Malcolm Edward Miller was born to Edward and Evelyn (Hewat) Miller in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were both British subjects and had been visiting Evelyn Miller's brother in Canada just prior to Malcolm's birth. On Christmas Day, Evelyn Miller went to visit a friend working as a nurse at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. During a Christmas program in the hospital auditorium, the candles lighting the trees started a fire that killed 26 and injured many more. Evelyn Miller was trampled and not found until two days later. Malcolm Miller was born on December 29, 1885 while his mother was still unconscious.

After Malcolm's birth the family returned to Britain, where Edward Miller died of typhoid fever when his son was very young. After her husband's death, Evelyn Miller moved herself and her son to Philadelphia, where Malcolm Miller studied at the Henry Ludlam School of Dramatic Art. After he graduated, his mother suggested that he find a career that he could fall back on if acting proved unfeasible. Thus, Miller began working in the lumber business in North Carolina and Michigan. During his time in Michigan, he met and married gifted soprano Eva Elizabeth Putnam (1885-1970) and the couple had two children, Elizabeth (Miller) Moore (1914-1976) and Margaret (Miller) Salter (1919-1999).

The Miller family settled in Knoxville in 1918, where Malcolm Miller worked with the Frampton-Foster Lumber Company buying railroad crossties before becoming a lumber broker. Although he followed this career for the rest of his life, his first love remained the theater. He brought a number of prominent acts to Knoxville during the early 20th century (including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ignace Jan Paderewski, and Amelita Galli-Curchi), directed the University of Tennessee's Tennessee Players, acted in a number of productions, and managed such theaters as the Bijou, the Park, and the Tennessee. Miller was also a prolific music critic, writing a column called Music and Drama for the Knoxville Journal from 1922 until his death. In addition to his work with the theatre, Miller involved himself in the community. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club (and indeed held a record for perfect attendance) beginning in 1925 and worked with such organizations as the Knoxville Civic Music Association and the Knoxville Symphony Society. Malcolm Miller was killed in a car accident on the Maryville Bypass (US 129) on May 21, 1963 and is buried in the Highland Memorial Cemetery.