In life, Marilyn Monroe possessed a unique combination of earthy sexuality and childlike innocence, which informed every aspect of her brief but memorable career as an actress in films like “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1953), “The Seven Year Itch” (1955) and “Some Like It Hot” (1959). Those same qualities helped to preserve her in the annals of Hollywood history after her untimely and controversial death in 1962, when she transcended the bounds of stardom to become an iconic figure discussed, celebrated and excoriated in countless biographies and merchandise. Eventually, she became a prism for the world to view all manner of dichotomous socio-political issues: the heights and price of success, the adoration and exploitation of women, the truth and fiction behind the Hollywood dream. All of these elements kept Monroe relevant to pop culture and history, as well as economically viable, long after other celebrities had faded from memory. And though many studio-created sex symbols came before and after Monroe, it was her unique vulnerability – women wanted to be her; men wanted to protect her – that made her stand out from the crowd. Sadly, the men her life could never fill the void made by her tragic childhood and her one true love would ultimately end up being the camera, to which she revealed the real Norma Jean in all her beauty and torment.

Monroe came into existence as Norma Jean Mortensen in a Los Angeles charity ward on June 1, 1926. The identity of her father remained a mystery for decades; some claimed it was Martin Edward Mortensen, whom Monroe’s mother Gladys married in 1924, and who split from his wife prior to his daughter’s birth. Other sources cited Charles Gifford, a salesman for RKO Pictures, where Gladys worked as a film cutter. Whatever the case, Gladys was ill-prepared to take care of the new infant, who was her third child (Monroe had two step-siblings in Kentucky from Gladys’ first marriage). Additionally Gladys was plagued by mental illness, which ran in her family. After attempting to get her parents to take care of the baby, she shuttled Norma Jean off to spend the next few years in foster care. Gladys would eventually reclaim the child, but a subsequent mental breakdown (witnessed by Monroe) forced her to be institutionalized at the state hospital. Monroe was declared a ward of the state and taken in by her mother’s friend, Grace Goddard (nee McKee) but the new arrangement did not last for long. When her new guardian married in 1935, the nine-year-old Monroe was returned to the foster care system, where she was sent to a series of homes. Several sources cited that Monroe was emotionally and even sexually abused during this period, which would later contribute to the bouts of instability that marred her adult life.

When Monroe reached her mid-teens, she received word from Goddard that she planned to relocated to the East Coast, and could not bring Monroe with her. To alleviate Monroe’s endless cycling in and out of foster homes, she arranged a marriage with James Dougherty, the 21-year-old son of a neighbor. The wedding took place shortly after Monroe’s sixteenth birthday, and she resided with her new in-laws while Dougherty was shipped out for overseas service with the Merchant Marine. While living with the Doughterys, Monroe inspected parachutes and fireproofed airplanes at the Radioplane Munitions Factory at the height of the “Rosie the Riveter” era of women working in airplane factories while the boys fought overseas.

While at the factory, her fresh-faced looks caught the eye of Army photographer David Conover, who shot a pictorial with Monroe for Yank magazine. He later encouraged her to sign with The Blue Book modeling agency, and she became one of their most popular models for magazine covers. Her naturally abundant figure also made her an in-demand subject for swimsuit and pin-up layouts. Monroe also began taking drama and singing classes, changing her hairstyle from a wavy brunette to a straight platinum color in an effort to emulate such established stars as Lana Turner and her long deceased idol, Jean Harlow. She also shed her marriage of convenience to Dougherty, who later published several tell-all books about his brief relationship with the actress.

Eventually, her photographs began to make their way to the Hollywood studios. Howard Hughes expressed an interest in signing her to RKO, but she was snapped up by Ben Lyon at 20th Century Fox. Lyon signed her to a six-month contract, and suggested she change her name to the more marquee-friendly moniker of Marilyn Monroe – which was borne from the actress Marilyn Miller and her mother’s maiden name of Monroe. The first six months of Monroe’s term with Fox yielded no work at all, but the studio re-upped her contract, and she began landing bit parts in inconsequential features. The 1948 cornball comedy “Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!” was considered her film debut, but her part was trimmed to just two words and a glimpse of her face. After such a poor showing, Fox gave up on Monroe, and she returned to modeling. Among her gigs during this period was a nude layout for photographer Tom Kelley in 1948, for which she was paid $50. That layout, which would end up in a calendar, would become the first of many iconic shots for the actress and the collectable photo of all photos, bar none.

That same year, Monroe was picked up for a six-month contract at Columbia, where she received her first star billing in the musical “Ladies of the Chorus” (1948), a lightweight class comedy about a dancer who falls for an older, wealthier man. The picture was dead on arrival at the box office, and Monroe again found herself in search of a studio. She found an ally in Johnny Hyde, one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood and a bit of an old geezer with an eye for the young ladies, who groomed her extensively, including some minor plastic and dental surgery. At Hyde’s urging, she was resigned to Fox –despite the reluctance of studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck, who was unconvinced of Monroe’s talent – and she began landing supporting roles which played largely to her physical attributes. Some of the pictures were forgettable, but others like “All About Eve” (1950) and John Huston’s “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950), were well-regarded at the time and remained classics through the decades. Both of the pictures also served as templates for the sort of roles Monroe would encounter throughout her film career; in “Eve,” she is a ditzy novice actress (dismissed by George Sanders’ caustic Addison DeWitt as “a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art”), while in “Jungle,” she is the sexually ripe teenage moll to Louis Calhern’s older lawyer.

Monroe flitted through a series of inconsequential comedies and dramas until 1952, when she was tapped by RKO to co-star in “Clash By Night,” a sudsy drama penned by Clifford Odets and directed by Fritz Lang. Monroe was again cast as a scatterbrain (she played a ditzy cannery worker in love with Joe Andes, who played lead Barbara Stanwyck’s brother), but the legwork she had done over the last few years had attracted enough notices for her to finally get her name above the picture’s title. Impressed by the success of “Clash,” Fox followed suit and tapped her to play a feather-brained secretary who enjoys a carefree afternoon with Cary Grant in the Howard Hawks comedy “Monkey Business” (1952). Critics – once dismissive of Monroe’s abilities – praised her comic timing and chemistry with Grant. So impressed were the studio heads with their baby-talking starlet, they generated a dramatic role for her to see what exactly she was capable of She played a sexually alluring but psychologically damaged babysitter who catches the eye of her neighbor Richard Widmark. A cheap and somewhat tawdry thriller, the picture became a hit thanks to Monroe’s smoldering on-screen presence, but he acting was laughable. She simply had not had enough experience at that point to nail the part. What remained in question was her ability to carry a studio picture. The answer would come – in triplicate – only one year later when Monroe – the young girl who grew up not feeling wanted by anyone, suddenly became the most desired woman on the planet.

It was fair to say that 1953 was Monroe’s watershed year, both on-screen and off. She was top-billed in three big hits, and if each of the films cast her in stereotypical roles – sexually precocious young women, and often with little or no common sense – she made the most of them by displaying a knack for drama and musical comedy, as well as an assured sense of self that did much to quell naysayers and critics who thought her a one-trick pony. The first of her successful films that year was “Niagara,” a glossy thriller which played like a big-budget version of “Don’t Bother to Knock” in its story of a seductive but unstable woman who plans to murder her husband (Joseph Cotten). Monroe’s second hit for 1953 was the Cinemascope feature “How to Marry a Millionaire,” which co-starred two serious Hollywood beauties – Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable – in a comedy about three single women searching for unattached wealthy men. Monroe charmed audiences and critics as the dimmest of the trio, whose reluctance to wear her glasses while meeting bachelors leads to some amusing scenarios. Even Grable – who for the past decade had been Fox’s blonde symbol – was so charmed by Monroe that she famously said “go and get yours, honey! I’ve had mine” to her younger competition.

Most famously, her third 1953 outing re-teamed her with Howard Hawks for “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1953), an ebullient musical that partnered Monroe with fellow movie sex symbol Jane Russell as a pair of gold-digging showgirls on the hunt for husbands. The latter film featured the first of many iconic Monroe on-screen moments – her delightful rendition of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” which had her catered to and fawned over by a platoon of tuxedoed gentlemen while she sashayed about the stage in one of her many famous gowns – the pink taffeta strapless number, grabbing on to dangling diamonds and selling the idea that “a kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamond’s are a girl’s best friend.” The scene later became a frequent subject for tribute by any number of aspiring singers/sex kittens, most notably Madonna in her 1985 music video for “Material Girl.” At the film’s premiere, Monroe took the first step in enshrining herself in Hollywood history by cementing her hands and footprints on the sidewalk at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, along with Russell. Ever the sassy wit – for which she was never fully given credit for possessing – Monroe famously remarked that she and Russell should have actually put their breast prints in the cement; that it would have been more appropriate for the occasion. By the end of the year, Monroe was riding high at the top of the motion picture distributors’ list of popular talent – and then disaster struck. Or so it would seem.

Playboy, a new men’s publication based in Chicago, announced that its 1953 debut issue would include nude photos of Monroe in its layout. Its publisher, an enterprising young man named Hugh Hefner, had purchased them from Tom Kelley, and their publication was seen by many – especially Fox – as a potentially career-damaging turn. To everyone’s surprise, Monroe not only refused to deny that she was the model in the picture, but she gave interviews about the photo shoot, including her famous retort when asked what she had on while the photos were being taken: “the radio.” Her admittance that she had been raised in foster homes and had little money as well as no family to lean on while growing up, helped play up the sympathy angle and did much to nullify the photos impact upon the magazine’s release. In fact, it seemed to only add to her allure, when for most other actresses, it would have been a career ender in those prudish times.

Though millions of American men were thinking fondly (and otherwise) of Monroe, one in particular had become hopelessly smitten with her. In 1951, Joe DiMaggio, who had just ended his legendary career with the New York Yankees, had seen Monroe in a publicity shot with two members of the Chicago White Sox, and arranged for the photographer to set him up on a date with her. The 26-year-old Monroe fell hard for the 38-year-old baseball star, and the couple eloped to San Francisco’s City Hall in 1954. And while the union felt like a press agent’s dream – the All-American sports hero and the country’s hottest new sex symbol – the controlling DiMaggio disapproved of his new wife’s ambitions and image. According to him, the marriage went awry almost immediately, when Monroe decided to incorporate a 10-day performance tour for American troops in Korea during their honeymoon, but tensions truly came to a head during the filming of Billy Wilder’s “The Seven Year Itch” (1955). A crowd had gathered to witness the famous scene in which Monroe’s skirt is blown upwards by the rush of air from a sewer grate, and the throng’s reaction sent DiMaggio over the edge. A public argument inside the Trans-Lux Theater, where the scene was shot, preceded divorce proceedings (filed by Monroe) just nine months after their wedding. But despite this abrupt conclusion to their tempestuous affair, DiMaggio would remain devoted to Monroe for the remainder of his life – beyond anyone’s expectations.

The divorce from DiMaggio was the opening volley in a lengthy and hard-fought campaign waged by Monroe in the mid-1950s to gain greater control over her career and image. She had grown desperately tired of the sex bomb roles offered to her by Fox, and her releases for 1954 – the lackluster Western “River of No Return” for director Otto Preminger, and “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” a musical with Ethel Merman and Donald O’Connor – were critical and commercial busts. Pairing her with the legendary Billy Wilder for an adaptation of the hit play “The Seven Year Itch” seemed like a step in the right direction, but again, Monroe was playing a fantasy object – here, she did not even earn a name as the sexy upstairs neighbor who tempts harried husband Tom Ewell while his wife is away on vacation. By the time the picture was released in 1955, Monroe had broken her contract and headed for New York to begin studying with acclaimed teacher Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Strasberg’s second wife, Paula Strasberg, became Monroe’s acting coach and close friend during her self-imposed exile, and introduced her to the leading intellectual and cultural lights of the city, including an up-and-coming playwright named Arthur Miller, with whom she began an unlikely romance.

While in New York, Monroe also announced that she was forming her own production company with photographer Milton H. Greene, whom she had befriended while he was on assignment to cover her for Look magazine, and who would subsequently take over 5,000 photos of her during their partnership. Meanwhile, efforts to replace Monroe with zaftig starlets like Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors had failed to generate the same excitement as the original, and the box office success of “Seven Year Itch” eventually forced Fox to cave in to her demands. A new contract was drawn up, which gave her director approval as well as an option to work for other studios. She proved to the money men that she was no longer going to be their laughing stock of a dumb blonde. Monroe returned to California and began work on “Bus Stop” (1955), the first of two pictures to be made under her Marilyn Monroe Productions shingle. The film, based on a play by William Inge, was Monroe’s first pure drama, a character piece about the troubled romance between a cowboy (Don Murray) and a downtrodden café singer. Monroe’s on-screen glamour was reduced considerably for the part – with wardrobe putting her in trashy outfits and garish makeup and hair to essay the part – and critics and audiences alike were impressed with her performance, which earned a Golden Globe for Best Actress. Monroe could not have been more proud, finally feeling like she was proving she was more than blonde hair and big breasts.

After this triumph, Monroe married Arthur Miller in a civil ceremony in 1956. The relationship could not have seemed stranger to the outside world – the balding, bespectacled Miller was 41, while the just-turned-30 Monroe was the epitome of Hollywood glamour – but the two seemed deeply devoted to each other. Monroe had converted to Judaism to marry Miller, and later risked considerable career damage by appearing alongside Miller at his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he was eventually fined, sentenced to jail and blacklisted for refusing to name friends and colleagues who had dealt with the Communist Party. It was during this time, when the couple holed up with one another and their dogs in their New England home, that the actress called the happiest time of her life. The fact that in Miller’s parents she had also found the family she had always wanted and who took to her just as intensely, was a short-lived source of great happiness to Monroe.

Miller accompanied Monroe to England for the making of “The Prince and the Showgirl” (1957), which was her first effort for Warner Bros. Laurence Olivier was her co-star and director for this romance-drama about a fictitious nobleman (Olivier) who falls for a musical actress, which causes much royal intrigue. Though Olivier praised her dramatic skills in public, he privately admitted to finding the experience of working with Monroe a trying one. She was frequently late to the set, and her dependence on Paula Strasberg as her dialogue coach and support system flew in the face of Olivier’s training. Despite the negative press and the film’s lackluster box office returns, Monroe was highly praised for her performance, and even earned Italy’s top acting honor, the David di Donatello Award. After returning to the United States, she discovered that she was pregnant, but the happiness was short-lived; Monroe was diagnosed with endometriosis, which resulted in an ectopic pregnancy. A subsequent effort to bear the child resulted in a miscarriage, which wreaked a toll on the marriage and began the slow deterioration of Monroe’s mental state.

In 1959, Monroe would complete what would eventually become one of her biggest and most enduring hits, Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot” (1959). The frothy comedy gave her ditzy comic skills their greatest showcase as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, vocalist and ukulele player for an all-girl jazz band that offers an unlikely disguise for two nightclub musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) on the run from the mob. Though a bit of a return to her early career roles, Monroe more than held her own with the dazzling script by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, and earned a Golden Globe for her performance. The shooting of the film, however, was quite another thing. She suffered another miscarriage while shooting in San Diego and was growing increasingly dependant on pills to wake her up; pills to put her to sleep. Miller’s refusal to deal with her drama only made her more needy and resentful toward her husband, resulting in an arduous shoot, to say the least. Wilder – who had previously enjoyed working with the actress on “Seven Year Itch” blasted her for many of the same reasons mentioned by Olivier. He later recanted, and comments made by Curtis (a Jew) in which he compared kissing Monroe to “being like kissing Hitler” were subsequently dismissed by the actor. But the damage was done and Monroe was devastated. Regardless of the validity of their statements, storm clouds were gathering for the actress as the 1950s gave way to a new decade.

In 1960, Monroe’s marriage to Miller was on the verge of collapse, due in part to an affair she had with Yves Montand, her co-star in a dreary musical called “Let’s Make Love” (1960), which Monroe had been obligated to make for contractual reasons. Monroe was also struggling with depression and seeing her psychiatrist almost daily; she was also consuming a regular diet of prescription pills to contend with physical and mental exhaustion, mixing those with alcohol. Miller attempted to halt the downward slide of their relationship by penning a drama titled “The Misfits” for her, about the relationship between a depressed divorcee (Monroe) and an aging cowhand, played by Clark Gable. But by the time the film had gone into production, the marriage had unraveled beyond repair, and the production itself became plagued by her undeniable mental health problems. Director John Huston shut down the production in August of 1960 to send her to a rehabilitation program, but Monroe’s problems continued unabated after her return.

Then even more tragedy struck. Only three days after production wrapped, the man who a young Norma Jean had gone to sleep in foster homes dreaming was her real father, Clark Gable, died of a heart attack three days after production concluded in November of 1960. Tabloids made hay from statements by the actor’s widow that his death had been brought on by his insistence on doing his own stunts as a means of dealing with Monroe’s constant tardiness on the set. For Monroe, this helped send her over the edge. By the time the film premiered in 1961, her emotional problems and addictions had landed her in the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, from which she was unable to secure a release. In desperation, she reached out to DiMaggio, who still carried a torch for her despite their divorce five years earlier, and he arranged for her discharge. Monroe later joined him in Florida where he was working as a batting coach for the Yankees, and rumors began swirling that the couple was intending to remarry. But the reunion was short-lived, and Monroe began joining such hard-living types as Frank Sinatra on the party circuit. According to sports biographer Maury Allen, DiMaggio asked for Monroe’s hand again as a means of rescuing her from her apparent downward spiral, but Monroe was caught up with a new crowd – one that DiMaggio would ultimately blame for her demise.

She returned to Hollywood to begin work on a new picture, “Something’s Got to Give,” a comedy for George Cukor about a woman, believed dead, who reappears in her husband’s life on the day he planned to remarry. But by the first day of production in April of 1962, it was clear to all involved, including co-star Dean Martin, that Monroe’s participation in the film would be sporadic at best; with various “illnesses” forcing her absence for weeks on end. Surprisingly – the same week she was unable to work on set – she found the fortitude to fly to NYC to perform at a birthday party for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in May of that year. Her sultry rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Kennedy would be her last notable public appearance and would later come to mean much, much more, after her tawdry, tragic affair with the president – as well as his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy – came to light years later.

Monroe returned to Hollywood with a novel and daring idea to publicize the film; she would be the first major film actress to appear nude on screen, and the pool frolic was covered extensively by photographers, particularly LIFE magazine which ran the naked pictures on its cover. But less than a month later, Monroe’s consistent absence resulted in her being fired from the film – a great public humiliation for the fragile actress. She retreated to her home to give several interviews in which she expressed bitterness over the direction that her career had taken. She also participated in two photo sessions, including one for photographer Bert Stern that featured Monroe in a semi-nude state. It would subsequently be known as “The Last Sitting.”

On the morning of Aug. 5, 1962, Monroe was discovered lifeless by her housekeeper. Her death was subsequently declared a suicide by barbiturate overdose. A devastated DiMaggio claimed the body and arranged for a private funeral, which was attended by just 25 mourners, including Lee Strasberg, who delivered her eulogy. In fact anyone who DiMaggio felt contributed to Monroe’s downward spiral – including members of the Rat Pack, etc. – were banned from attending. She was interred in a crypt at Westwood Memorial Cemetery, which received a dozen red roses from DiMaggio three times a week for over 20 years.

Hollywood and the public at large grieved over her early passing, but in the decades following her death, the respectful attitude towards Monroe’s demise gradually transformed into an obsessive hunt for clues and theories that would explain her death as homicide. Monroe had allegedly carried on affairs with President Kennedy and his brother Robert, and rumors swirled that she had been eliminated by political powers in order to keep the dalliances secret, or even to prevent her from leaking important secrets In fact, DiMaggio was among the more vocal supporters of this theory and refused anything to do with a Kennedy ever after. Others suggested that the Mafia was the culprit, or that she had been killed to cover up mistakes made by her psychiatrist. Lack of evidence – as well as a missing diary – prevented the incident from being reported as more than just “probable suicide,” but such facts were unable to stem a virtual tide of tell-all biographies and publications that focused on the sordid details of her life and what may or may not have done in the doomed beauty.

Equally distasteful were searches to uncover pornographic films allegedly shot by Monroe during her lean years. For decades, a short titled “Apple Knockers and Coke” was described as proof positive that she had made a stag film, but subsequent research revealed that the actress in the film was in fact one-time Playmate Arline Hunter, whose resemblance to Monroe had been her chief selling point. In 2008, Monroe collector Keya Morgan purportedly purchased a pornographic film with Monroe from a former FBI informant, but the validity of the item was quickly dismissed.

While conspiracy theorists spun their webs around Monroe’s demise, the brighter aspects of her short life – her films and her iconic image – continued to serve as inspiration for generations of fans and admirers. Monroe’s open and honest sexuality served as a touchstone for countless actresses who followed in her footsteps, many of whom took deliberate pages from her life and career to draw attention to their own. As late as 2008, actress Lindsay Lohan was featured semi-nude in a layout shot by Bert Stern that copied his session for Monroe in exacting detail. Images of Monroe also became among the most popular and best-selling Hollywood memorabilia, which resulted in Monroe being named the only female on a list of “top-earning” dead celebrities by Forbes magazine. The brisk trade in Monroe-related items eventually led to serious court battles between corporate entities who held rights to Monroe’s likeness and image, the photographers who captured her on film during her career, and the Strasberg family, who were the recipients of 75 percent of her estate after her death.

Marilyn Monroe Home Pictures

Monroe’s life also served as source material for several films, including the 1980 TV-movie “Marilyn: The Untold Story,” with Catherine Hickland as Monroe; “Norma Jean and Marilyn” (HBO, 1996), with Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino essaying her pre- and post-fame life; and “Blonde” (2001), with Poppy Montgomery in an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ novel about her life. Monroe was also featured in numerous features and TV productions about the Kennedys and the Rat Pack, and could be counted on to represent the spirit of old Tinseltown glamour in all manner of productions. In fact, of all the Hollywood icons – save Chaplin, Bogart and Elvis – Monroe’s appeal – her unique look, her tragic life, her legend – stood the test of time like no other twentieth century entertainer.

• Also Credited As:
  Norma Jean Baker, Norma Jeane Mortenson
• Born:
  June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California, United States
• Died:
  August 5, 1962.
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Model, Negative cutter, Paint sprayer

Family

• Father: Edward Mortenson. deserted Gladys Baker before daughter was born
• Foster sister: Eleanor Goddard. born in December 1926; died on February 11, 2000
• Half-sister: Bernice Miracle.
• Mother: Gladys Baker. spent years institutionalized for psychiatric problems
• Step-father: C Stanley Gifford.

Education

• Actors Studio, New York, New York, 1955
• Van Nuys High School, Van Nuys, California

Milestones

• 1945 Became model at Blue Book Agency
• 1946 Screen test at 20th Century-Fox; signed contract that was dropped the following year
• 1948 Signed contract with Columbia; dropped after one film
• 1950 Signed seven-year contract with Fox
• 1962 Fired by 20th Century-Fox
• Formed Marilyn Monroe productions with photographer Milton H Greene
• Was raised in a succession of foster homes

Marilyn Monroe Movies

Something's Got to Give (1962)
The Misfits (1961)
Let's Make Love (1960)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)
Bus Stop (1956)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)
River of No Return (1954)
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Niagara (1953)
O. Henry's Full House (1952)
Monkey Business (1952)
Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
We're Not Married! (1952)
Clash by Night (1952)
Let's Make It Legal (1951)
Love Nest (1951)
As Young as You Feel (1951)
Home Town Story (1951)
Right Cross (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
The Fireball (1950)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950)
Love Happy (1949)
Ladies of the Chorus (1948)
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948)
Dangerous Years (1947) 

Marilyn Monroe Awards

Hq Monroe photography Links

Movies and Books and Music Album Information

Marilyn Monroe Nude Photos for Vogue by Bert Stern (1962 - Rare)

Lets Make Love (1960) ( Marilyn Monroe)

Unfortunately it's difficult to feel much empathy for the uber-froggy Jean-Marc (Montand). He's a rich snot who just doesn't deserve Marilyn's Amanda. Let him go back to Paris and get some Euro-honey and leave our American gals alone. In fact, a whole host of American actors turned down his part, including Gregory Peck, who quit the show after his part was reduced by an uncredited Arthur Miller (then married to Monroe) in lieu of upping Marilyn's screen time. Peck reportedly called the final product, "About as funny as pushing Grandma down the stairs in a wheelchair."

That's not far off. Tony Randall, as Jean-Marc's assistant, isn't even funny, and Montand is far stiffer than even his character. Monroe vamps it up but her heart just doesn't appear into it. Trouble at home with Arthur, perhaps? Then there are the plot points -- including pantomime and awful songs like "I Specialize." The comedy that is here is largely in the arms of cameo players like Milton Berle and Bing Crosby -- playing themselves, of course.

Let's Make Love has been widely seen and largely forgotten. Monroe made so many other sex comedies that became classics that you can safely skip this one.

Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, Tony Randall, Frankie Vaughan, Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Burns, Michael David, Mara Lynn

Director: George Cukor

"The Legend of Marilyn Monroe" (1963)

Marilyn Monroe and the Camera

The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe and the Camera by Jane Russell

Marilyn Monroe and the Camara (Photography)

Marilyn Monroe - Goodbye, Primadonna

The Seven Year Itch (1955)

 Bus Stop (1956) (Marilyn Monroe)

Marilyn Monroe Links

Marilyn and the Camera

The Official Site - Marilyn Monroe's Official Web site

Ellen's Place

Internet Movie Database

Marilyn Monroe  Pictures Links HQ Images and Desktop Wallpapers

Marilyn Monroe  Playboy Picture

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Marilyn Monroe Best Pictures Gallery

Marilyn Monroe The Seven Year Itch Picture

Marilyn Monroe, Niagara (1953) Pictures

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Marilyn Monroe, How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) Pictures

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Marilyn Monroe, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Pictures

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Marilyn Monroe Color Photo Gallery

Marilyn Monroe Art Prints Art Gallery

Marilyn Monroe Pop Art  Paul RAYNAL

10 Marilyns, 1967 by Andy Warhol

Marilyn Monroe Photographs Gallery

Marilyn Monroe at the Ambassador Hotel, New York, c.1955

Marilyn Monroe Reading Motion Picture Daily, New York, c.1955 by Ed Feingersh

Marilyn Monroe, Chanel No.5

Marilyn Monroe Posters

Actress Marilyn Monro Bettmann

Marilyn Monroe, 1952 Bettmann

Marilyn Monroe Vladimir Gorsky

More Marilyn Monroe Biography

• Born: 1 June 1926
• Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
• Died: 4 August 1962 (drug overdose)
• Best Known As: Hollywood's most famous blonde sex symbol

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:Marilyn Monroe

information on Marilyn Monroe, Britannica.com.

Biography:Marilyn Monroe

The film actress Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) epitomized the Hollywood sex symbol with her provocative clothes, champagne blond tresses, and breathless, whisper-voiced manner of speaking.

Norma Jean Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, experienced a disrupted, loveless childhood that included two years at an orphanage. When Norma Jean, born on June 1, 1926, was seven years old her mother, Gladys (Monroe) Baker Mortenson, was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and hospitalized. Norma was left to a series of foster homes and the Los Angeles Orphans' Home Society. She opted for an early marriage on June 19, 1942, and her husband, James Dougherty, joined the U.S. Merchant Marine in 1943.

During the war years Norma Jean worked at the Radio Plane Company in Van Nuys, California, but she was soon discovered by photographers. She enrolled in a 3-month modelling course, and in 1946, aware of her considerable charm and the potential it had for a career in films, Norma obtained a divorce. She headed for Hollywood, where Ben Lyon, head of casting at Twentieth Century Fox, arranged a screen test. On August 26, 1946, she signed a $125 a week, one-year contract with the studio. Ben Lyon was the one who suggested a new name for the fledgling actress - Marilyn Monroe.

During her first year at Fox Monroe did not appear in any films, and her contract was not renewed. In the spring of 1948 Columbia Pictures hired her for a small part in Ladies of the Chorus. In 1950 John Huston cast her in Asphalt Jungle, a tiny part which landed her a role in All About Eve. She was now given a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox and appeared in The Fireball, Let's Make It Legal, Love Nest, and As Young as You Feel.

In 1952, after an extensive publicity campaign, Monroe appeared in Don't Bother to Knock, Full House, Clash by Night, We're Not Married, Niagara, and Monkey Business. After this the magazine Photoplay termed her the "most promising actress," and she was earning top dollars for Twentieth Century Fox.

On January 14, 1954, she married Yankee baseball player Joe Di Maggio. But the pressures created by her billing as a screen sex symbol caused the marriage to founder, and the couple divorced on October 27, 1954.

Continually cast as a dumb blond, Monroe made Seven Year Itch in 1954. Growing weary of the stereotyping, she broke her contract with Fox and moved to New York City. There she studied at the Actors Studio with Lee and Paula Strasberg. Gloria Steinem recalls a conversation with Monroe during that time in which Monroe referred to her own opinion of her abilities compared to a group of notables at the Actors Studio. "I admire all these people so much. I'm just not good enough."

In 1955 she formed her own studio, Marilyn Monroe Productions, and re-negotiated a contract with Twentieth Century Fox. She appeared in Bus Stop in 1956 and married playwright Arthur Miller on July 1, 1956.

Critics described Monroe in the film The Prince and the Showgirl, produced by her own company, as "a sparkling light comedienne." Monroe won the Italian David di Donatello award for "best foreign actress of 1958," and in 1959 she appeared in Some Like It Hot. In 1961 she starred in The Misfits, for which Arthur Miller did the screenplay.

The couple was divorced on January 24, 1961, and later that year Monroe entered a New York psychiatric clinic. After her brief hospitalization there she returned to the Fox studio to work on a film, but her erratic behavior betrayed severe emotional disturbance, and the studio discharged her in June 1962.

Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles bungalow on August 5, 1962, an empty bottle of sleeping pills by her side.

Further Reading

As a subject of biographies and Hollywood exposé, Marilyn Monroe had no equal. More than 20 books have been written on her brief life. Some, like Norma Jean (1969) by Fred Lawrence Guiles, Edwin P. Hoyt's Marilyn: The Tragic Venus (1965, 1973), or Robert F. Slatzer's The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe (1974), investigate her life in detail. Others are memoirs: Marilyn Monroe: Confidential (1979) by Lena Pepitone and William Stadiem is one such volume. Norman Mailer's Marilyn (1973) includes photographs, and The Films of Marilyn Monroe (1964) by Michael Conway and Mark Ricci details her many movies and shows stills as well as review excerpts. A careful overall biography is Goddess (1985) by Anthony Summers. Gloria Steinem's Marilyn (1986) is an insightful account of a tragic life.

Photography Encyclopedia:Marilyn Monroe

US History Companion:Monroe, Marilyn

(1926-1962), movie star. Born Norma Jean(e) Mortenson in Los Angeles, Monroe was the daughter of Gladys Baker, an unmarried movie technician. Her mother's mental instability resulted in a childhood marred by foster homes, neglect, and abuse. At sixteen she married James E. Dougherty, a defense worker. During World War II an army photographer took pin-up pictures of her, which attracted the attention of other photographers. She was signed by a modeling agency and bleached her light brown hair. In 1946 she divorced Dougherty.

The same year 20th Century-Fox signed her to a contract, and she became Marilyn Monroe. Her first bit part in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948) wound up almost entirely on the cutting room floor. The studio dropped her as did Columbia for whom she played a lead in the Grade B movie Ladies of the Chorus (1948). Then, in need of money, she posed nude for a calendar that upon her ascent to stardom became famous. With the help of various older men she got a series of small roles, most notably in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) as a crooked lawyer's "niece" and in All about Eve (1950) as a "graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art." Her rise was rapid, thanks to an intelligent, intensive publicity campaign orchestrated by Fox, which had signed her again and now recognized her box-office potential. She weathered revelations about the calendar and her mother's mental illness, and in 1952 appeared in her first starring role in the potboiler Don't Bother to Knock. It was followed by the equally ridiculous but equally successful Niagara (1953). Monroe had become a strong box-office attraction, and her breathless sexuality helped make hits of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and River of No Return (1954), among other films.

A nine-month marriage to the baseball star Joe DiMaggio failed in 1954. In rebellion against her stereotyped blond sex symbol roles, Monroe moved to New York City, announcing she wished to play more serious parts. The success of The Seven-Year Itch (1955) led Fox to meet many of her demands. In 1956 she received critical accolades for her performance in the film version of the Broadway hit Bus Stop, married the playwright Arthur Miller, and went to England to make a movie with Sir Laurence Olivier. It flopped, but Some Like It Hot (1959), which followed, was her most successful film.

The marriage to Miller foundered, but he wrote her last movie, The Misfits. They were divorced in 1960 just days before it premiered to an indifferent response. Always a difficult performer to direct (she was noted for her lateness and indecision), she was fired by Fox from her last movie. Monroe now became increasingly unstable. She had tried to take her life several times before, and on the night of August 4, 1962, she succeeded. It is not clear, however, whether she really meant to kill herself.

Monroe was a sex goddess who yearned to be more. Whatever her shortcomings as an actress, in most of her films she exuded a blatant yet attractive sexuality that set her apart from the other screen personalities of her time. Although intelligent, hardworking, and determined, she could not escape her own image. She was, as her friend director Lee Strasberg noted in his eulogy, "a legend in her own lifetime."

Bibliography:

Norman Mailer, Marilyn (1973); Randall Riese and Neal Hitchens, The Unabridged Marilyn: Her Life from A-Z (1987); Gloria Steinem, Marilyn (1986).

Author:

Daniel J. Leab

Fine Arts Dictionary:Monroe, Marilyn

Columbia Encyclopedia:Marilyn Monroe

Bibliography

See the controversial study by Norman Mailer (1973) and the play After the Fall (1963) by Arthur Miller; biographies by G. McCann (1988), M. Zolotow (rev. ed. 1990), C. E. Rollyson (1993), D. Spoto (1993), and B. Leaming (1998); study by S. Churchwell (2005).

Spotlight:Marilyn Monroe

Who2 Biography:Marilyn Monroe, Actor

Marilyn Monroe's sex appeal, talent and untimely death combined to make her an enduring star and one of Hollywood's most recognizable icons. Early in her film career she starred as a dumb blonde in movies like How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). Her va-va-voom beauty made her an international celebrity, and she won acclaim as a talented actress in the films Bus Stop (1956) and Some Like It Hot (1959, with Jack Lemmon). Her personal life was famously untidy; her husbands included baseball star Joe DiMaggio (1954) and playwright Arthur Miller (1956-61). Her last film was Miller's drama The Misfits (1961, co-starring Clark Gable). She was found dead in 1962 of an overdose of sleeping pills, and her death was officially ruled a probable suicide.

Monroe was married three times in all: to Jimmy Dougherty (1942-1946), whom she married when she was 16; to Joe DiMaggio (1954), and to Arthur Miller (1956-1961)... Elton John's memorial tribute to Lady Di, "Candle in the Wind", was originally written for Marilyn... According to the official site of her estate, though the name on her birth certificate was Norma Jean Mortenson, she was later baptized as Norma Jeane Baker.

Wikipedia:Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 - August 5, 1962) was an American actress, singer, and model. After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946. Her early roles were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950) were well received. Monroe was praised for her comedic ability in such films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, Some Like It Hot and The Seven Year Itch.

The typecasting of Monroe's "dumb blonde" persona limited her career prospects, so she broadened her range. She studied at the Actors Studio and formed Marilyn Monroe Productions. Her dramatic performance in Bus Stop was hailed by critics, and she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like it Hot.

The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to work with. The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a "probable suicide", the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as the possibility of homicide, have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute.

Family and early life

Marilyn was born in the Los Angeles County Hospital on June 1, 1926,^[1] as Norma Jeane Baker, the third child born to Gladys Pearl Baker, née Monroe, (1902–1984).^[2]

Monroe's birth certificate names the father as Martin Edward Mortenson (of Norwegian ancestry),^[3] with his residence stated as "unknown".^[4] The name Mortenson is listed as her surname on the birth certificate, although Gladys immediately had it changed to Baker, the surname of her first husband and which she still used. Gladys Baker had married a Martin E. Mortenson in 1924, but they had separated before Gladys' pregnancy.^[3] Several of Monroe's biographers suggest that Gladys Baker used his name to avoid the stigma of illegitimacy.^[5] Mortenson died at the age of 85, and Monroe's birth certificate, together with her parents' marriage and divorce documents, were discovered. The documents showed that Mortenson filed for divorce from Gladys on March 5, 1927, and it was finalized on October 15, 1928.^[6][7]

Throughout her life, Marilyn Monroe denied that Mortenson was her father.^[3] She said that, when she was a child, she had been shown a photograph of a man that Gladys identified as her father, Charles Stanley Gifford. She remembered that he had a thin mustache and somewhat resembled Clark Gable, and that she had amused herself by pretending that Gable was her father.^[3][8]

Gladys was mentally unstable and financially unable to care for the young Norma Jeane, so she placed her with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender of Hawthorne, California, where she lived until she was seven.

In 1933, Gladys bought a house and brought Norma Jeane to live with her. A few months after moving in, however, Gladys suffered a mental breakdown, beginning a series of mental episodes that would plague her for the rest of her life. In My Story, Monroe recalls her mother "screaming and laughing" as she was forcibly removed to the State Hospital in Norwalk. Norma Jeane was declared a ward of the state, and Gladys' best friend, Grace McKee, became her guardian. It was Grace who had told Monroe that someday she would become a movie star. Grace was captivated by Jean Harlow, and would let Norma Jeane wear makeup and take her out to get her hair curled. They would go to the movies together, forming the basis for Norma Jeane's fascination with the cinema and the stars on screen.

Grace McKee married Ervin Silliman (Doc) Goddard in 1935, and nine-year-old Norma Jeane was sent to the Los Angeles Orphans Home (later renamed Hollygrove), and then to a succession of foster homes.^[9] During the time at Hollygrove, several families were interested in adopting her; however, reluctance on Gladys' part to sign adoption papers thwarted those attempts. In 1937, Grace took Norma Jeane back to live with her, Goddard, and one of Goddard's daughters from a previous marriage. This arrangement did not last for long, as she was nearly sexually assaulted by a drunk Doc Goddard on at least one occasion. Grace sent her to live in with her great-aunt, Olive Brunings. This arrangement also did not last long, as 12-year-old Norma Jeane was assaulted (some reports say sexually) by one of Olive's sons. Biographers and psychologists have questioned whether at least some of Norma Jeane's later behavior (i.e. hypersexuality, sleep disturbances, substance abuse, disturbed interpersonal relationships), was a manifestation of the effects of childhood sexual abuse in the context of her already problematic relationships with her psychiatrically ill mother and subsequent caregivers.^[10][11] In early 1938, Grace sent her to live with yet another one of her aunts, Anna Lower, who lived in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles. The time with Lower provided the young Norma Jeane with one of the few stable periods in her life. Years later, she would reflect fondly about the time that she spent with Lower, whom she affectionately called "Aunt Ana." Unfortunately, by 1942, the elderly Lower developed serious health problems, and thus Norma Jeane went back to live with the Goddards. It was there where she met a neighbor's son, James Dougherty, and began a relationship with him.

Her time with the Goddards would once again prove to be short. At the end of 1942, Grace and Doc decided to relocate to Virginia, where Doc had received a lucrative job offer. It is unclear whether the Goddards did not or could not take Norma Jeane with them; nevertheless, Grace needed to find a home for her before they moved. An offer from a neighborhood family to adopt Norma Jeane was proposed but Gladys still would not allow it. With few options left, Grace approached Dougherty's mother and suggested that Jim marry her so that she would not have to return to an orphanage or foster care. Dougherty was initially reluctant because Norma Jeane was only sixteen years old, but he finally relented and married her in a ceremony, arranged by Ana Lower, after graduating from high school in June 1942. Monroe would state in her autobiography that she did not feel like a wife; she enjoyed playing with the neighborhood children until her husband would call her home. In 1943, with World War II raging, Dougherty enlisted in the Merchant Marine and was shipped out to the Pacific. Frightened that he might not come back alive, Norma Jeane begged him to give her a child before he left. Dougherty disagreed, feeling that she was too young to have a baby, but he promised that they would revisit the subject when he returned home. After he shipped out, Norma Jeane moved in with Dougherty's mother.

Career

Modeling and early film work

While Dougherty was in the Merchant Marine, Norma Jeane found employment in the Radioplane Munitions Factory. She sprayed airplane parts with fire retardant and inspected parachutes. During this time, Army photographer David Conover snapped a photograph of her for a Yank magazine article. He encouraged her to apply to The Blue Book Modeling Agency. She signed with the agency and began researching the work of Jean Harlow and Lana Turner. She was told that they were looking for models with lighter hair, so Norma Jeane bleached her brunette hair to a golden blonde.

Norma Jeane Dougherty became one of Blue Book's most successful models, appearing on dozens of magazine covers. Jim Dougherty was oblivious of his wife's new job and only became aware of it when he discovered a shipmate of his admiring a photo of a sexy model in a magazine—and the model was Norma Jeane. Dougherty wrote her several letters telling her that once he returned from service, she would have to give up her modeling. A dissatisfied Norma Jeane, who now saw the possibilities of a modeling and acting career, decided then to divorce Dougherty. The marriage ended when he returned from overseas in 1946.

20th Century Fox contract

Her successful modeling career brought her to the attention of Ben Lyon, a 20th Century Fox executive, who arranged a screen test for her. Lyon was impressed and commented, "It's Jean Harlow all over again."^[12] She was offered a standard six-month contract with a starting salary of $125 per week. Lyon did not like her name and chose "Carole Lind" as a stagename, after Carole Lombard and Jenny Lind, but he soon decided it was not an appropriate choice. Norma Jeane was invited to spend the weekend with Lyon and his wife Bebe Daniels at their home. It was there that they decided to find her a new name. Following her idol Jean Harlow, Norma Jeane decided to choose her mother's maiden name of Monroe. Several variations such as Norma Jeane Monroe and Norma Monroe were tried and initially "Jeane Monroe" was chosen. Lyon, however, felt that there were too many actresses with the name Jean, or a variation of it such as Jean Peters, Gene Tierney, Jeanne Crain, and Jean Arthur. Wanting a more distinctive name, Lyon suggested "Marilyn," commenting that she reminded him of Marilyn Miller, the sexy 1920's Broadway actress. Norma Jeane was initially hesitant due to the fact that Marilyn was the contraction of the name Mary Lynn, a name she did not like. Lyon, however, felt that the name "Marilyn Monroe" was sexy, had a "nice flow," and would be "lucky" due to the double "M" ^[13] and thus Norma Jeane Baker took the name Marilyn Monroe.

She appeared in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! and Dangerous Years (both 1947), but when her contract was not renewed, she returned to modeling. She attempted to find opportunities for film work, and while unemployed, she posed for nude photographs. That year, she was also crowned the first "Miss California Artichoke Queen" at the annual artichoke festival in Castroville.^[14]

Columbia Pictures contract

In 1948, Monroe signed a six-month contract with Columbia Pictures and was introduced to the studio's head drama coach Natasha Lytess, who became her acting coach for several years.^[15] She starred in the low-budget musical Ladies of the Chorus, but the film was not a success, and her contract was not renewed.^[16] During her short stint at Columbia, studio head Harry Cohn softened her appearance somewhat by correcting a slight overbite she had. In addition, he had her golden brownish-blonde hair lightened to platinum blonde.

Other work

She had a small role in the Marx Brothers film Love Happy (1949). She impressed the producers, who sent her to New York to feature in the film's promotional campaign.^[17]

Love Happy brought Monroe to the attention of the talent agent, Johnny Hyde, who agreed to represent her. He arranged for her to audition for John Huston, who cast her in the drama The Asphalt Jungle as the young mistress of an aging criminal. Her performance brought strong reviews,^[17] and was seen by the writer and director, Joseph Mankiewicz. He accepted Hyde's suggestion of Monroe for a small comedic role in All About Eve as Miss Caswell, an aspiring actress, described by another character as a student of "The Copacabana School of Dramatic Art". Mankiewicz later commented that he had seen an innocence in her that he found appealing, and that this had confirmed his belief in her suitability for the role.^[18] Following Monroe's success in these roles, Hyde negotiated a seven-year contract for her with 20th Century Fox, shortly before his death in December 1950.^[19] It was at some time during this 1949-50 period that Hyde arranged for her to have a slight bump of cartilage removed from her somewhat bulbous nose which further softened her appearance and accounts for the slight variation in look she had in films after 1950.

Monroe enrolled at UCLA in 1951 where she studied literature and art appreciation,^[20] and appeared in several minor films playing opposite such long-established performers as Mickey Rooney, Constance Bennett, June Allyson, Dick Powell and Claudette Colbert.^[21] In March 1951, she appeared as a presenter at the 23rd Academy Awards ceremony.^[22]

In 1952, Monroe appeared on the cover of Look magazine wearing a Georgia Tech sweater as part of an article celebrating female enrollment to the school's main campus.

In the early 1950s, Monroe and Gregg Palmer both unsuccessfully auditioned for roles as Daisy Mae and Abner in a proposed Li'l Abner television series based on the Al Capp comic strip, but the effort never materialized.^[23]

Career development

In March 1952, Monroe faced a possible scandal when one of her nude photos from a 1949 session with photographer Tom Kelley was featured in a calendar. The press speculated about the identity of the anonymous model and commented that she closely resembled Monroe. As the studio discussed how to deal with the problem, Monroe suggested that she should simply admit that she had posed for the photograph but that she should emphasize that she had done so only because she had no money to pay her rent.^[24] She gave an interview in which she discussed the circumstances that led to her posing for the photographs, and the resulting publicity elicited a degree of sympathy for her plight as a struggling actress.^[24]

She made her first appearance on the cover of Life magazine in April 1952, where she was described as "The Talk of Hollywood".^[25] Stories of her childhood and upbringing portrayed her in a sympathetic light: a cover story for the May 1952 edition of True Experiences magazine showed a smiling and wholesome Monroe beside a caption that read, "Do I look happy? I should — for I was a child nobody wanted. A lonely girl with a dream — who awakened to find that dream come true. I am Marilyn Monroe. Read my Cinderella story."^[26] It was also during this time that she began dating baseball player Joe DiMaggio. A photograph of DiMaggio visiting Monroe at the 20th Century Fox studio was printed in newspapers throughout the United States, and reports of a developing romance between them generated further interest in Monroe.^[27]

Film success

Over the following months, four films in which Monroe featured were released. She had been lent to RKO Studios to appear in a supporting role in Clash by Night, a Barbara Stanwyck drama, directed by Fritz Lang.^[28] Released in June 1952, the film was popular with audiences, with much of its success credited to curiosity about Monroe, who received generally favorable reviews from critics.^[29]

Niagara

Darryl F. Zanuck considered that Monroe's film potential was worth developing and cast her in Niagara, as a femme fatale scheming to murder her husband, played by Joseph Cotten.^[33] During filming, Monroe's make-up artist Whitey Snyder noticed her stage fright (that would ultimately mark her behavior on film sets throughout her career); the director assigned him to spend hours gently coaxing and comforting Monroe as she prepared to film her scenes.^[34]

Much of the critical commentary following the release of the film focused on Monroe's overtly sexual performance,^[33] and a scene which shows Monroe (from the back) making a long walk toward Niagara Falls received frequent note in reviews.^[35] After seeing the film, Constance Bennett reportedly quipped, "There's a broad with her future behind her."^[36] Whitey Snyder also commented that it was during preparation for this film, after much experimentation, that Monroe achieved "the look, and we used that look for several pictures in a row ... the look was established."^[35]

While the film was a success, and Monroe's performance had positive reviews, her conduct at promotional events sometimes drew negative comments. Her appearance at the Photoplay awards dinner in a skin-tight gold lamé dress was criticized. Louella Parsons' newspaper column quoted Joan Crawford discussing Monroe's "vulgarity" and describing her behavior as "unbecoming an actress and a lady".^[37] Monroe had previously received criticism for wearing a dress with a neckline cut almost to her navel when she acted as Grand Marshall at the Miss America Parade in September 1952.^[38] A photograph from this event was used on the cover of the first issue of Playboy in December 1953, with a nude photograph of Monroe, taken in 1949, inside the magazine.^[39]

Mainstream success

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Her next film was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) co-starring Jane Russell and directed by Howard Hawks. Her role as Lorelei Lee, a gold-digging showgirl, required her to act, sing, and dance. The two stars became friends, with Russell describing Monroe as "very shy and very sweet and far more intelligent than people gave her credit for".^[40] She later recalled that Monroe showed her dedication by rehearsing her dance routines each evening after most of the crew had left, but she arrived habitually late on set for filming. Realizing that Monroe remained in her dressing room due to stage fright, and that Hawks was growing impatient with her tardiness, Russell started escorting her to the set.^[41]

At the Los Angeles premiere of the film, Monroe and Russell pressed their hand- and footprints in the cement in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Monroe received positive reviews and the film grossed more than double its production costs.^[42] Her rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" became associated with her. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes also marked one of the earliest films in which William Travilla dressed Monroe. Travilla dressed Monroe in eight of her films including Bus Stop, Don't Bother to Knock, How to Marry a Millionaire, River of No Return, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Monkey Business, and The Seven Year Itch.^[43]

How to Marry a Millionaire

How to Marry a Millionaire was a comedy about three models scheming to attract a wealthy husband. The film teamed Monroe with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, and was directed by Jean Negulesco.^[44] The producer and scriptwriter, Nunnally Johnson, said that it was the first film in which audiences "liked Marilyn for herself [and that] she diagnosed the reason very shrewdly. She said that it was the only picture she'd been in, in which she had a measure of modesty... about her own attractiveness."^[45]

Monroe's films of this period established her "dumb blonde" persona and contributed to her popularity. In 1953 and 1954, she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the United States for the stars that had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.^[46]

Acting ambitions

During this time, Monroe discussed her acting ambitions, telling the New York Times "I want to grow and develop and play serious dramatic parts. My dramatic coach, Natasha Lytess, tells everybody that I have a great soul, but so far nobody's interested in it."^[47] She saw a possibility in 20th Century Fox's upcoming film, The Egyptian, but was rebuffed by Darryl F. Zanuck who refused to screen test her.^[48]

Instead, she was assigned to the western River of No Return, opposite Robert Mitchum. Director Otto Preminger resented Monroe's reliance on Natasha Lytess, who coached Monroe and announced her verdict at the end of each scene. Eventually Monroe refused to speak to Preminger, and Mitchum had to mediate.^[49] Of the finished product, she commented, "I think I deserve a better deal than a grade Z cowboy movie in which the acting finished second to the scenery and the CinemaScope process."^[50]

In late 1953 Monroe was scheduled to begin filming The Girl in Pink Tights with Frank Sinatra. When she failed to appear for work, 20th Century Fox suspended her.^[51]

She and Joe DiMaggio were married in San Francisco on January 14, 1954. They travelled to Japan soon after, combining a honeymoon with a business trip previously arranged by DiMaggio. For two weeks she took a secondary role to DiMaggio as he conducted his business, telling a reporter, "Marriage is my main career from now on."^[52] Monroe then travelled alone to Korea where she performed for 13,000 American Marines over a three-day period. She later commented that the experience had helped her overcome a fear of performing in front of large crowds.^[53]

Returning to Hollywood in March 1954, Monroe settled her disagreement with 20th Century Fox and appeared in the musical There's No Business Like Show Business. The film failed to recover its production costs ^[50] and was poorly received. Ed Sullivan described Monroe's performance of the song "Heat Wave" as "one of the most flagrant violations of good taste" he had witnessed.^[54] Time magazine compared her unfavorably to co-star Ethel Merman, while Bosley Crowther for The New York Times said that Mitzi Gaynor had surpassed Monroe's "embarrassing to behold" performance.^[55] The reviews echoed Monroe's opinion of the film. She had made it reluctantly, on the assurance that she would be given the starring role in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit The Seven Year Itch.^[56]

The Seven Year Itch

In September 1954, Monroe filmed one of the key scenes for The Seven Year Itch in New York City. In it, she stands with her co-star, Tom Ewell, while the air from a subway grating blows her skirt up. A large crowd watched as director Billy Wilder ordered the scene to be refilmed many times. Among the crowd was Joe DiMaggio, who was reported to have been infuriated by the spectacle.^[57] After a quarrel, witnessed by journalist Walter Winchell, the couple returned to California where they avoided the press for two weeks, until Monroe announced that they had separated.^[58] Their divorce was granted in November 1954.^[59] The filming was completed in early 1955, and after refusing what she considered to be inferior parts in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and How to Be Very, Very Popular, Monroe decided to leave Hollywood on the advice of Milton Greene.

Acting career evolves

Milton Greene had first met Monroe in 1953 when he was assigned to photograph her for Look magazine. While many photographers tried to emphasize her sexy image, Greene presented her in more modest poses, and she was pleased with his work. As a friendship developed between them, she confided in him her frustration with her 20th Century Fox contract and the roles she was offered. Her salary for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes amounted to $18,000, while freelancer Jane Russell was paid more than $100,000.^[60] Greene agreed that she could earn more by breaking away from 20th Century Fox. He gave up his job in 1954, mortgaged his home to finance Monroe, and allowed her to live with his family as they determined the future course of her career.^[61]

On April 8, 1955, veteran journalist Edward R. Murrow interviewed Greene and his wife Amy, as well as Monroe, at the Greene's home in Connecticut on a live telecast of the CBS program Person to Person. The kinescope of the telecast has been released on home video.^[62]

The Actors Studio

Truman Capote introduced Monroe to Constance Collier, who gave her acting lessons. She felt that Monroe was not suited to stage acting, but possessed a "lovely talent" that was "so fragile and subtle, it can only be caught by the camera". After only a few weeks of lessons, Collier died.^[63] Monroe had met Paula Strasberg and her daughter Susan on the set of There's No Business Like Show Business,^[64] and had previously said that she would like to study with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. In March 1955, Monroe met with Cheryl Crawford, one of the founders of the Actors Studio, and convinced her to introduce her to Lee Strasberg, who interviewed her the following day and agreed to accept her as a student.^[65]

In May 1955, Monroe started dating playwright Arthur Miller; they had met in Hollywood in 1950 and when Miller discovered she was in New York, he arranged for a mutual friend to reintroduce them.^[66] On June 1, 1955, Monroe's birthday, Joe DiMaggio accompanied Monroe to the premiere of The Seven Year Itch in New York City. He later hosted a birthday party for her, but the evening ended with a public quarrel, and Monroe left the party without him. A lengthy period of estrangement followed.^[67][68]

Throughout 1955, Monroe studied with the Actors Studio, and found that one of her biggest obstacles was her severe stage fright. She was befriended by the actors Kevin McCarthy and Eli Wallach who each recalled her as studious and sincere in her approach to her studies, and noted that she tried to avoid attention by sitting quietly in the back of the class.^[69] When Strasberg felt Monroe was ready to give a performance in front of her peers, Monroe and Maureen Stapleton chose the opening scene from Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, and although she had faltered during each rehearsal, she was able to complete the performance without forgetting her lines.^[70] Kim Stanley later recalled that students were discouraged from applauding, but that Monroe's performance had resulted in spontaneous applause from the audience.^[70] While Monroe was a student, Lee Strasberg commented, "I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of actors and actresses, and there are only two that stand out way above the rest. Number one is Marlon Brando, and the second is Marilyn Monroe."^[70]

20th Century Fox return

The Seven Year Itch was released and became a success, earning an estimated $8 million.^[71] Monroe received positive reviews for her performance and was in a strong position to negotiate with 20th Century Fox.^[71] On New Year's Eve 1955, they signed a new contract which required Monroe to make four films over a seven-year period. The newly formed Marilyn Monroe Productions would be paid $100,000 plus a share of profits for each film. In addition to being able to work for other studios, Monroe had the right to reject any script, director or cinematographer she did not approve of.^[72][73]

Bus Stop

The first film to be made under the contract and production company was Bus Stop directed by Joshua Logan. Logan had studied under Konstantin Stanislavsky, approved of method acting, and was supportive of Monroe.^[74] Monroe severed contact with her drama coach, Natasha Lytess, replacing her with Paula Strasberg, who became a constant presence during the filming of Monroe's subsequent films.^[75]

In Bus Stop, Monroe played Chérie, a saloon singer with little talent who falls in love with a cowboy. Her costumes, make-up and hair reflected a character who lacked sophistication, and Monroe provided deliberately mediocre singing and dancing. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times proclaimed: "Hold on to your chairs, everybody, and get set for a rattling surprise. Marilyn Monroe has finally proved herself an actress." In his autobiography, Movie Stars, Real People and Me, director Logan wrote: "I found Marilyn to be one of the great talents of all time... she struck me as being a much brighter person than I had ever imagined, and I think that was the first time I learned that intelligence and, yes, brilliance have nothing to do with education." Logan championed Monroe for an Academy Award nomination and complimented her professionalism until the end of his life.^[76] Though not nominated for an Academy Award,^[77] she received a Golden Globe nomination.

During this time, the relationship between Monroe and Miller had developed, and although the couple were able to maintain their privacy for almost a year, the press began to write about them as a couple,^[78] often referred to as "The Egghead and The Hourglass".^[79] The reports of their romance were soon overtaken by news that Miller had been called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee to explain his supposed communist affiliations. Called upon to identify communists he was acquainted with, Miller refused and was charged with contempt of Congress. He was acquitted on appeal.^[80] During the investigation, Monroe was urged by film executives to abandon Miller, rather than risk her career but she refused, later branding them as "born cowards".^[80] The press began to discuss an impending marriage, but Monroe and Miller refused to confirm the rumor. In June 1956, a reporter was following them by car, and as they attempted to elude him, the reporter's car crashed, killing a female passenger. Monroe became hysterical upon hearing the news, and their engagement was announced, partly in the expectation that it would reduce the excessive media interest they were being subjected to.^[79] They were married on June 29, 1956.

The Prince and the Showgirl

Bus Stop was followed by The Prince and the Showgirl directed by Laurence Olivier, who also co-starred. Prior to filming, Olivier praised Monroe as "a brilliant comedienne, which to me means she is also an extremely skilled actress". During filming in England he resented Monroe's dependence on her drama coach, Paula Strasberg, regarding Strasberg as a fraud whose only talent was the ability to "butter Marilyn up". He recalled his attempts at explaining a scene to Monroe, only to hear Strasberg interject, "Honey — just think of Coca-Cola and Frank Sinatra."^[81]

Despite Monroe and Olivier clashing, Olivier later commented that in the film "Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all."^[82] Monroe's performance was hailed by critics, especially in Europe, where she won the David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent of the Academy Award, as well as the French Crystal Star Award. She was also nominated for a BAFTA.

Later films

It was more than a year before Monroe began her next film. During her hiatus, she summered with Miller in Amagansett, Long Island. She suffered a miscarriage on August 1, 1957.^[83][84]

Some Like it Hot

With Miller's encouragement she returned to Hollywood in August 1958 to star in Some Like it Hot. The film was directed by Billy Wilder and co-stared Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Wilder had experienced Monroe's tardiness, stage fright, and inability to remember lines during production of The Seven Year Itch. However her behavior was now more hostile, and was marked by refusals to participate in filming and occasional outbursts of profanity.^[85] Monroe consistently refused to take direction from Wilder, or insisted on numerous retakes of simple scenes until she was satisfied.^[86] She developed a rapport with Lemmon, but she disliked Curtis after hearing that he had described their love scenes as "like kissing Hitler".^[87] Curtis later stated that the comment was intended as a joke.^[88] During filming, Monroe discovered that she was pregnant. She suffered another miscarriage in December 1958, as filming was completed.^[89]

Some Like it Hot became a resounding success, and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Monroe was acclaimed for her performance and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Wilder commented that the film was the biggest success he had ever been associated with.^[90] He discussed the problems he encountered during filming, saying "Marilyn was so difficult because she was totally unpredictable. I never knew what kind of day we were going to have... would she be cooperative or obstructive?"^[91] He had little patience with her method acting technique and said that instead of going to the Actors Studio "she should have gone to a train-engineer's school ... to learn something about arriving on schedule."^[92] Wilder had become ill during filming, and explained, "We were in mid-flight – and there was a nut on the plane."^[93] In hindsight, he discussed Monroe's "certain indefinable magic" and "absolute genius as a comic actress."^[91]

Let's Make Love

By this time, Monroe had only completed one film, Bus Stop, under her four picture contract with 20th Century Fox. She agreed to appear in Let's Make Love, which was to be directed by George Cukor, but she was not satisfied with the script, and Arthur Miller rewrote it.^[94] Gregory Peck was originally cast in the male lead role, but he refused the role after Miller's rewrite; Cary Grant, Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and Rock Hudson also refused the role before it was offered to Yves Montand.^[95] Monroe and Miller befriended Montand and his wife, actress Simone Signoret, and filming progressed well until Miller was required to travel to Europe on business. Monroe began to leave the film set early and on several occasions failed to attend, but her attitude improved after Montand confronted her. Signoret returned to Europe to make a film, and Monroe and Montand began a brief affair that ended when Montand refused to leave Signoret.^[96] The film was not a critical or commercial success.^[97]

Monroe's health deteriorated during this period, and she began to see a Los Angeles psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson. He later recalled that during this time she frequently complained of insomnia, and told Greenson that she visited several medical doctors to obtain what Greenson considered an excessive variety of drugs. He concluded that she was progressing to the point of addiction, but also noted that she could give up the drugs for extended periods without suffering any withdrawal symptoms.^[98] According to Greenson, the marriage between Miller and Monroe was strained; he said that Miller appeared to genuinely care for Monroe and was willing to help her, but that Monroe rebuffed while also expressing resentment towards him for not doing more to help her.^[99] Greenson stated that his main objective at the time was to enforce a drastic reduction in Monroe's drug intake.^[100]

The Misfits

In 1956 Arthur Miller had lived briefly in Nevada and wrote a short story about some of the local people he had become acquainted with, a divorced woman and some aging cowboys. By 1960 he had developed the short story into a screenplay, and envisaged it as containing a suitable role for Monroe. It became her last completed film, The Misfits, directed by John Huston and costarring Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter. Shooting commenced in July 1960, with most taking place in the hot Northern Nevada desert^[101]. Monroe was frequently ill and unable to perform, and away from the influence of Dr. Greenson, she had resumed her consumption of sleeping pills and alcohol.^[100] A visitor to the set, Susan Strasberg, later described Monroe as "mortally injured in some way,"^[102] and in August, Monroe was rushed to Los Angeles where she was hospitalized for ten days. Newspapers reported that she had been near death, although the nature of her illness was not disclosed.^[103] Louella Parsons wrote in her newspaper column that Monroe was "a very sick girl, much sicker than at first believed," and disclosed that she was being treated by a psychiatrist.^[103]

Monroe returned to Nevada and completed the film, but she became hostile towards Arthur Miller, and public arguments were reported by the press.^[104] Making the film had proved to be an arduous experience for the actors; in addition to Monroe's distress, Montgomery Clift had frequently been unable to perform due to illness, and by the final day of shooting, Thelma Ritter was in hospital suffering from exhaustion. Gable, commenting that he felt unwell, left the set without attending the wrap party.^[105] Monroe and Miller returned to New York on separate flights.^[106]

Within ten days Monroe had announced her separation from Miller, and Gable had died from a heart attack.^[107] Gable's widow, Kay, commented to Louella Parsons that it had been the "eternal waiting" on the set of The Misfits that had contributed to his death, though she did not name Monroe. When reporters asked Monroe if she felt guilty about Gable's death, she refused to answer,^[108] but the journalist Sidney Skolsky recalled that privately she expressed regret for her poor treatment of Gable during filming and described her as being in "a dark pit of despair."^[109] Monroe later attended the christening of the Gables' son, at the invitation of Kay Gable.^[109]

The Misfits received mediocre reviews, and was not a commercial success, though some praised the performances of Monroe and Gable.^[109] Huston later commented that Monroe's performance was not acting in the true sense, and that she had drawn from her own experiences to show herself, rather than a character. "She had no techniques. It was all the truth. It was only Marilyn."^[109]

During the following months, Monroe's dependence on alcohol and prescription medications began to take a toll on her health, and friends such as Susan Strasberg later spoke of her illness.^[110] Her divorce from Arthur Miller was finalized in January 1961, with Monroe citing "incompatibility of character,"^[110] and in February she voluntarily entered the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. Monroe later described the experience as a "nightmare".^[111] She was able to phone Joe DiMaggio from the clinic, and he immediately traveled from Florida to New York to facilitate her transfer to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. She remained there for three weeks. Illness prevented her from working for the remainder of the year; she underwent surgery to correct a blockage in her Fallopian tubes in May, and the following month underwent gall bladder surgery.^[112] She returned to California and lived in a rented apartment as she convalesced.

Something's Got to Give

In 1962 Monroe began filming Something's Got to Give, which was to be the third film of her four-film contract with 20th Century Fox. It was to be directed by George Cukor, and co-starred Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. She was ill with a virus as filming commenced, and suffered from high temperatures and recurrent sinusitis. On one occasion she refused to perform with Martin as he had a cold, and the producer Henry Weinstein recalled seeing her on several occasions being physically ill as she prepared to film her scenes, and attributed it to her dread of performing. He commented, "Very few people experience terror. We all experience anxiety, unhappiness, heartbreaks, but that was sheer primal terror."^[113]

On May 19, 1962, she attended the birthday celebration of President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, at the suggestion of Kennedy's brother-in-law, actor Peter Lawford. Monroe performed "Happy Birthday" along with a specially written verse based on Bob Hope's "Thanks for the Memory". Kennedy responded to her performance with the remark, "Thank you. I can now retire from politics after having had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way."^[114]

Monroe returned to the set of Something's Got to Give and filmed a sequence in which she appeared nude in a swimming pool. Commenting that she wanted to "push Liz Taylor off the magazine covers," she gave permission for several partially nude photographs to be published by Life. Having only reported for work on twelve occasions out of a total of 35 days of production,^[113] Monroe was dismissed. The studio 20th Century Fox filed a lawsuit against her for half a million dollars,^[115] and the studio's vice president, Peter Levathes, issued a statement saying "The star system has gotten way out of hand. We've let the inmates run the asylum, and they've practically destroyed it."^[115] Monroe was replaced by Lee Remick, and when Dean Martin refused to work with any other actress, he was also threatened with a lawsuit.^[115]

New Directions

Following her dismissal, Monroe engaged in several high-profile publicity ventures. She gave an interview to Cosmopolitan and was photographed at Peter Lawford's beach house sipping champagne and walking on the beach.^[116] She next posed for Bert Stern for Vogue in a series of photographs that included several nudes.^[116] Published after her death, they became known as 'The Last Sitting'. Richard Meryman interviewed her for Life, in which Monroe reflected upon her relationship with her fans and her uncertainties in identifying herself as a "star" and a "sex symbol." She referred to the events surrounding Arthur Miller's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956, and her studio's warning that she would be "finished" if she showed public support for him, and commented, "You have to start all over again. But I believe you're always as good as your potential. I now live in my work and in a few relationships with the few people I can really count on. Fame will go by, and, so long, I've had you fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live."^[117]

In the final weeks of her life, Monroe engaged in discussions about future film projects, and firm arrangements were made to continue negotiations.^[118] Among the projects was a biography of Jean Harlow later filmed unsuccessfully with Carroll Baker. Starring roles in Billy Wilder's Irma La Douce^[119] and What a Way to Go! were also discussed; Shirley MacLaine eventually played the roles in both films. Kim Novak replaced her in Kiss Me, Stupid, a comedy in which she was to star opposite Dean Martin. A film version of the Broadway musical, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, and an unnamed World War I–themed musical co-starring Gene Kelly were also discussed, but the projects did not occur.^[118] Her dispute with 20th Century Fox was resolved, and her contract renewed into a $1 million two-picture deal, and filming of Something's Got to Give was scheduled to resume in early fall 1962. Also on the table was an Italian film offer worth several million giving her script, director and co-star approval.^[120] Allan "Whitey" Snyder who saw her during the last week of her life, said Monroe was pleased by the opportunities available to her, and that she "never looked better [and] was in great spirits."^[118]

Death and aftermath

On August 5, 1962, LAPD police sergeant Jack Clemmons received a call at 4:25 a.m. from Dr. Ralph Greenson, Monroe's psychiatrist, proclaiming that Monroe was found dead at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California.^[121] She was 36 years old. At the subsequent autopsy, eight milligram percent of Chloral Hydrate and 4.5 milligram percent of Nembutal were found in her system,^[122] and Dr. Thomas Noguchi of the Los Angeles County Coroners office recorded cause of death as "acute barbiturate poisoning," resulting from a "probable suicide".^[123] Many theories, including murder, circulated about the circumstances of her death and the timeline after the body was found. Some conspiracy theories involved John and Robert Kennedy, while other theories suggested CIA or Mafia complicity.^[124][125]

On August 8, 1962, Monroe was interred in a crypt at Corridor of Memories #24, at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles. Lee Strasberg delivered the eulogy. The crypt space immediately to the left of Monroe's was bought and reserved by Hugh Hefner in 1992.^[126]

In August 2009, the crypt space directly above that of Monroe was placed for auction^[127] on eBay. Elsie Poncher plans to exhume her husband and move him to an adjacent plot. She advertised the crypt, hoping "to make enough money to pay off the $1.6 million mortgage" on her Beverly Hills mansion.^[126] The winning bid was placed by an anonymous Japanese man for $4.6 million,^[128] but the winning bidder later backed out "because of the paying problem" ^[129]

Administration of estate

In her will, Monroe left Lee Strasberg her personal effects, which amounted to just over half of her residuary estate. She expressed her desire that he "distribute [the effects] among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted."^[130] Instead, he stored them in a warehouse, and willed them to his widow, Anna. Inez Melson successfully sued Los Angeles-based Odyssey Auctions in 1994 to prevent the sale of items taken by Monroe's former business manager. In October 1999, Christie's auctioned the bulk of the items, including those recovered from Melson's family, netting US $13,405,785.

Anna Strasberg then sued the children of four photographers to determine rights of publicity, which permits the licensing of images of deceased personages for commercial purposes. The decision was worth millions as to whether Monroe was a resident of California (where she died) or New York (where her will was probated).^[131]

On May 4, 2007, a judge in New York ruled that Monroe's rights of publicity ended at death.^{[132][133][134]} In October 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 771.^[135] The legislation was supported by Strasberg and the Screen Actors Guild,^[136] and established that non-family members may inherit rights of publicity through the residuary clause of the deceased's will, provided that the person was a resident of California at the time of death.^[137]

In March 2008, the United States District Court in Los Angeles ruled that Monroe was a resident of New York at the time of her death, citing that the executor of her estate told California tax authorities as much, and that a 1966 sworn affidavit by her housekeeper quoted Monroe as saying that she considered New York City her primary residence.^[138] The decision was reaffirmed by the United States District Court of New York in September 2008.^[139]

Personal life

Monroe had three marriages, first to James Dougherty, then to Joe DiMaggio, and lastly Arthur Miller. It was also widely rumored that she had had an affair with President John F. Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert Kennedy, or both. Marlon Brando, in his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me, also claimed that he had had a relationship with her.

James Dougherty

Monroe married James Dougherty on June 19, 1942, at the home of Chester Howell in Los Angeles. In The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe and To Norma Jeane with Love, Jimmie, he claimed they were in love, but dreams of stardom lured her away. In 1953, he wrote a piece called "Marilyn Monroe Was My Wife" for Photoplay, in which he claimed that she threatened to jump off the Santa Monica Pier if he left her. In the 2004 documentary Marilyn's Man, Dougherty made three new claims: that he invented the "Marilyn Monroe" persona; studio executives forced her to divorce him; and that he was her true love and her "dedicated friend for life."

Dougherty's actions seem to contradict these claims: he remarried months after Monroe divorced him; his sister told the December 1952 Modern Screen Magazine that he left Monroe because she wanted to pursue modeling, after he initially gave her permission to do so; he confirmed Monroe's version of the beginning of their relationship in an A&E Network Monroe documentary that his mother had asked him to marry her so that she would not be returned to an orphanage. On Monroe's death, August 5, 1962, one of the responding officers knows Jim Dougherty and phones him at 4:00 a.m. with the news. Dougherty turns to his wife and says, "Say a prayer for Norma Jean. She's dead." Most telling, on August 6, The New York Times reported that, on being informed of her death, Dougherty replied "I'm sorry" and continued his LAPD patrol. He did not attend Monroe's funeral.

Joe DiMaggio

In 1951, Joe DiMaggio saw a picture of Monroe with Chicago White Sox players Joe Dobson and Gus Zernial, but did not ask the man who arranged the stunt to set up a date until 1952. Monroe wrote in My Story that she did not want to meet him, fearing a stereotypical jock. They eloped at San Francisco City Hall on January 14, 1954. During their honeymoon in Japan, she was asked to visit Korea as part of the USO. She performed ten shows in four days for over 100,000 servicemen.

Maury Allen quoted New York Yankees PR man Arthur Richman that Joe told him that the marriage went wrong from then. On September 14, 1954, Monroe filmed the skirt-blowing scene for The Seven Year Itch in front of New York's Trans-Lux Theater. Bill Kobrin, then Fox's east coast correspondent, told the Palm Springs Desert Sun in 1956 that it was Billy Wilder's idea to turn the shoot into a media circus, and that the couple had a "yelling battle" in the theater lobby.^[140] She filed for divorce on grounds of mental cruelty 274 days after the wedding.

In February 1961, Monroe was admitted to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. She contacted DiMaggio, who secured her release. She later joined him in Florida, where he was serving as a batting coach at the New York Yankees' training camp. Bob Hope jokingly dedicated Best Song nominee The Second Time Around to them at the 1961 Academy Awards.

According to Allen, on August 1, 1962, DiMaggio – alarmed by how Monroe had fallen in with people he considered detrimental to her well-being – quit his job with a PX supplier to ask her to remarry him.

After Monroe's death, DiMaggio claimed her body and arranged her funeral. For 20 years, he had a half-dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week.

In 2006, DiMaggio's adopted granddaughters auctioned the bulk of his estate, which featured two letters Monroe penned to him and a photograph signed "I love you, Joe, Marilyn."^[141]

Arthur Miller

On June 29, 1956, Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller, whom she first met in 1950, in a civil ceremony in White Plains, New York. City Court Judge Seymour Robinowitz presided over the hushed ceremony in the law office of Sam Slavitt (the wedding had been kept secret from both the press and the public). Monroe and Miller wed again two days later in a Jewish ceremony before a small group of guests. Rabbi Robert E. Goldburg, a Reform rabbi at Congregation Mishkan Israel, presided over the ceremony.^[142] Their nuptials were celebrated at the home of Miller's literary agent, Kay Brown, in Westchester County, NY. Some 30 friends and relatives attended the hastily arranged party. Less than two weeks after the wedding, the Millers flew to London, where they were greeted at Parkside House by Laurence Olivier and wife Vivien Leigh. Marilyn created chaos among the normally staid British press. In reflecting on his courtship of Monroe, Miller wrote, "She was a whirling light to me then, all paradox and enticing mystery, street-tough one moment, then lifted by a lyrical and poetic sensitivity that few retain past early adolescence."^[143] Nominally raised as a Christian, she converted to Judaism before marrying Miller.^{[144][145][146][147]} After she finished shooting The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier, the couple returned to the United States from England and discovered she was pregnant.

Miller's screenplay for The Misfits, a story about a despairing divorcée, was meant to be a Valentine gift for his wife, but by the time filming started in 1960 their marriage was beyond repair. A Mexican divorce was granted on January 24, 1961 in Ciudad Juarez by Francisco José Gómez Fraire. On February 17, 1962, Miller married Inge Morath, one of the Magnum photographers recording the making of The Misfits.

In January 1964, Miller's play After The Fall opened, featuring a beautiful and devouring shrew named Maggie. Simone Signoret noted in her autobiography the morbidity of Miller and Elia Kazan resuming their professional association "over a casket." In interviews and in his autobiography, Miller insisted that Maggie was not based on Monroe. However, he never pretended that his last Broadway-bound work, Finishing the Picture, was not based on the making of The Misfits. He appeared in the documentary The Century of the Self, lamenting the psychological work being done on her before her death.

The Kennedys

On May 18, 1962, Monroe made her last significant public appearance, singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at a birthday party for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. The dress that she wore to the event, specially designed and made for her by Jean Louis, sold at an auction in 1999 for USD $1.26 million.^[148]

Rumors have existed since the 1960s that Monroe had affairs with Robert Kennedy or John Kennedy, or both.^[149] Allegations of an affair with President Kennedy did not make it into the mainstream press until the 1970s, but a pamphlet was published in 1964, after Monroe's death, entitled The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe, by investigator Frank Cappell. It alleged a relationship between Monroe and Bobby Kennedy.^[149] JFK's reputed mistress Judith Exner, in her 1977 autobiography, also wrote about an affair that she said the president and Monroe had.^[149]

Journalist Anthony Summers examines the issue of Monroe's relationships with the Kennedy brothers at length in two books: his 1993 biography of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, entitled Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, and his 1985 biography of Monroe, entitled Goddess. In the Hoover book, Summers concludes that Monroe was in love with President Kennedy and wanted to marry him in the early 1960s; that she called the White House frequently; and that, when the married President had to break off their affair, Monroe became even more depressed, and then turned to Robert Kennedy, who may have visited Monroe in Los Angeles about the time that she died.^[150]

Patricia Seaton Lawford, the fourth wife of actor Peter Lawford, also deals with the Monroe — Kennedy matters in her 1988 biography of Peter Lawford, entitled The Peter Lawford Story. Lawford's first wife was Patricia Kennedy Lawford, the sister of John and Robert; Lawford was very close to the Kennedy family for over a decade, including the time of Monroe's death.

Discography:Marilyn Monroe All List information

Marilyn Monroe Youtube Videos

 Happy Birthday Mr. President

 Marilyn Monroe - I Wanna Be Loved By You

 The Life And Death Of Marilyn Monroe

 Marilyn Monroe returns to Hollywood

 Marilyn Monroe on Jack Benny Show 1953

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