Jason Miller (April 22, 1939 – May 13, 2001) was an American actor and playwright. He received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play That Championship Season, and was widely recognized for his role as Father Damien Karras in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist, a role he reprised briefly in The Exorcist III. He later became Artistic Director of the Scranton Public Theatre in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where That Championship Season was set.

Biography

Miller was the father of actors Jason Patric (by first wife Linda Gleason, daughter of Jackie Gleason) and Joshua John Miller (by second wife Susan Bernard). In 1982 Miller returned to Scranton to become artistic director of the Scranton Public Theatre, a new regional theatre company founded the year before.

On May 13, 2001, Miller died of a heart attack in Scranton, Pennsylvania, twenty-one days after he had reached the age of 62.

In 2004, actor Paul Sorvino, a longtime friend of Miller and a cast member of all three versions of That Championship Season, was commissioned by Scranton to create a bronze bust of the late playwright and actor. The statue was unveiled in December 2008. In March 2011, the first Broadway revival of That Championship Season opened. The cast comprised Brian Cox, Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Gaffigan, and Miller's elder son, actor Jason Patric. The urn containing Miller's ashes was placed on the set by his son, who played the role Miller had based on himself.

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