Warren Miller (director)

Warren Anthony Miller was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, to Helena Humphrey Miller and Albert Lincoln Miller. He had two older sisters, Mary Helen Miller and Betty Jane "BJ" Miller.{{Cite book|title=Freedom Found: My Life Story|last=Bigford and Miller|publisher=Warren Miller Company|year=2016|isbn=978-0963614469}}

As a young man he took up the hobbies of skiing, surfing, and photography. At the age of 18, with the U.S. ten months into World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served in the South Pacific.[https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/whistler-remembers-filmmaking-legend/Content?oid=6695799 "Whistler remembers filmmaking legend "]. Pique Magazine, By Joel Barde. February 01, 2018 On Christmas vacation in 1944, he first filmed skiing with a borrowed camera in Yosemite.Miller, Warren (2012) [http://www.theskijournal.com/issue/6.3/6.3 "Warren's World", The Ski Journal Vol 6 #3:22], theskijournal.com; accessed February 3, 2018.

Upon his discharge from the Navy in 1946, Miller bought his first 8mm movie camera, a Bell & Howell for $77 ({{Inflation|index=US|value=77|start_year=1946|fmt=eq}}).{{cite web

| url = https://warrenmiller.com/a-legacy-will-live-on

| title = A Legacy Will Live On

| date = January 25, 2018

| publisher = Warren Miller Productions

| access-date = October 23, 2019

| quote = His first still camera was a Bakelite Univex, bought for 39 cents; in 1946 he bought a Bell & Howell 8-mm camera for $77.

}} He and a friend, Ward Baker, moved to Sun Valley, Idaho, where they lived in a teardrop trailer in the parking lot of the Sun Valley ski resort, and worked as ski instructors. In their free time, they filmed each other skiing to critique and improve their ski techniques. During the summers they shifted to the California coast where they filmed each other surfing.Lund, Morten (March 2004) [https://books.google.com/books?id=_7YDcDEqBcEC&pg=PA8 Warren Miller profile], Skiing Heritage Vol 16 #1:8-14

After Miller showed his skiing and surfing films to friends, with accompanying commentary, he began to receive invitations to show and narrate them at parties. In 1949, he founded Warren Miller Entertainment (WME) and began producing one feature-length ski film per year. He borrowed money to rent halls and theaters, and charged admission to his shows. He booked show halls near ski resorts so that he could film the next year's footage during the day, and show the current film in the evening. Before long he was showing his films in 130 cities a year.Fry, John (2010) [https://books.google.com/books?id=FOhrjSuy6rsC&pg=PA278 The Story of Modern Skiing] Hanover: University Press of New England {{ISBN|978-1584658962}} pg 278-280

Miller continued to head Warren Miller Entertainment until the late 1980s when he sold the company to his son, Kurt Miller. Kurt later sold the company to Time, Inc., which sold it in 2007 to Bonnier Corporation, and in 2013 Warren Miller was acquired by Active Interest Media.Blevins, Jason (2013) [http://blogs.denverpost.com/thebalancesheet/2013/04/30/active-interest-media-buys-boulders-ski-skiing-warren-miller-entertainment-and-nastar/9365/ "The Balance Sheet"], The Denver Post; retrieved June 3, 2014. The company has continued to produce a new film every year carrying on the brand legacy after Warren's passing in 2018 at the age of 93.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2018/film/people-news/warren-miller-dead-dies-skiing-1202676670/|title=Warren Miller, pioneering ski filmmaker, dies at 93|first=Kirsten|last=Chuba|publisher=Variety|date=2018-01-25|access-date=2019-10-06}} In January 2023, Outside announced a two-year film project leading into the 75th anniversary of the films. Despite reports and internet hearsay including rumors from longtime Warren Miller collaborator, Chris Patterson, that in 2023 there would not be new Warren Miller film.Snowbrains (January 24, 2023) [https://snowbrains.com/there-will-be-no-new-warren-miller-ski-movie-next-year-for-the-1st-time-in-74-years/ There Will Be No New Warren Miller Ski Movie Next Year for the 1st Time in 74 Years] Snowbrains.com Warren Miller films corrected rumors and released the 74th film "All Time" in October 2023 {{Cite web |last=Blevins |first=Jason |date=2023-02-06 |title=The annual Warren Miller ski movie isn't going anywhere, despite reports to the contrary |url=https://coloradosun.com/2023/02/06/warren-miller-movie-outside-inc/ |access-date=2024-01-22 |website=The Colorado Sun |language=en-US}} and included both historical footage and newly filmed segments shot in Palisades Tahoe, California and Park City, Utah.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-20 |title=ALL TIME - 2023 |url=https://warrenmiller.com/film-archive/all-time-2023 |access-date=2024-01-22 |website=Warren Miller Entertainment |language=en}}

While transitioning out of his executive role, Miller still maintained his creative role as director and narrator for the films into the 1990s. The makers of later films, including Warren Miller's Higher Ground (2005) and Warren Miller's Off the Grid (2006), used Miller's narration from previous films rather than recording new narration.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20061004213951/http://www.skinet.com/skinet/warren_miller/article/0,26908,1478963,00.html "Warren Miller's Off the Grid: The world's largest winter sports movie announces 2006 U.S. tour"]}}, Skinet.net; retrieved August 19, 2007.[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-135646854.html "Warren Miller's Higher Ground"], PR Newswire, 2005-08-31, via highbeam.com; retrieved August 19, 2007. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516183648/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-135646854.html|date=May 16, 2011}}

In 1998, Miller became Director of Skiing at The Yellowstone Club, a private resort in Big Sky Montana.

In late 2010, Miller presented 'An Evening with Warren Miller' to two sold-out audiences at Seattle's Benaroya Hall.Thompson, Neal (2011) [https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2011/11/23/warren-miller-ski-film-legend-december-2011 "Ski Movie Mogul Warren Miller Refuses to Go Downhill"] Seattle Met; retrieved August 6, 2018

In September 2016, Miller self-published his autobiography, Freedom Found: My Life Story.{{Cite press release |title=Warren Miller's autobiography to be available in second printing this fall |date=2017-07-22 |publisher=Ski Racing |url=https://skiracing.com/warren-millers-autobiography-to-be-available-in-second-printing-this-fall/}}

Miller's first wife, Jean, died of cancer in 1953, when their son was one year old.{{Cite web |last=Chawkins |first=Steve |date=2018-01-25 |title=Warren Miller, the ski bum whose films made him king of the slopes, dies at 93 |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-warren-miller-snap-story.html |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} Miller married Dorothy Marion Roberts in 1957. They had two children. They were married for twenty years and lived in Hermosa Beach, California,Dorworth, Dick (1974) [https://books.google.com/books?id=5rF2AoO8gxoC&pg=PA70 “Warren Miller: Making It on Film”] Skiing vol 26#7 pg 70 where Warren Miller Entertainment was located. Miller then married two other people before marrying Laurie Penketh Kaufmann in 1988. With Laurie, Miller lived on Orcas Island, Washington, from 1992 until his death on January{{Nbsp}}24, 2018.

{{Main|List of Warren Miller films}}

Movies released since 2004, while bearing Warren Miller's name, were not directed by Warren Miller, nor was he involved in their production in any way.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

• On Film in Print (1994) Vail, CO: Ritem and Printem {{ISBN|978-0963614414}}
• Lurching from One Near Disaster to the Next (1998) Deer Harbor, WA: Pole Pass Pub. {{ISBN|978-0963614421}}
• Wine, Women, Warren, & Skis, (2001) Warren Miller Productions; 14th edition; {{ISBN|978-0963614407}}
• Warren's World, (2002) Mountain Sports Press, {{ISBN|978-0967674780}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=WtzBweaPAQgC&pg=PA152 "The Good New Days"] Ski (Jan 2004) Vol 68 #5:152
• [http://www.theskijournal.com/issue/4.2/feature/Warren-Miller "A Taste of Freedom"] The Ski Journal (2010) vol 4.2 {{ISSN|1935-3219}}
• Bigford, Andy and Miller, Warren (2016) [https://books.google.com/books?id=vRQ1jwEACAAJ Freedom Found: My Life Story] Warren Miller Company {{ISBN|9780963614469}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922123027/https://warrenmiller.net/|date=September 22, 2021|title=Official site}}
• [http://www.warrenmiller.com Warren Miller Entertainment]
• {{IMDb name|589498|Warren Miller}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Warren}}

Category:American documentary filmmakers

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:American memoirists

Category:American male alpine skiers

Category:Film directors from Los Angeles

Category:Military personnel from California

Category:People from San Juan County, Washington

Category:Writers from Los Angeles

Category:1924 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:Film directors from Washington (state)

Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II

Category:20th-century American sportsmen