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1926 -- 1962
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Actress.
Born Norma Jean Mortenson, on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles. For most of her
childhood and teen years she was in foster homes or an orphanage because her
father abandoned her, while her mother, Gladys Monroe Baker, had to work and
then was in a mental hospital. (Norma Jean grew up using her mother's last
name, Baker, and at age 16 discovered that her father was probably not
Mortenson.) In 1942 she married James Dougherty, an aircraft factory worker,
and when he went to sea in the merchant marine she took a job in a target
airplane factory. Asked to model to illustrate an article in Yank magazine,
she soon quit her job to become a full-time model and in 1946, after
divorcing Dougherty, she went to Hollywood to try to become an actress.
Signed by Twentieth-Century Fox, she changed her name to Marilyn Monroe,
but for the next few years she had only minor roles in several movies;
during one period of unemployment she posed nude for a pin-up calendar that
would later become a collector's item. Not until her small roles in two 1950
movies--The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve--did her career
take off, and, promoted as a slightly ditzy blonde exuding a breathless
sexuality, she became a star and celebrity. Monroe was married to former
baseball star Joe DiMaggio for about nine months during 1954. Determined to
shed her image as a sex symbol, she began to study at Lee and Paula
Strasberg's Actors Studio in New York City.
She gave two of her more sophisticated performances--in Bus Stop
(1956) and Some Like It Hot (1959)--and in 1956 she married the
playwright Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman) and starred in a movie
he wrote for her, The Misfits (1961). They divorced in 1961, and
Monroe's life continued in its roller coaster fashion: she was briefly
hospitalized in a mental clinic, she was dropped from a movie for failure to
show up on time, and she was taking drugs for her various problems.
On August 5, 1962, Monroe was found dead of an overdose of barbiturates
in her home in Los Angeles. She had been working on her last film,
Something's Got to Give. After several years in which she was discussed
almost entirely in terms of a sex goddess, she came to be perceived as a
symbol of the exploitation of women by Hollywood and men in general. More
recently, Monroe has been recognized by many as one of the 20th century's
top entertainers. |
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MARILYN MONROE'S FILMOGRAPHY |
Production |
Year |
Character |
President Kennedy's Birthday Salute |
1962 |
Herself |
Something's Got to Give |
1962 |
Ellen Wagstaff Arden |
Lykke og krone |
1962 |
Herself |
Misfits, The |
1961 |
Roslyn Taber |
Let's Make Love |
1960 |
Amanda Dell |
Some Like It Hot |
1959 |
Sugar Kane |
Prince and the Showgirl, The |
1957 |
Elsie |
Bus Stop |
1956 |
Cherie |
Seven Year Itch, The |
1955 |
The Girl |
There's No Business Like Show Business |
1954 |
Vicky Hoffman/Vicky Parker |
River of No Return |
1954 |
Kay Weston |
How to Marry a Millionaire |
1953 |
Pola Debevoise |
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes |
1953 |
Lorelei Lee |
Niagara |
1953 |
Rose Loomis |
O. Henry's Full House |
1952 |
Streetwalker |
Monkey Business |
1952 |
Lois Laurel |
Don't Bother to Knock |
1952 |
Nell Forbes |
We're Not Married! |
1952 |
Annabel Norris |
Clash by Night |
1952 |
Peggy |
Let's Make It Legal |
1951 |
Joyce Mannering |
Love Nest |
1951 |
Roberta Stevens |
As Young as You Feel |
1951 |
Harriet |
Home Town Story |
1951 |
Iris Martin |
Right Cross |
1950 |
Dusky Ledoux |
Fireball, The |
1950 |
Polly |
All About Eve |
1950 |
Claudia Casswell |
Asphalt Jungle, The |
1950 |
Angela Phinlay |
Ticket to Tomahawk, A |
1950 |
Clara |
Love Happy |
1950 |
Grunion's Client |
Ladies of the Chorus |
1948 |
Peggy Martin |
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! |
1948 |
Girl in Canoe (lake scenes) |
Shocking Miss Pilgrim, The |
1947 |
Bit Part |
Dangerous Years |
1947 |
Evie |
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