explore the making of the troubled movie.

Mr Miller married photographer Inge Morath in 1962 and was with her until her death in 2002. He is survived by his four children - Jane and Robert, from his first marriage to Mary Slattery, and Rebecca and Daniel, from his marriage with Ms Morath.