Death of a Salesman cast information
The following lists the characters’ ages usually in what the play offers as the “present,” or 1949, but
remember that there are extended flashbacks to 1932 and 1928, so six of the actors (see characters
marked with asterisks) will play their characters’ younger selves as well. The point is less an actor’s
actual age and more in what s/he can play.
Willy Loman* (early 60s) is the salesman, a man staring into the abyss but never fully letting go of his
dream of dazzling success for himself and his sons. We need to find the full range from his joyful
confidence in the validity of his convictions to his sense that, as he puts it, “the woods are burning.”
Even when he takes his own life, at the end of the play, he does so not out of despair but in order to
ensure what he regards as Biff’s inevitable triumph. In any encounter, his first impulse is to get the
other person to like him.
Linda Loman* (not quite 60) has made a life of doing whatever’s necessary to protect her husband and
hold her family together; her love of her husband and sons is sincere and unreserved. We see her
soothing Willy, no matter how childish or irrational his behavior and we see her denouncing her sons to
their faces, so she is alternately sympathetic and assertive. She probably has few illusions, but she has
decided to accept what she cannot change.
Biff Loman* (early 30s) was a football hero in high school (in 1932) but is now confronting the truth that
he’s lost, that he hasn’t been able to reconcile his values, as learned from his father, with the less
ambitious, less accomplished adult he now realizes he’s become. A central action of the play involves
Biff’s struggle to come to terms with his own situation and to get his father to understand who he really
is.
Happy Loman* (a couple of years younger than Biff) comes across as a smooth-talking operator and
outright liar, but much of the challenge of the role involves finding the integrity in the character and in
his vision of himself and the world. He has always wanted to be more than he is, but he’s either unable
or unwilling to do what’s necessary.
Charley* (about Willy’s age) is the next-door neighbor who has made a matter-of-fact success in a
business similar to Willy’s, a pragmatic man who has learned to have no illusions but who has treated
Willy with unfailing although unsentimental generosity.
Bernard* (early 30s) is Charley’s son, the nerdy smart kid in high school and the object of the Loman
boys’ derision who has grown up to become a quietly successful attorney. He has the insight and the
compassion that some of the other characters lack.
Ben (approximately mid-50s when we see him in 1928), Willy’s elder brother, is the voice of authority
and absolute confidence, depicted as Willy remembers and admires him, the man who walked into the
jungle and emerged wealthy and powerful. He always stands at the center of his world; he has a
commanding presence and a full, resonant voice.
