Joe Miller (actor)

Joseph Miller (1684 – 15 August 1738) was an English actor, who first appeared in the cast of Sir Robert Howard's Committee at Drury Lane in 1709 as Teague.

[1] Trinculo in The Tempest, the First Grave-digger in Hamlet and Marplot in Susanna Centlivre's The Busybody, were among his many favourite parts.

[2] In 1715 he appeared on bills promoting a performance on the last day of April, where he played Young Clincher in Farquhar's comedy, The Constant Couple.

[3] In "vacation periods" between working at Drury Lane, he performed for William Pinkethman's company.

He frequented the "Black Jack" tavern on Portsmouth Street in London, which was a favourite of the Drury Lane players and those from Lincoln's Inn Fields.

On his death on 15 August he was buried at St Clement Danes on Portugal Street, London.

[7] George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith's 1892 comic novel, The Diary of a Nobody also makes reference to Joe Miller when Lupin, son of the chief protagonist and diary writer, Mr. Pooter, sarcastically states, "Bravo Joe Miller" in response to one of Mr. Pooter's failed jokes.

The work is used in his explanation of Beatrice's barb toward Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing—Act II, scene i, lines 128–130.