Voyager (film) of the war. The main character shows some resemblance to Frisch, a frustrated architect turned author. German director Volker Schlöndorff, who already directed an Oscar-winning film, "The Tin Drum" (1979), moved to New York in the mid-1980s to make a television adaptation of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" with Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. By 1987, with his career stalled and his marriage breaking up, the 47-year-old Schlöndorff could perhaps identify with the novel's main character, Walter Faber, and he decided to make a film based on the novel. After acquiring the film rights, Schlöndorff turned to Rudy Wurlitzer,
Fredric March whereupon director Elia Kazan cast Lee J. Cobb as Willy, and Arthur Kennedy as one of Willy's sons, Biff Loman, two men that the director had worked with in the film "Boomerang" (1947). March later regretted turning down the role and finally played Willy Loman in Columbia Pictures's 1951 film version of the play, directed by Laslo Benedek, receiving his fifth and final Oscar nomination as well as a Golden Globe Award. March also played one of two leads in "The Desperate Hours" (1955) with Humphrey Bogart. Bogart and Spencer Tracy had both insisted upon top billing and Tracy withdrew,