Marilyn Monroe

Lore & Background

Born in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage before marrying James Dougherty at age sixteen. She was working in a factory during World War II when she met a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit and began a successful pin-up modeling career, which led to short-lived film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. After roles as a freelancer, she began a longer contract with Fox in 1951, becoming a popular actress with roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, and in the dramas Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock. Monroe faced a scandal when it was revealed that she had posed for nude photographs prior to fame, but the story resulted in increased interest in her films. Monroe became one of the most marketable Hollywood stars in 1953. She had leading roles in the film noir Niagara, which overtly relied on her sex appeal, and the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which established her star image as a "dumb blonde". The same year, her nude images were used as the centerfold and cover of the first issue of Playboy. Monroe played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image, but felt disappointed when typecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project but returned to star in The Seven Year Itch (1955), one of the biggest box office successes of her career. When the studio was still reluctant to change Monroe's contract, she founded her own film production company in 1954 with her friend Milton Greene. She dedicated 1955 to building the company and began studying method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Later that year, Fox awarded her a new contract, which gave her more control and a larger salary. Her subsequent roles included a critically acclaimed performance in Bus Stop (1956) and her first independent production in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA nomination, and won the David di Donatello Award for Best Actress. She won a Golden Globe for her role in Some Like It Hot (1959), a critical and commercial success. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961). Monroe's troubled private life received much attention. Her marriages to retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio and to playwright Arth

Reader's Guide

Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, at Los Angeles General Hospital in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker (née Monroe), was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, into a poor American family originally from the Midwest who migrated to California at the turn of the century. At age fourteen, Gladys had married John Newton Baker, an abusive man nine years her senior. They had two children together, Robert and Berniece. Gladys successfully filed for divorce and sole custody of her two oldest in 1923, but Baker kidnapped the children soon after and moved with them to his native Kentucky. Monroe first learned about her sister at age twelve and met the latter for the first time in her late teens. Following the divorce, Gladys worked as a film negative cutter at Consolidated Film Industries. In 1924, she married Martin Edward Mortensen, but the union lasted only a few months, although they did not legally divorce until four years later. Gladys named Mortensen (misspelled "Mortenson") as Monroe's father in the birth certificate, but most of Monroe's biographers agree that this was unlikely as their separation had taken place well before she became pregnant. Biographers Fred Guiles and Lois Banner suggested Monroe's father was likely Charles Stanley Gifford, Gladys's superior at RKO Studios, with whom she had an affair in 1925. This was confirmed by a comparison conducted in 2022 between Monroe's DNA and that of one of Gifford's descendants. Although Gladys was mentally and financially unprepared for a child, Monroe's early childhood was stable and happy. Gladys placed Monroe with evangelical Christian foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender in the suburban town of Hawthorne. Gladys also lived there for six months until she was forced to move back to the city for employment. She then began visiting Monroe on weekends. In the summer of 1933, when Monroe was seven, Gladys bought a small house in Hollywood with a loan from the Home Owners' Loan Corporation and moved Monroe in with her. They shared the house with lodgers, actors George and Maude Atkinson and their daughter, Nellie. In January 1934, Gladys had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After several months in a rest home, she was committed to the Metropolitan State Hospital. She spent the rest of her life in

Did You Know?

• Monroe's mother named Martin Edward Mortensen as Monroe's father on the birth certificate, but most biographers agree this was unlikely; a 2022 DNA comparison confirmed Charles Stanley Gifford as her biological father.
• Monroe was placed in the Los Angeles Orphans Home at age nine and felt abandoned, though the orphanage was described as a 'model institution'.
• She married James Dougherty at age sixteen to avoid returning to the orphanage.
• Monroe's nude images were used as the centerfold and cover of the first issue of Playboy in 1953.
• She founded her own film production company in 1954 with her friend Milton Greene.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 – 5 August 1962) was an American actress, singer and model." — Marilyn Monroe "For life: It is rather a determination not to be overwhelmed. For work: The truth can only be recalled, never invented." — Marilyn Monroe "It's a bad habit, I know, but I believe that you shouldn't do anything in life until you're ready. Half of life's heartaches come from decisions made in a hurry. One should make haste slowly." — Marilyn Monroe "Unfortunately, I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle." — Marilyn Monroe