
Marilyn Monroe Biography
Posted On April 10th, 2008 By Celebrity Biographies
Marilyn Monroe has an ever-lasting impact on today’s civilization. She placed elevated values for herself and was a motivation to a lot of youthful individuals. Marilyn Monroe transformed Hollywood’s stance on women eternally. Her illustration, body, smile, and individuality are what are expected in a new actress or in the least the models at the moment. Nowadays, just because of Marilyn’s sky-scraping standards, it is a lot more intricate for women to make it large as an artist or model. She was something further than just a mere megastar or beauty queen, Marilyn Monroe was a universal sensation in her life span.
Early Life
Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jean Mortenson on June 1st, 1926, in the Los Angeles General Hospital. Before she was born, Marilyn’s father bought a motorbike for himself and immigrated north to San Francisco, dumping the people in Los Angeles. Marilyn grew up without knowing who her father was. She often spent time guessing and that was one of the regrets she had all her life. Her mother, Gladys Baker has several romantic encounters all through her life and that further confused her. Gladys gave her the name Norma Jean Baker after a boyfriend she had after Mortenson. Norma had a very troubled childhood. There was never ending poverty in the family. However, her mother had an extremely attractive personality and worked for the RKO studios as a film cutter. She suffered from a series of mental illnesses and hence little Norma had to be sent to foster homes while her mother was being cured in the medical institutions. In the year 1937, Norma Jean moved in with her mother’s friend. So that’s the reason most of her primary education comes from orphanage and foster schools. Her mother’s friend Grace took care of her and she spent some of the most important years of her life with her. Grace would teach her to apply make up and dress appropriately.
First Wedding
In 1942, Grace’s husband was transferred to the East Coast as he was working in the army, hence she could not afford to take young Norma with her. Thereafter Grace arranged her marriage to their young neighbor, Jimmy Dougherty. In June, 1942 Norma got married and turned into Norma Jean Dougherty. It should not be forgotten that Norma was sixteen when she was married to Jimmy. Their marriage started off really well but within four years, she divorced him. She took up modeling as her career after that. She started to model swimsuits and also bleached her hair blonde. A lot of attention was paid to her photo shoots and very soon she gained immense popularity. These pictures were seen by the head of the RKO pictures who in turn offered a screen test to Norma.
Career Progression
Some agent advised her to be associated with 20th Century Fox as that is a better studio than RKO. She then signed a contract with 20th Century Fox for $125 a week for six months. It was at that time that Norma Jean became Marilyn Monroe. Her contract was then extended with an extra $25 per week for another six months. The first film that she featured in was “The Shocking Miss Pilgrim” in the year 1947.
She then had to undergo a rough patch in her career. Her performance was highly neglected in the film Scudda Hoo! She left 20th Century Fox and went back to the acting school. Her first commercial success was after she posed nude on the cover of the playboy magazine. After the year 1953, she saw a lot of success in her films as well as the modeling career. She gained a lot of popularity with the movies like “Monkey Business” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. It was the same year when she began dating the great baseball star banes Joe DiMaggio. She then started drawing a lot of audience with merely her appearance. She then appeared in her next hit called “How to Marry a Millionaire”. Her co-stars were often jealous of her onscreen presence as she clicked with most of her audience, especially the males. In 1954, she officially married Joe DiMaggio and also continued acting for the film “There’s No Business like Show Business”. This film was followed by the unforgettable comedy called “The Seven Year Hitch”. It was this movie that showcased Marilyn standing on the subway station and the wind blowing her white dress. This scene is by far the best scene in the history of Hollywood. By eight months after her wedding to the baseball star, she declared her divorce.
Those were the bad times of her career, mostly self-invited. She was suspended by the 20th Century Fox for not coming on time for the forthcoming movies. She carried a non-cooperative attitude towards her producers, directors including her co-stars. Finally in the year 1956, she married the legendary playwright Arthur Miller. Their marriage lasted four years and then they got divorced as well. Marilyn had to wait really long before her next hit in the form of “Some Like it Hot”. This film was the best hit she ever gave in terms of commercial success. Then she starred in her last film which is called “The Misfits” which was also the last film of her co-star George Cukor. In 1962, she was cast for the move “Something’s Got to Give” but her late coming attitude went beyond control and the studio planned to fire her. It cost them a lot of money when such delays happened and she was already 36 by then.
The End
Marilyn came across a lot of obstacles in her life. She also went through a lot of therapies and medications of all sorts. She was suffering from Anemia and severe Bronchitis. In the year 1962, she decided to remarry Joe DiMaggio, who happened to be over protective to her. But before that she was invited to the President John F. Kennedy’s birthday dinner and was believed to have an affair with both John Kennedy and his brother Bobby in the same night. However, no one can confirm the reports of her actually having an affair with both of them but there are a lot of sources that confirm her closeness with John. F. Kennedy.
On August 5th, 1962, Marilyn was found dead in her bed by a maid servant. According to the doctors, she had taken an overdose of sedatives. Doctors also concluded that stress and her family’s mental history was partially responsible for her death. It was also rumored all over the world that she killed herself because John Kennedy refused to divorce his wife and marry her. She was laid to rest in the Corridors of Memories, number 24, Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
Marilyn Monroe made sure that she realized her dreams, amidst of all difficulties. However, there were a lot of dark sides to her personality. Well, she shall be remembered as a dedicated, extremely sexy model as well as a motivational human being. She has set both, the good as well as the bad examples to the world!
December 6th, 2011 At 9:39 PM
I dreamed that Norma/Marilyn was a six year old girl and she had a six year old blonde brother. Did she have a twin brother which was given away at the hospital? Makes me wonder….anything could be a secret coming from her life…..