Jonathan Miller’s accidental career

Jonathan Miller regrets that he became an entertainer, says Christina Patterson in the London Independent. In 1960, with Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, and Dudley Moore, Miller revolutionized sketch comedy with the widely acclaimed British stage review Beyond the Fringe. The troupe’s success led Miller to a distinguished career as a producer, TV host, and theatrical and opera director. Yet he wishes he’d made better use of the medical degree he earned 50 years ago. “I had an ambition or determination at least to become a research neurologist, because I was interested in behavior and perception and language,” he says. “It remains a regret and a sort of contempt as well.” It’s not that Miller feels his present work is without value: “I actually think some of the things I’ve done, outside the laboratory, without any test tubes, is about as deep as you can get.” It’s just that he believes he has the gift of “a brilliant mind,” and at 75, wonders if he could have used his gifts to greater good than entertaining people. “I’ve never been able to rid myself of the theater’s reputation for shabby vulgarity, and that no serious person does it.’’

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