According to Arthur Miller, in a 2000 essay entitled, "Are You Now Or Were You Ever?" Columbia asked Miller to sign an anti-Communist declaration to ward off the threat of picket lines by the American Legion at theaters showing "Death of a Salesman". He refused. Instead, Columbia made another movie, a short film entitled "Life of a Salesman" to be shown with it. The short consisted of business professors from City College praising sales as a profession, and denouncing the character of Willy Loman. Miller wrote: "Never in show-business history has a studio spent so much good money to prove that its feature film was pointless."
Cameron Mitchell, Mildred Dunnock and Howard Smith all repeated their Broadway roles in the film. Ms. Dunnock would play Linda Loman yet again in the 1966 television production of the play.
Features Kevin McCarthy's only Oscar-nominated performance. This was his first credited performance on film.
Fredric March turned down the role of Willy Loman played by Lee J. Cobb in the stage production of the play.
"Death of a Salesman" won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1949.