Here's an interesting story I've pieced together mostly since Arthur Miller died last week:

I'll start with a review of notable connections previously known with respect to our English cousins:

Zalman Mordecai's son Mendel/Mark (the brother of Barnet and (my ggf) Shimon who went to Baku and later Palestine), had a daughter Louba who married Jos Rubens, a British Army officer and moved to England.

Among Louba's many personal gifts were beauty, a long and healthy life, and an ability to seize opportunity. At age 100, she appeared on the cover of the British version of Vogue Magazine modeling Tiffany Jewelry - the pinnacle of a modeling career begun only when she was in her mid 90s. She lived to 105.

Louba and Jos' son Sasha (= Ralph Alexander) married into old British nobility (his wife Lady Rosemary Eliot was the daughter of the Earl of St. Germans and the grandaughter of the Duke of Beaufort) and their daughter married Danny Peyronel, a rock musician (UFO and other bands) who later turned to classical opera. (Danny comes from and old and prominant Argentinian-Italian family of Piemonte-Waldensian origin; his father served as Argentina's ambassador to Greece.)

Also, Louba's only grandson (son of her daughter Irene who married film producer Abel Goodman, later to become the first man to survive implantation of a totally artificial heart) is Paul Goodman, currently a Member of Parliament.

The new story starts with Jos Rubens, Louba's husband. He was a cousin of Sir Michael Balcon, knighted for his founding contributions to the development of the British film industry.

Among other things, he is the man who made Alfred Hitchcock famous. Michael's daughter Jill Balcon eventually married an Oxford poetry professor named Cecil Day-Lewis who later became the Poet Laureate of Gt. Britain.

Jill had a film and stage career (Nicholas Nickleby, Good Time Girl (1949), Edward II (1991), Wittgenstein (1993)).

Their daughter Tamasin became a documentary film maker, widely published food writer and TV chef.

Their son Daniel Day-Lewis is an Oscar-winning film star (Gangs of New York (2003), The Boxer (1997), The Crucible (1996), In The Name Of The Father (1993), The Age Of Innocence (1993), The Last Of The Mohicans (1992), My Left Foot (1989), The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (1988), A Room With A View (1986), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), The Bounty (1984), Gandhi (1982), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)).

Daniel Day-Lewis is married to Arthur Miller's daughter!

Upon receiving the above, Dick Plotz wrote to say:

"And my (and Tom's, of course) grandfather Isaac Plotz was a prominent doctor in Harlem who delivered Arthur Miller."

(Dick's brother Tom Plotz is married to Cathy Klion, granddaughter of Louba's first cousin Barnet.)

So, Arthur Miller was delivered by the grandfather of one third cousin's husband, and his daughter married another third cousin's third cousin.

This can also be re-stated as follows:

Louba had a first cousin whose grandaughter married a man whose grandfather was the doctor who delivered Arthur Miller. And, Louba's cousin-by marriage (through her husband) had a grandson who married Arthur Miller's daughter.

(My son would go on to say that Arthur Miller was married to Marilyn Monroe, who was at another time married to Joe DiMaggio, thereby giving him (my son) 'yichus' among fellow baseball fans through this close relationship.)

The collection of links below relate to the people named above:

Danny Peyronel The first article

Danny Peyronel The second article

Daniel Day-Lewis

Tamasin Day-Lewis

Jill Balcon

Sir Michael Balcon

Paul Goodman

Abel Goodman (find by search while on this site)

Quite a clan!