| Caption | in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) |
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| Birth name | Norma Jeane Mortenson |
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| Birth date | June 01, 1926 |
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| Birth place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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| Death date | August 05, 1962 |
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| Death place | Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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| Other names | Norma Jeane Baker Norma Jeane Dougherty Norma Jeane DiMaggio |
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| Occupation | Actress, model, film producer, singer |
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| Years active | 1947–1962 |
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| Spouse | |
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Marilyn Monroe 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. 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.
She made her first appearance on the cover of Life magazine in April 1952, where she was described as "The Talk of Hollywood". Monkey Business, a successful comedy directed by Howard Hawks starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers, was released in September and was the first movie in which Monroe appeared in with platinum blonde hair. and a scene which shows Monroe (from the back) making a long walk toward Niagara Falls received frequent note in reviews.
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". 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. 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."
20th Century Fox return
The Seven Year Itch was released and became a success, earning an estimated $8 million. 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. 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. They were married on June 29, 1956.
The Prince and the Showgirl
(1957), Monroe co-starred with
Laurence Olivier, who also directed the film.]]
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."
Let's Make Love and the Misfits
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. A visitor to the set,
Susan Strasberg, later described Monroe as "mortally injured in some way," Monroe returned to Nevada and completed the film, but she became hostile towards Arthur Miller, and public arguments were reported by the press.
The Misfits received mediocre reviews, and was not a commercial success, though some praised the performances of Monroe and Gable. 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."
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. and in February she voluntarily entered the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. Monroe later described the experience as a "nightmare". Monroe was dismissed. The studio 20th Century Fox filed a lawsuit against her for half a million dollars, Monroe was replaced by Lee Remick, and when Dean Martin refused to work with any other actress, he was also threatened with a lawsuit.
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. 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." 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.
Death and aftermath
of Marilyn Monroe]]
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. The winning bid was placed by an anonymous Japanese man for $4.6 million, but the winning bidder later backed out "because of the paying problem".
Administration of estate
home (1992)]]
In her
will, Monroe left
Lee Strasberg her personal effects, which amounted to just over half of her residuary estate, expressing her desire that he "distribute [the effects] among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted". Instead, Strasberg stored them in a warehouse, and willed them to his widow, Anna. Mrs. Strasberg successfully sued Los Angeles-based Odyssey Auctions in 1994 to prevent the sale of items consigned by the nephew of Monroe's business manager, Inez Melson. In October 1999,
Christie's auctioned the bulk of Monroe's effects, including those recovered from Melson's nephew, netting US $13,405,785.
Mrs. 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 as to whether Monroe was a resident of California, where she died and where her will was probated, or New York, which she considered her primary residence, was worth millions.
On May 4, 2007, a New York judge ruled that Monroe's rights of publicity ended at her death. In October 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 771. The legislation was supported by Anna Strasberg and the Screen Actors Guild, 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.
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 the statement of the executor of her estate to California tax authorities, and a 1966 sworn affidavit by her housekeeper. The decision was reaffirmed by the United States District Court of New York in September 2008. In 2010, Monroe's Brentwood home was put up for sale by Prudential California Realty.
Personal life
Monroe had three marriages, first to
James Dougherty, then to
Joe DiMaggio, and lastly
Arthur Miller. Monroe is alleged to have had affairs with both
John and
Robert Kennedy.
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 who knew Jim Dougherty phoned him at 4:00 a.m. with the news. Dougherty turned to his wife and said, "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
and Marilyn Monroe staying at Imperial Hotel in Tokyo on their honeymoon.]]
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 famed 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. 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."
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 D. 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. 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. Monroe 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." Nominally raised as a Christian,
she converted to Judaism before marrying Miller. 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.
Tony Curtis, her co-star from
Some Like It Hot, claims he got Monroe pregnant during their on-off affair that was rekindled during the filming of
Some Like It Hot in 1959, while she was still married to Arthur Miller.
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 19, 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.
Monroe did reportedly have an affair with President John F. Kennedy and his brother Senator Robert Kennedy. JFK's reputed mistress Judith Exner, in her 1977 autobiography, also wrote about an affair that she said the president and Monroe had.
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 visited Monroe in Los Angeles the day that she died.
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.
Psychoanalysis
Monroe had a long experience with
psychoanalysis. She was in analysis with Margaret Herz Hohenberg,
Anna Freud,
Marianne Rie Kris, Ralph S. Greenson (who found Monroe dead), and Milton Wexler.
Filmography
Songs
1948
Ladies of the Chorus :
"Every Baby Needs A Da Da Daddy",
"Anyone Can See I Love You",
"Ladies Of The Chorus"
1953
Niagara: "Kiss"
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes:
"Two Little Girls From Little Rock",
"When Love Goes Wrong",
"Bye Bye Baby",
"Diamonds are Forever (Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend)"
1954
River of No Return: "I'm Gonna File My Claim", "One Silver Dollar", "Down In The Meadow", "River Of No Return"
There's No Business Like Show Business: "Heatwave", "Lazy", "After You Get What You Want", "A Man Chases a Girl"
1956
Bus Stop: "That Old Black Magic"
1959
Some Like It Hot: "Runnin' Wild", "I Wanna Be Loved By You", "I'm Through With Love"
1960
Let's Make Love: "My Heart Belongs To Daddy", "Specialization", "Let's Make Love"
1962
"Happy Birthday Mr. President"
Awards and nominations
1951 Henrietta Awards: The Best Young Box Office Personality
1952 Photoplay Award: Fastest Rising Star of 1952
1952 Photoplay Award: Special Award
1952 Look American Magazine Achievement Award: Most Promising Female Newcomer of 1952
1953 Golden Globe Henrietta Award: World Film Favorite Female.
1953 Sweetheart of The Month (Playboy)
1953 Photoplay Award: Most Popular Female Star
1954 Photoplay Award for Best Actress: for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire
1956 BAFTA Film Award nomination: Best Foreign Actress for The Seven Year Itch
1956 Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actress in Comedy or Musical for Bus Stop
1958 BAFTA Film Award nomination: Best Foreign Actress for The Prince and the Showgirl
1958 David di Donatello Award (Italian): Best Foreign Actress for The Prince and the Showgirl
1959 Crystal Star Award (French): Best Foreign Actress for The Prince and the Showgirl
1960 Golden Globe, Best Motion Picture Actress in Comedy or Musical for Some Like It Hot
1962 Golden Globe, World Film Favorite: Female
Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 6104 Hollywood Blvd.
1999 she was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute in their list AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars.
See also
Marilyn Monroe in popular culture
Berniece Baker Miracle, Monroe's half-sister
Look-alike contests: Monroe's popularity with impersonators
References
Jacke, Andreas: Marilyn Monroe und die Psychoanalyse. Psychosozial Verlag, Gießen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89806-398-2, ISBN 3-89806-398-4
Meaker, M. J. Sudden Endings: 13 Profiles in Depth of Famous Suicides Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY: 1964 p. 26-45: "Marilyn and Norma Jean: Marilyn Monroe"
Lady GaGa mentions Monroe in the song Dance In The Dark from her EP The Fame Monster
Notes
External links
Gallery: Marilyn Monroe: Life and Times – Life Magazine
What Really Killed Marilyn, article by Clare Boothe Luce for Life Magazine, 7 August 1964.
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