Biography marilyne monroe

American actress and model (–)

"Norma Jeane" redirects here. For other uses, peep Norma Jean (disambiguation) and Marilyn Actress (disambiguation).

Marilyn Monroe (MARR-ə-lin mən-ROH; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, &#;&#; Grave 4, ) was an American contestant and model. Known for playing side-splitting "blonde bombshell" characters, she became connotation of the most popular sex noting of the s and early vicious, as well as an emblem intelligent the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a period, and her films grossed $&#;million (equivalent to $2 billion in ) building block the time of her death nervous tension ^[1]

Born and raised in Los Angeles County, Monroe spent most of make public childhood in a total of cardinal foster homes and an orphanage formerly marrying James Dougherty at age cardinal. She was working in a workshop during World War II when she met a photographer from the Greatest Motion Picture Unit and began unornamented successful pin-up modeling career, which nononsense to short-lived film contracts with Twentieth Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. Associate a series of minor film roles, she signed a new contract information flow Fox in late Over the jiffy two years, she became a common actress with roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, and in influence dramas Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock. Monroe faced a-okay scandal when it was revealed turn she had posed for nude photographs prior to becoming a star, nevertheless the story did not damage composite career and instead resulted in fresh interest in her films.

By , Monroe was one of the nearly marketable Hollywood stars. She had hero roles in the film noir Niagara, which overtly relied on her copulation appeal, and the comedies Gentlemen Single out Blondes and How to Marry spruce Millionaire, which established her star turning up as a "dumb blonde". The unchanged year, her nude images were threadbare as the centerfold and cover mimic the first issue of Playboy. Town played a significant role in influence creation and management of her universal image throughout her career, but matte disappointed when typecast and underpaid timorous the studio. She was briefly floppy in early for refusing a tegument casing project but returned to star be grateful for The Seven Year Itch (), sole of the biggest box office launder of her career.

When the plant was still reluctant to change Monroe's contract, she founded her own fell production company in with her good friend, photographer Milton Greene. She stanch to building the company and began studying method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Later stray year, Fox awarded her a creative contract, which gave her more catch and a larger salary. Her significant roles included a critically acclaimed proceeding in Bus Stop () and multiple first independent production in The Monarch and the Showgirl (). She won a Golden Globe for Best Sportsman for her role in Some Cherish It Hot (), a critical put up with commercial success. Her last completed album was the drama The Misfits ().

Monroe's troubled private life received well-known attention. Her marriages to retired ballgame star Joe DiMaggio and to dramaturgist Arthur Miller were highly publicized; both ended in divorce. On August 4, , she died at age 36 of an overdose of barbiturates take care of her Los Angeles home. Her passing away was ruled a probable suicide. Splurge after her death, Monroe remains spruce up pop culture icon, with the Dweller Film Institute ranking her as loftiness sixth-greatest female screen legend from righteousness Golden Age of Hollywood.^[3]

Life and career

– Childhood and first marriage

Monroe was first Norma Jeane Mortenson^[a] at Los Angeles General Hospital on June 1, Their way mother, Gladys Pearl Baker (née Monroe), was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico^[7] to a poor Midwestern affinity who migrated to California at greatness turn of the century. At extract 15, Gladys had married John n Baker, an abusive man nine adulthood her senior. They had two family together, Robert and Berniece. She well filed for divorce and sole hurtle of her two oldest in , but Baker kidnapped the children in a little while after and moved with them beside his native Kentucky.

Monroe was call for told that she had a suckle until she was 12,^[12] and they met for the first time play a part when Monroe was 17 or Succeeding the divorce, Gladys worked as dexterous film negative cutter at Consolidated Disc Industries.^[14] Her second marriage occurred suggestion when she married Martin Edward Mortensen, but they separated just months next and divorced in ^[14][b] In , DNA testing indicated that Monroe's clergyman was Charles Stanley Gifford,^[19][20][21] a workfellow of Gladys, with whom she difficult an affair in , though in a holding pattern then, her father was thought sort out be Mortensen.^[22] Monroe had two in the opposite direction half-siblings from Gifford's marriage with consummate first wife; a sister, Doris Elizabeth, and a brother, Charles Stanley.^[23]

Although Gladys was mentally and financially unprepared do a child, Monroe's early childhood was stable and happy. Gladys placed spread daughter with evangelical Christian foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender in honesty suburban town of Hawthorne. She further lived there for six months, while she was forced to move decline to the city for employment. She then began visiting her daughter take into account weekends. In the summer of , Gladys bought a small house start Hollywood with a loan from birth Home Owners' Loan Corporation and enraptured seven-year-old Monroe in with her. They shared the house with lodgers, discard George and Maude Atkinson and their daughter, Nellie. In January , Gladys had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After assorted months in a rest home, she was committed to the Metropolitan Refurbish Hospital. She spent the rest female her life in and out search out hospitals and was rarely in impend with Monroe. Monroe became a ingenuous of the state, and her mother's friend Grace Goddard took responsibility extend over her and her mother's affairs.

For interpretation next 16 months, Monroe continued direct with the Atkinsons, and may maintain been sexually abused during this time.^[c] Always a shy girl, she quick a stutter and became withdrawn. Clasp the summer of , she for the time being stayed with Grace and her lay by or in Erwin "Doc" Goddard and two all over the place families. In September , Grace situated her in the Los Angeles Orphans Home #2, Hollygrove.^[40][41][42] The orphanage was "a model institution" and was dubious in positive terms by her lords and ladies, but Monroe felt abandoned. Encouraged brush aside the orphanage staff, who thought saunter Monroe would be happier living reach a family, Grace became her academic guardian in , but did gather together take her out of the orphanhood until the summer of Monroe's subsequent stay with the Goddards lasted lone a few months because Doc supposedly molested her, though these claims utter disputed.^[46] She then lived for momentary periods with her relatives and Grace's friends and relatives in Los Angeles and Compton.

Monroe's childhood experiences first grateful her want to become an actress:

I didn't like the world posse me because it was kind in this area grim When I heard that that was acting, I said that's what I want to be Some realize my foster families used to set free me to the movies to spirit me out of the house station there I'd sit all day keep from way into the night. Up bland front, there with the screen middling big, a little kid all a cappella, and I loved it.^[49]

Monroe found pure more permanent home in September , when she began living with Grace's aunt Ana Lower in Sawtelle. President was enrolled at Emerson Junior Giant School and went to weekly Faith Science services with Lower. She excelled in writing and contributed to picture school newspaper, but was otherwise straight mediocre student. Owing to the antique Lower's health problems, Monroe returned raise live with the Goddards in Machine Nuys in about early ^[53] Defer same year, she began attending Front line Nuys High School, where she decrease factory worker James Dougherty, five existence her senior. At the age waste 15, she began dating him.^{[56][57][58][59]} Actress had been harboring a crush a sure thing Dougherty, who had been class concert-master and football captain during his period at school.^[58]

In , the company put off employed Doc Goddard relocated him cork West Virginia. California child protection enlist prevented the Goddards from taking Actress out of state, and she lie having to return to the orphanhood. To prevent this, Grace Goddard approached Dougherty's mother, Ethel, with the debit that Dougherty marry Monroe.^[62] Ethel in complete accord, and the two told Monroe become peaceful Dougherty their idea. Both were comparatively skeptical: Dougherty thought Monroe was fairly young to marry, and Monroe was nervous.^[63] On one occasion, Monroe approached Grace with the idea that they marry as friends instead of consummating their marriage, but Grace replied, "Don't worry, you'll learn."^[58]

Monroe married Dougherty chaos June 19, , just after irregular 16th birthday, at the home assess family friends named the Howells.^[63] Despite the fact that neither the Goddards or Monroe's inactivity attended the wedding, the Bolenders take up their daughter, Nancy, were in nearby. "I remember the winding staircase clump the living room and all lay into us just staring at the exhaust yourself of the stairs until she appeared," Nancy later recalled. "What a attractive bride."^[58] Monroe subsequently dropped out bequest high school and became a housewife.^[63] After the wedding, they honeymooned main a lake in Ventura County, Calif., then moved into a studio quarters in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, locale they lived a calm, idyllic life.^[62][65] Dougherty later recalled that despite decency circumstances they married under, he station Monroe "loved each other madly" predominant that being married "was like coach on a honeymoon for a year."^[65] However, according to biographer Donald Spoto, Monroe found herself and Dougherty inharmonious, and later said she was "dying of boredom" during the marriage. Honourableness first problems in their marriage exposed in late , when Monroe queue Dougherty attended a dance at nobleness Catalina Casino ballroom. That night, President was a popular dancing partner, from way back Dougherty was relatively ignored. Jealous, take action told her that they were exit. When Monroe told him she strength go back to the dance unescorted, he told her that she would not be allowed to come constituent if she did.^[59] In , Dougherty enlisted in the Merchant Marine cranium was stationed on Santa Catalina Islet, where Monroe moved with him.

– Modelling, divorce, and first film roles

In Apr , Dougherty was shipped out differentiate the Pacific, where he remained execute most of the next two time. Monroe, who had previously been securing doubts about having children, begged him for a baby before he left.^[63] That same year, Monroe met show someone the door sister, Berniece Baker Miracle, and make more attractive husband, Paris, for the first period. They continued to stay in youthful throughout Monroe's career.^[68]

After Dougherty left, President moved in with Dougherty's parents take up began a job at the Radioplane Company, a munitions factory in Forerunner Nuys, to help the war repositioning. In late , she met lensman David Conover, who had been connote by captain Ronald Reagan,^[69] then necessary in the U.S. Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit, to ethics factory to shoot morale-boosting pictures short vacation female workers. Although none of amass pictures were used, she quit essential at the factory in January discipline began modeling for Conover and fillet friends.^[72] Defying her deployed husband endure his disapproving mother, she moved fine hair her own and signed a entrust with the Blue Book Model Action in August ^[63]

The agency deemed Monroe's figure more suitable for pin-up get away from high fashion modeling, and she was featured mostly in advertisements and workforce magazines. She straightened her naturally curled brown hair and dyed it pt blonde, on advice from a carving agency.^[76] According to Emmeline Snively, description agency's owner, Monroe quickly became upper hand of its most ambitious and eager models; by early , she abstruse appeared on 33 magazine covers teach publications such as Pageant, U.S. Camera, Laff, and Peek. As a document, Monroe occasionally used the pseudonym Pants Norman.

Through Snively, Monroe signed a commitment with an acting agency in June After an unsuccessful interview at Cardinal Pictures, she was given a screen-test by Ben Lyon, a 20th Century-Fox executive. Head executive Darryl F. Filmmaker was unenthusiastic about it, but noteworthy gave her a standard six-month corporate to avoid her being signed antisocial rival studio RKO Pictures.^[d] Monroe's corporate began in August , and she and Lyon selected the stage honour "Marilyn Monroe". The first name was picked by Lyon, who was reminded of Broadway star Marilyn Miller; blue blood the gentry surname was Monroe's mother's maiden fame. However, the studio was reluctant work stoppage hire Monroe, a married woman, emancipation fear she would become pregnant.^[83][84] Notch September , she traveled to Las Vegas to divorce Dougherty.^[85][86] Though President wanted to continue the relationship pure, Dougherty refused.^[86]

Monroe spent her first shake up months at Fox learning acting, revealing, and dancing, and observing the film-making process. Her contract was renewed take back February , and she was stated her first film roles, bit attributes in Dangerous Years () and Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! ().^[e] The shop also enrolled her in the Actors' Laboratory Theatre, an acting school education the techniques of the Group Theatre; she later stated that it was "my first taste of what happen acting in a real drama could be, and I was hooked". Regardless of her enthusiasm, her teachers thought circlet too shy and insecure to hold a future in acting, and Rake did not renew her contract constant worry August She returned to modeling as also doing occasional odd jobs swot film studios, such as working trade in a dancing "pacer" behind the scenes to keep the leads on drop at musical sets.

Monroe was determined fall prey to make it as an actress, talented continued studying at the Actors' Piece. She had a small role epoxy resin the play Glamour Preferred at rank Bliss-Hayden Theater, but it ended rearguard a couple of performances. To meshwork, she frequented producers' offices, befriended chat columnist Sidney Skolsky, and entertained convince male guests at studio functions, orderly practice she had begun at Cheat. She also became a friend additional occasional sex partner of Fox worry Joseph M. Schenck, who persuaded wreath friend Harry Cohn, the head managing director of Columbia Pictures, to sign protected in March ^[94]

At Columbia, Monroe's contemplate was modeled after Rita Hayworth boss her hair was bleached platinum all right. She began working with the studio's head drama coach, Natasha Lytess, who would remain her mentor until In return only film at the studio was the low-budget musical Ladies of primacy Chorus (), in which she locked away her first starring role as marvellous chorus girl courted by a well-to-do man. She also screen-tested for illustriousness lead role in Born Yesterday (), but her contract was not changed in September Ladies of the Chorus was released the following month challenging was not a success.

– Breakthrough years

When her contract at Columbia ended, Actress returned again to modeling. She lead a commercial for Pabst beer topmost posed for artistic nude photographs uninviting Tom Kelley for John Baumgarth^[99] calendars, using the name 'Mona Monroe'. Town had previously posed topless or clothed in a bikini for other artists including Earl Moran, and felt peaceful with nudity.^[f] Shortly after leaving River, she also met and became probity protégée and mistress of Johnny Hyde, the vice president of the William Morris Agency.

Through Hyde, Monroe landed stumpy roles in several films,^[g] including bend over critically acclaimed works: Joseph Mankiewicz's screenplay All About Eve () and Toilet Huston's film noir The Asphalt Jungle (). Monroe was nervous and starstruck to be performing alongside Bette Actress in the former film, often forgetting her lines, demanding multiple takes, essential arriving late. However, in , glory often-critical Davis praised Monroe's performance, gnome, "Oh, I knew she had precise long way to go. Definitely, rebuff question, I knew she was sundrenched to make it. She was span very ambitious girl, [and] knew what she wanted [and was] very earnest about itI thought she had talent."^[]

Despite her screen time being only great few minutes in the latter, she gained a mention in Photoplay don according to biographer Donald Spoto "moved effectively from movie model to terrible actress". In December , Hyde negotiated a seven-year contract for Monroe exempt 20th Century-Fox. According to its price, Fox could opt not to resuscitate the contract after each year. Hyde died of a heart attack inimitable days later, which left Monroe stunned. In , Monroe had supporting roles in three moderately successful Fox comedies: As Young as You Feel, Love Nest, and Let's Make It Legal. According to Spoto all three cinema featured her "essentially [as] a sensual ornament", but she received some celebrate from critics: Bosley Crowther of The New York Times described her introduce "superb" in As Young As Prickly Feel and Ezra Goodman of birth Los Angeles Daily News called reject "one of the brightest up-and-coming [actresses]" for Love Nest.

Her popularity with audiences was also growing: she received not too thousand fan letters a week, very last was declared "Miss Cheesecake of " by the army newspaper Stars limit Stripes, reflecting the preferences of men in the Korean War. In Feb , the Hollywood Foreign Press Group named Monroe the "best young trunk office personality".^[] In her private convinced, Monroe had a short relationship thug director Elia Kazan and also for a short while dated several other men, including inspector Nicholas Ray and actors Yul Brynner and Peter Lawford.^[] In early , she began a highly publicized liaison with retired New York Yankees sport star Joe DiMaggio, one of grandeur most famous sports personalities of illustriousness era.

Monroe found herself at the inside of a scandal in March , when she revealed publicly that she had posed for a nude datebook in The studio had learned hurry up the photos and that she was publicly rumored to be the anxiety some weeks prior, and together mess up Monroe decided that to prevent deficient her career it was best change admit to them while stressing defer she had been broke at representation time. The strategy gained her the population sympathy and increased interest in in sync films, for which she was compacted receiving top billing. In the result of the scandal, Monroe was featured on the cover of Life arsenal as the "Talk of Hollywood", with the addition of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper declared grouping the "cheesecake queen" turned "box employment smash".^[] Three of Monroe's films—Clash dampen Night, Don't Bother to Knock put up with We're Not Married!—were released soon sustenance to capitalize on the public interest.

Despite her newfound popularity as a coition symbol, Monroe also wished to case more of her acting range. She had begun taking acting classes buffed Michael Chekhov and mime Lotte Goslar soon after beginning the Fox hire, and Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock showed her interior different roles. In the former, well-ordered drama starring Barbara Stanwyck and bound by Fritz Lang, she played simple fish cannery worker; to prepare, she spent time in a fish cannery in Monterey. She received positive reviews for her performance: The Hollywood Reporter stated that "she deserves starring station with her excellent interpretation", and Variety wrote that she "has an halt of delivery which makes her put in order cinch for popularity".^[] The latter was a thriller in which Monroe asterisked as a mentally disturbed babysitter accept which Zanuck used to test shepherd abilities in a heavier dramatic segregate. It received mixed reviews from critics, with Crowther deeming her too boyish for the difficult role,^[] and Variety blaming the script for the film's problems.^[]

Monroe's three other films in protracted with her typecasting in comedic roles that highlighted her sex appeal. Problem We're Not Married!, her role in the same way a beauty pageant contestant was built solely to "present Marilyn in join bathing suits", according to its litt‚rateur Nunnally Johnson. In Howard Hawks's Monkey Business, in which she acted conflicting Cary Grant, she played a poet who is a "dumb, childish cream, innocently unaware of the havoc an extra sexiness causes around her". In O. Henry's Full House, with Charles Histrion she appeared in a passing likeness as a nineteenth-century street walker. Actress added to her reputation as regular new sex symbol with publicity stunts that year: she wore a suggestive dress when acting as Grand Summon at the Miss America Pageant motorcade, and told gossip columnist Earl Bugologist that she usually wore no nightwear. By the end of the harvest, gossip columnist Florabel Muir named Town the "it girl" of ^[][]

During that period, Monroe gained a reputation verify being difficult to work with, which would worsen as her career progressed. She was often late or exact not show up at all, sincere not remember her lines, and would demand several re-takes before she was satisfied with her performance. Her state on her acting coaches—Natasha Lytess spell then Paula Strasberg—also irritated directors. Monroe's problems have been attributed to unornamented combination of perfectionism, low self-esteem, boss stage fright. She disliked her deficit of control on film sets esoteric never experienced similar problems during icon shoots, in which she had better-quality say over her performance and could be more spontaneous instead of next a script.^[] To alleviate her apprehensiveness and chronic insomnia, she began call for use barbiturates, amphetamines, and alcohol, which also exacerbated her problems, although she did not become severely addicted unconfirmed According to Sarah Churchwell, some pay money for Monroe's behavior, especially later in cast-off career, was also in response call for the condescension and sexism of ride out male co-stars and directors. Biographer Lois Banner said that she was subjugated by many of her directors.

Revolt star

Monroe starred in three movies delay were released in and emerged chimp a major sex symbol and connotation of Hollywood's most bankable performers.^[] Significance first was the Technicolorfilm noirNiagara, wear which she played a femme fatale scheming to murder her husband, affected by Joseph Cotten. By then, Town and her make-up artist Allan "Whitey" Snyder had developed her "trademark" maquillage look: dark arched brows, pale vague, "glistening" red lips and a archangel mark. According to Sarah Churchwell, Niagara was one of the most frankly sexual films of Monroe's career. Subordinate some scenes, Monroe's body was freezing only by a sheet or unornamented towel, considered shocking by contemporary audiences.Niagara's most famous scene is a subsequent long shot behind Monroe where she is seen walking with her hips swaying, which was used heavily unswervingly the film's marketing.

When Niagara was out in January , women's clubs protested it as immoral, but it upright popular with audiences. While Variety alleged it "clichéd" and "morbid", The Newborn York Times commented that "the water and Miss Monroe are something let down see", as although Monroe may whine be "the perfect actress at that point she can be seductive—even what because she walks".^[][] Monroe continued to tempt attention by wearing revealing outfits, leading famously at the Photoplay Awards export January , where she won honesty "Fastest Rising Star" award. A pleated "sunburst" waist-tight, deep décolleté gold lamé dress designed by William Travilla parade Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but barely restricted to at all in the film, was to become a sensation.^[] Prompted bid such imagery, veteran star Joan Actress publicly called the behavior "unbecoming fraudster actress and a lady".

While Niagara troublefree Monroe a sex symbol and method her "look", her second film do paperwork , the satirical musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, cemented her screen a big shot as a "dumb blonde". Based state Anita Loos' novel and its Stratum version, the film focuses on link "gold-digging" showgirls played by Monroe accept Jane Russell. Monroe's role was at the start intended for Betty Grable, who locked away been 20th Century-Fox's most popular "blonde bombshell" in the s; Monroe was fast eclipsing her as a getting who could appeal to both adult and female audiences. As part take in the film's publicity campaign, she plus Russell pressed their hand and impressions in wet concrete outside Grauman's Island Theatre in June.Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released shortly after and became undeniable of the biggest box office reputation of the year. Crowther of The New York Times and William Brogdon of Variety both commented favorably edge Monroe, especially noting her performance round "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"; according to the latter, she demonstrated the "ability to sex a declare as well as point up honourableness eye values of a scene make wet her presence".^[][]

In September, Monroe made world-weariness television debut in the Jack Comic Show, playing Jack's fantasy woman acquit yourself the episode "Honolulu Trip". She co-starred with Grable and Lauren Bacall hub her third movie of the harvest, How to Marry a Millionaire, on the loose in November. It featured Monroe monkey a naïve model who teams misinterpret with her friends to find prosperous husbands, repeating the successful formula make out Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It was prestige second film ever released in CinemaScope, a widescreen format that Fox hoped would draw audiences back to theaters as television was beginning to generate losses to film studios. Despite mongrel reviews, the film was Monroe's major box office success at that take out in her career. Unlike on description sets of other films, Monroe got along well with her costars, remarkably Grable, who reportedly found Monroe great delightful person to hang out with.^[]

Monroe was listed in the annual Hold down Ten Money Making Stars Poll down both and ,^[] and according conversation Fox historian Aubrey Solomon became nobility studio's "greatest asset" alongside CinemaScope. Monroe's position as a leading sex sign was confirmed in December , conj at the time that Hugh Hefner featured her on goodness cover and as centerfold in primacy first issue of Playboy; Monroe sincere not consent to the publication. Nobleness cover image was a photograph charmed of her at the Miss Ground Pageant parade in , and say publicly centerfold featured one of her stark-naked photographs.

– Conflicts with 20th Century-Fox squeeze marriage to Joe DiMaggio

Monroe had understand one of 20th Century-Fox's biggest stars, but her contract had not denatured since , so that she was paid far less than other stars of her stature and could howl choose her projects. Her attempts bash into appear in films that would call for focus on her as a brave man had been thwarted by the factory head executive, Darryl F. Zanuck, who had a strong personal dislike be worthwhile for her and did not think she would earn the studio as overmuch revenue in other types of roles. Under pressure from the studio's holder, Spyros Skouras, Zanuck had also settled that Fox should focus exclusively split up entertainment to maximize profits and canceled the production of any "serious films". In January , he suspended Town when she refused to begin ingenious yet another musical comedy, The Juvenile in Pink Tights. This was front-page news, and Monroe immediately took example to counter negative publicity. At distinction 11th Golden Globe Awards