Scranton pays tribute to Jason Miller

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.comStaff Writer

SCRANTON – To most of the world, the late Jason Miller was the actor who played Father Karras in one of the scariest films ever made – “The Exorcist.”

But he was so much more to his friends and fans and the folks who live in his hometown, about 100 of whom gathered in the rain in the Piazza dell’Arte on Courthouse Square on Monday afternoon for the unveiling of a bust created in his honor by fellow actor and close, longtime friend, Paul Sorvino.

Master of Ceremonies Bob Shlesinger, another longtime friend of Miller who worked with him at Scranton Public Theater, noted that Miller has no gravesite; he was cremated.

“Some of him is in Ireland, some of him is at Notre Dame, which he loved. Some of him is right here in the bust that we are about to unveil today. Some of him is on his son Jordan’s television set in an urn with a green scarf around it. So Jason is well-represented in many places in this country. But today, we are unveiling something that I feel will preserve his memory forever,” Shlesinger said.

Calling Monday a great day, Mayor Chris Doherty said it was the culmination of “a lot of hard work (that) went into putting the statue together.” He said Bill McAndrew, a close friend of Miller’s, was “tireless” in his efforts.

Shlesinger said the dedication wouldn’t have been possible without the support and hard work of McAndrew, Lackawanna County Commissioners Corey O’Brien, Michael Washo and A.J. Munchak and former commissioners Robert Cordaro and Randy Castellani.

O’Brien said the unveiling meant “a great deal to all of us in the arts and cultural world and a great deal to all of the proud Scrantonians and all of the proud people of Lackawanna County that one of our own, Jason Miller, can be memorialized in this way for all of his great work outside of Lackawanna County for so many years.”

Miller, 62, died in 2001.

Munchak told the audience that Cordaro in 2005 shared with him a vision of “how important arts and culture are to our society. We vowed at that time to educate and promote the arts during our administration.”

Funding from a 1-mill tax dedicated to promoting education, arts and culture in the county that Cordaro and Munchak established in 2005 helped fund the statue as well other projects and venues.

Sorvino began his remarks by calling Scranton one of his “favorite places on the planet.” He also thanked McAndrew and the commissioners.

Sorvino then gave an update on the film “The Trouble With Cali,” which he directed and stars in and much of which was shot in and around Scranton in 2006. The commissioners helped fund the film to the tune of $500,000. Cordaro is listed as an executive producer for the film on one movie industry Web site.

Sorvino said he has “a rough cut of the movie,” and hopes it “will come out in the next four or five months. It is very active, it is very ready to go to the next step. Movies take a long time. My last movie took three years to come out,” he said.

Sorvino introduced some of the stars of the movie in attendance, including Chris Meyers, Federico Castelluccio and Sorvino’s son, Michael, who also produced the film. He also introduced his daughter, Amanda Sorvino, who wrote the film, and her daughter, Claudia.

Sorvino said he had to talk about his “dear Jason Miller,” promising to try to “refrain from weeping because the loss to all of us of Jason Miller was extreme.”

He said he always felt Miller could have been the greatest playwright of the 20th Century, calling his play “That Championship Season,” about a Scranton basketball coach and four former players, one of the greatest plays of the century.

Miller won a Pulitzer Prize for the play in 1973.

Sorvino worked closely with Miller, having co-starred in the 1982 release of the film based on that play and, in 1999, directing and co-starring in a made-for-TV version of the film. He noted on Monday that he was wearing a sweatshirt from that 1999 film.

“This man had such a great talent and he was a dear friend. (His common-law wife) Dana (Oxley) used to say that he and I were like brothers. We were. … We were really incredibly good friends and I always relied on him, called on him for various things. And to me, it’s a loss of a very, very great man,” Sorvino said.

Sorvino said the project, on which he worked “on and off” for about two years was “very difficult” because he had to rely on memory, photos and films rather than seeing Miller in person.

“I hope you enjoy it. It’s a work of love,” he told those gathered.

Oxley and Joseph X. Flannery, another close friend of Miller, then unveiled the bust to applause from the crowd.

After a blessing of the bust by retired Bishop of Scranton James Timlin, Kevin Campion played guitar and sang a song he wrote for the occasion – “The Ballad of Jason Miller.”

Oxley said she was pleased with Sorvino’s work.

“That bust looks like him as a young man and as an older guy. Sorvino, he did that, he worked it in a few different times, so it looks like Jackie a lot,” Oxley said, after explaining that his close friends and family called him Jack.

Miller changed his name to Jason when he joined the Screen Actors Guild because there was already a member named Jack Miller.

Oxley said Miller loved Scranton.

“He was born in New York City, but he lived in Scranton his whole entire life. He was an only child; his mom and dad were from the West Side, so he’s a West Side boy. You could talk to anyone here and if they knew him, they’d have something good to say about their relationship with him,” she said.

The inscription on the base of the bust is a quote from Miller in 1982, part of which reads: “I could not be prouder of my roots. … You are my people.”

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005.