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Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962), born Norma Jeane
Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, 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. She 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, and became one
of Hollywood's most popular and glamorous performers
Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926 – August 5,
1962), was a Golden Globe Award-winning American actress, singer, model
and pop icon. She was known for her comedic skills and screen presence,
going on to become one of the most popular movie stars of the 1950s and
early 1960s. At the later stages of her career, she worked towards
serious roles with a measure of success. However, she faced
disappointments in her career and personal life during her later years.
Her death has been subject to speculation and conspiracy theories. |
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. 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.
Marilyn
Monroe -
Balcony
Poster
Marilyn
Monroe,
Chanel No.
5 Poster
Fur;
Coat, Mink,
Monroe Poster
Marilyn
Monroe The
Legend
Marilyn
Monroe Triptych
print
Marilyn
Monroe print
Marilyn
Monroe 1954
Marilyn
Monroe Portrait print
- 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
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Foster sister: Eleanor Goddard. born in December 1926; died on February 11, 2000
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Half-sister: Bernice Miracle.
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Mother: Gladys Baker. spent years institutionalized for psychiatric problems
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Step-father: C Stanley Gifford.
Education
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Actors Studio, New York, New York, 1955
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Van Nuys High School, Van Nuys, California
Milestones
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1945 Became model at Blue Book Agency
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1946 Screen test at 20th Century-Fox; signed contract that was dropped the following year
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1948 Signed contract with Columbia; dropped after one film
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1950 Signed seven-year contract with Fox
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1962 Fired by 20th Century-Fox
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Formed Marilyn Monroe productions with photographer Milton H Greene
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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)
Movies and Books and Music Album Information
"The Legend of Marilyn Monroe" (1963)
retro black&white film with Marilyn Monroe starring
From her turbulent childhood when her mother vanished beyond the dark
wall of mental illness, through her short stays at various orphanages
and foster homes to her marriage at sixteen to James Dougherty.
Relive Marilyn's first exposure during World War II as a calendar girl
for the war effort, one of her first performances in Ladies of the
Chorus, and acting debut in "Asphalt Jungle", then into the limelight
as a glamorous Hollywood superstar: "The Legend of Marilyn Monroe",
lifts the veil of intrigue and depicts the essence of the legendary
Norma Jean Baker we grew to love as Marilyn Monroe.
Starring: Marilyn Monroe
Director: Terry Sanders
Production Company: ABC
Run time: 52 min
Marilyn Monroe and the Camera
The most beautiful photo book on Marilyn ever published! All iconic
images from Avedon to Weegee. Marilyn Monroe posed for nearly every
major photographer of her day. This pictorial chronicle features
pictures by Richard Avendon, Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson,
Alfred Eisenstaedt, Elliott Erwitt, Philippe Halsman, Weegee, and
thirty other artists: her early days as a model for ads and pinup
calendars, film stills that follow her career from a minor actress to a
major star, famous master portraits and shots by paparazzi who trailed
her every move.
Marilyn emerges in all her moods - young and carefree, sexy and
serious, glamorous and girl-next-door. In a fascinating and revealing
interview with French writer Georges Belmont Marilyn sets the record
straight about her early life, her ambitions, fears, and dreams. Jane
Russell, a friend of Marilyn's and her co-star in Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes, wrote an affectionate foreword.
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
From New York Times bestselling author J. Randy Taraborrelli comes the
definitive biography of the most enduring icon in popular American
culture.
When Marilyn Monroe became famous in the 1950s, the world was told that
her mother was either dead or simply not a part of her life. However,
that was not true. In fact, her mentally ill mother was very much
present in Marilyn's world and the complex family dynamic that unfolded
behind the scenes is a story that has never before been told...until
now. In this groundbreaking book, Taraborrelli draws complex and
sympathetic portraits of the women so influential in the actress' life,
including her mother, her foster mother, and her legal guardian. He
also reveals, for the first time, the shocking scope of Marilyn's own
mental illness, the identity of Marilyn's father and the half-brother
she never knew, and new information about her relationship with the
Kennedy's-Bobby, Jack, and Pat Kennedy Lawford. Explosive, revelatory,
and surprisingly moving, this is the final word on the life of one of
the most fascinating and elusive icons of the 20th Century.
Marilyn Monroe and the Camera by Jane Russell
The most beautiful photo book on Marilyn ever published! All iconic
images from Avedon to Weegee. Marilyn Monroe posed for nearly every
major photographer of her day. This pictorial chronicle features
pictures by Richard Avendon, Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson,
Alfred Eisenstaedt, Elliott Erwitt, Philippe Halsman, Weegee, and
thirty other artists: her early days as a model for ads and pinup
calendars, film stills that follow her career from a minor actress to a
major star, famous master portraits and shots by paparazzi who trailed
her every move.
Marilyn emerges in all her moods - young and carefree, sexy and
serious, glamorous and girl-next-door. In a fascinating and revealing
interview with French writer Georges Belmont Marilyn sets the record
straight about her early life, her ambitions, fears, and dreams. Jane
Russell, a friend of Marilyn's and her co-star in Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes, wrote an affectionate foreword.
Marilyn Monroe and the Camara (Photography)
The most beautiful photo book on Marilyn ever published! All iconic
images from Avedon to Weegee. Marilyn Monroe posed for nearly every
major photographer of her day. This pictorial chronicle features
pictures by Richard Avendon, Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson,
Alfred Eisenstaedt, Elliott Erwitt, Philippe Halsman, Weegee, and
thirty other artists: her early days as a model for ads and pinup
calendars, film stills that follow her career from a minor actress to a
major star, famous master portraits and shots by paparazzi who trailed
her every move.
Marilyn emerges in all her moods - young and carefree, sexy and
serious, glamorous and girl-next-door. In a fascinating and revealing
interview with French writer Georges Belmont Marilyn sets the record
straight about her early life, her ambitions, fears, and dreams. Jane
Russell, a friend of Marilyn's and her co-star in Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes, wrote an affectionate foreword.
Marilyn Monroe - Goodbye, Primadonna
Although film actress and Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe has
been the subject of a large number of albums, she rarely stepped into a
recording studio to make a commercial recording and only appeared in
five real movie musicals (with a few other musical performances in her
straight films), making for a total record and soundtrack output of
less than three dozen titles that are recycled endlessly along with
bits of movie dialogue and radio and TV appearances on the frequent
reissues. Nevertheless, she had a good voice that matched her seductive
visual appeal, and her limited catalog includes effective
interpretations of the work of such songwriters as Harold Adamson and
Hoagy Carmichael; Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer; Irving Berlin; Sammy
Cahn and James Van Heusen; Cole Porter; and Leo Robin and Jule Styne.
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
The Seven Year Itch is a three-act play, written by George Axelrod.
Billed as a romantic comedy, the play was first presented by Courtney
Burr and Elliot Nugent at the Fulton Theatre, New York City, on
November 20, 1952. The cast included Tom Ewell (Richard Sherman), Neva
Patterson (Helen Sherman), Vanessa Brown (The Girl), Robert Emhardt
(Dr. Brubaker) and George Keane (Tom Mackenzie). The production was
directed by John Gerstad, with set and lighting by Frederick Fox.
In 1955, 20th Century Fox released a film adaptation starring Marilyn
Monroe and Tom Ewell. It was directed by Billy Wilder and presented in
DeLuxe Color CinemaScope. Often cited as one of the great comedies of
its time, the film version won critical acclaim and became the biggest
US box office hit in the summer of 1955. It contains one of the most
iconic images of the 20th Century in which Marilyn Monroe's dress is
blown up above her waist by a passing train underneath a subway grate
she is standing on. A famous quote, "Isn't it delicious?" has
originated from this scene and was even posed as a question on the game
show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Marilyn Monroe Links
Marilyn and the Camera
The Official Site
Ellen's Place
Internet Movie Database |
Marilyn
Monroe
Links 
Nature Photography Wallpapers
various
star
photo wallpaper
