Word: biff
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...Sawyer, 75, paunchy, villainous character actor of more than 300 movies, starting in the 1930s, who bullied but finally succumbed to the likes of Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart in San Quentin and who later won fame with the video generation as the bumbling, comic Sergeant Biff O'Hara in TV's The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin from 1954 to 1960; of liver cancer; in Ashland, Ore., on April...
...play opens when he returns home one evening, unable to complete his usual rounds of Boston buyers. Immediately, Miller brings into focus the imminent collapse of Willy's life. Willy's olders son, Biff, played by Michael Sacks, has returned home unemployed after drifting through many menial jobs and several years on low wages on a ranch out West. "Biff is magnificent." Willy protests to himself, adding, "He's such a great saiesman. When is he going to realize it and settle down in business?" But, Biff, 34 years old, cannot communicate with his father, for Willy seems to understand...
...other hand, Willy consistantly ignores his younger son, Happy, who always attempts to attract some attention. Happy is the rather ordinary side of Biff that his father refuses to acknowledge, and that Biff, bewildered by the dad he loves so deeply, has always tried to make Willy see. Happy shouts, "Look Dad, I'm losing weight, huh Dad," and stands on his head, but Willy is busy pumping up Biff. "You pumped my head so full of hot air I wasn't good for anything," accuses Biff toward the end of the play...
...bone and that he borrows money from a friend each week to bring her a "salary." She does not confront him with the rubber pipe he hides in the basement and doesn't tell him she knows he wants to kill himself with it. Linda chastizes ungrateful Biff when he rebels; he is trying to shake off the chains of his father's beliefs about him. "You wretch! You don't know, but I'll tell you! That man has taken not a step that wasn't to help you, Biff. He slaved for 36 years so that you could...
...years and adds with crushing casualness, "Oh, and, uh, could you drop off your sample case as soon as possible?" to the wrenching scene in a restaurant bathroom, when Willy cannot remember where he is. Thinking he is in a hotel room in Boston, Willy relives a time when Biff, fresh out of high school, surprises him fooling around with a secretary to while away the lonely nights. Willy falls on his knees begging Biff to forgive him, but in reality he is only clutching at a waiter's apron...