Malcolm Miller was born in Adelaide, the son of Henry William Adair Miller, a life assurance officer, and his wife Eliza Warden, daughter of a farmer. He was educated at Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide where he graduated in 1932 with the Everard scholarship and prize in medicine.

After a short period as resident medical officer at the Royal Adelaide Hospital he went to England in 1934 and spent a year as medical officer at the Netherne Mental Hospital, Coulsdon, Surrey. It was during this time that he took the membership examination of the London College. He returned to Australia in 1936 and became honorary clinical assistant in medicine at the Royal Adelaide. He served this hospital until 1957, being appointed honorary assistant physician in 1951 and physician in 1957. When the new teaching hospital, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville, was opened he was appointed the first senior honorary physician. Apart from his clinical work he was chairman of the physicians committee, a member of the advisory committee of the University of Adelaide and a member of the postgraduate committee in medicine. During the Second World War he served as a part-time officer in the army with the rank of captain, having been found medically unfit for full-time service.

Malcolm married Elizabeth, daughter of Major Henry Trotter, in 1937 and they had two daughters. His family was his great interest when he could escape from work and he was very proud of their academic achievements, and rightly so. His hobbies included all forms of sport and an abiding interest in motor racing and music.

Malcolm Miller was one of the last of the Adelaide physicians to practise as a general practitioner whilst at the same time serving in an honorary capacity at his old medical school, the University of Adelaide. He was a lovable character and his experience in general practice brought about a warm and friendly relationship with his patients and he was to carry this attribute with him as a consulting physician. He obtained his MRCP (London) before the founding of the Australasian College and thus was one of that small band of physicians who bridged so smoothly the changing era between the recognition of the two colleges.