The word "legend" is greatly over-used these days, but certainly not in the case of MARILYN MONROE.
To say Marilyn (born Norma Jeane Mortenson) faced many hardships in her life would be greatly understating her situation.
Her widowed and mentally ill mother abandoned baby Marilyn to a sequence of foster homes. She was nearly smothered to death at age two and nearly raped at six. By the age of nine, she was a resident of the Los Angeles Orphans' Home. She married a man she called "Daddy" when she was 16. He went into the miltary, and they divorced in 1946.
In 1947, 20th Century Fox gave Marilyn an acting contract but didn't renew it after one year. Columbia Pictures signed her for six months. After receiving good notices for a small role in the 1950 noir thriller THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, Fox re-signed her, this time for seven years. By 1953, Marilyn was the hottest star on the Fox lot.
She married Joe DiMaggio, the New York Yankees baseball great, in January, 1954. The couple divorced ten months later. In 1956, Marilyn then married playwright Arthur Miller. This would be a 4 1/2 year tumultuous relationship, ending in a January 1961 divorce.
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| THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM 1947 uncredited appearance |
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| DANGEROUS YEARS 1947 |
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| SCUDDA HOO! SCUDDA HAY! 1948 uncredited appearance |
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| GREEN GRASS OF WYOMING 1948 uncredited appearance |
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| LADIES OF THE CHORUS 1948 |
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| LOVE HAPPY 1949 |
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| A TICKET TO TOMAHAWK 1950 uncredited appearance |
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| THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 1950 |
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| RIGHT CROSS 1950 uncredited appearance |
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| THE FIREBALL 1950 |
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| ALL ABOUT EVE 1950 |
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| HOME TOWN STORY 1951 |
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| AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL 1951 |
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| LOVE NEST 1951 |
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| LET'S MAKE IT LEGAL 1951 |
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| CLASH BY NIGHT 1952 |
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| WE'RE NOT MARRIED 1952 |
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| DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK 1952 |
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| O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE 1952 |
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| MONKEY BUSINESS 1952 |
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| NIAGARA 1953 |
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| GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES 1953 |
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| HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE 1953 |
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| RIVER OF NO RETURN 1954 |
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| THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS 1954 |
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| THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH 1955 |
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| BUS STOP 1956 |
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| THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL 1957 |
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| SOME LIKE IT HOT 1959 |
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| LET'S MAKE LOVE 1960 |
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| THE MISFITS 1961 |
Marilyn was fired by 20th Century Fox during production of her 32nd feature SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE, co-starring Dean Martin. The script was reworked and recast, with Doris Day and James Garner taking the lead roles. It was released as MOVE OVER, DARLING.
Marilyn Monroe was 36 at the time of her death on August 5, 1962.
In 1972, actress Veronica Hamel bought the home in Brentwood, Ca., where Marilyn had died. Hamel hired a contractor to replace the roof and remodel the house, and the contractor discovered a sophisticated eavesdropping and telephone tapping system that covered every room in the house. The components were not commercially available in 1962 but were in the words of a retired Justice Department official, "standard FBI issue." This discovery lent further support to claims of conspiracy theorists that Marilyn had been under surveillance by the Kennedy family and the Mafia. Hamel had the bugging devices removed from the house.
