Hollywood’s biggest icon and actress Marilyn Monroe, who today is remembered for her signature platinum blonde hair and ditsy personality in her movies.
Norma Jeanne was born on June 26, 1926, in Los Angeles (her mother was born in Mexico). Having no clue who her father was, she was raised by her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, who would end up getting sent to a mental institution. Monroe spent most of her childhood in foster care. At just the age of 16, she married police officer James Doughtery out of fear of being put into an orphanage after her foster parents couldn’t afford to take care of her anymore. They divorced in 1946 due to his opposition to her acting career.
She would inspect parachutes for WWII, where she met photographer David Conover who had been asked to be there by the First Motion Pictures Unit to take photos of the girls to boost morale. She left the army in 1945 to start her career as a pin-up model, still taken by Conover. In 1946, she signed another contract, but this time for acting, after failing a screen test for Paramount Pictures, she was offered a test at 20th Century Fox. With this contract came her iconic new name, Marilyn Monroe, and signature platinum blonde look. Her inspiration for the name was from her mother’s maiden name.
At Fox, she landed her first acting role in the 1947 film “Dangerous Years.” However, it was just a minor role as a waitress, this is her first on-screen credit. A notable role of hers would be Miss Cassewell in the critically acclaimed “All About Eve” (1950) where she stated she felt like people were finally taking her seriously as an actress. Her true rise to stardom would be Rose Lummis in Niagara (1953). Which would help her land two more roles that same year, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “How to Marry a Millionaire.”
Monroe ended up getting into a fight with the studio that same year for constantly casting her in oversexualizing roles, she was put to leave in January of 1954. In the meantime she married famous baseball player Joe Dimaggio, allowing the wedding to be photographed as much as possible to somewhat spite the studio. Although she would continue to play these sexualized roles in 1955, she would team up with Milton Greene so she could open up her own production company to go against the studios and be able to put herself into roles she would enjoy, Fox ended up taking her back agreeing and signing her a new contract allowing her to use MMP (Marilyn Monroe productions) on one film.
Her first picture back with them would be “The Seven Year Itch,” based on the already critically acclaimed Broadway show, this is the movie where her iconic white cocktail dress lifting would happen, in public this was a major success at the box office because of the scene. However, in her private life her husband already wasn’t a big fan of her “sex symbol” picture so this had been his “breaking point” with her, she would file for a divorce that same year.
By 1956 she legally changed her name to Marilyn Monroe and married Arthur Miller, this marriage converted her to Judaism, and that same year she found out she was pregnant. Unfortunately, it was a miscarriage. In 1957, she took a break from acting to focus on her personal life. she found out that she was pregnant again, but unfortunately, this was an ectopic pregnancy, meaning the egg could not survive outside the uterus. She also had her first overdose after this, causing Monroe’s health to decline drastically.
She came to Hollywood the following year to star in another wilder film, “Some Like It Hot,” during the filming, many would see Monroe’s health issues. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis recall her always being late to set and reshooting her lines a lot, Wilder didn’t often care if the men didn’t like how they delivered their lines in a scene, if Monroe thought she did good he kept it. However, it was revealed to Curtis on set that she was pregnant, which he believed was the main reason for her “complications.” “She was worried about her unborn child,” said Curtis. Unfortunately, this would be Monroe’s second miscarriage. She once said, “The thing I want more than anything else? I want to have children.” Jack Lemmon once said in an interview that he and Marilyn were good friends but “She wouldn’t let you get too close to her, she didn’t want anyone to see the real her.”
Public Domain Photo: Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Montogomery Clift (behind Monroe), and Thelma Ritter in ¨The Misfits¨
In 1961, she began to shoot “The Misfits,” which would be the final film of both her and her childhood movie idol, Clark Gable. This movie also featured Montgomery Clift, this was a gift scripted by her husband Arthur Miller to be able to give her a role she wanted, it was a serious one, but sadly, this movie was a major box-office flop.
She would film another movie after “The Misfits” titled “Somethings Got to Give” with Dean Martin but it was never finished due to Monroe’s sudden death.
Monroe was found dead in her LA home on August 5th, 1962. She was found lying nude on her stomach with a telephone in one hand and a bottle of pills that were given to cure her depression in the other, her death was ruled as a ¨Probable suicide.¨
Public Domain Photo: Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Marilyn Monroe to this day remains a timeless icon, truly ahead of her time and smarter than what people give her credit for. She has influenced fashion, beauty, singers such as Madonna, and actresses. She spoke up about how the studios treated women, and she built her way up to fame and didn’t let anyone tell her she couldn’t. It is notable that she once said in LIFE magazine on August 3rd, 1962, just a few days before her death “Please don’t make me look like a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.”
