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Trivia
Voted 'Sexiest Woman of the Century' by People Magazine.
[1999]
Was 1947's
Miss California Artichoke Queen.
Was a direct
descendant of U.S. President James Monroe, on her mother's
side.
Was roommates
with Shelley Winters when they were both starting out
in Hollywood.
Ranked #8
in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars
of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Voted EMPIRE's
(UK) "sexiest female movie star of all time"
in 1995.
Playboy "Sweetheart"
of the Month, December 1953.
When she
died in 1962 at age 36, Marilyn Monroe left an estate
valued at $1.6 million. In her will, Monroe bequeathed
75% of that estate to Lee Strasberg, her acting coach,
and 25% to Dr. Marianne Kris, her psychoanalyst. A trust
fund provided her mother, Gladys Baker Eley, with $5,000
a year. When Dr. Kris died in 1980, she passed her 25%
on to the Anna Freud Centre, a children's psychiatric
institute in London. Since Strasberg's death in 1982,
his 75% has been administered by his widow, Anna, and
her lawyer, Irving Seidman.
The licensing
of Marilyn's name and likeness, handled world-wide by
Curtis Management Group, reportedly nets the Monroe
estate about $2 million a year.
Was named
the Number One Sex Star of the 20th Century by Playboy
magazine in 1999.
Started using
the name Marilyn Monroe in 1946, but did not legally
change it until 1956.
Appeared
on the first cover of Playboy in 1953.
Had a dog
named Tippy when she was a child. In her final, unfinished
film, Something's Got To Give, the dog was also named
Tippy.
Interred
at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California,
USA, in the Corridor of Memories, crypt #24.
Hundreds
of items of Marilyn memorabilia auctioned off in late
October, 1999 by Christie's, with MM's infamous JFK
birthday-gown fetching over $1 million.
Was a natural-born
brunette.
Chosen by
Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film
history (#2). [1995]
Hugh Hefner
owns the burial vault next to hers.
Died with
the phone in her hand.
Ex-husband
Joe DiMaggio put fresh roses at her memorial site for
years after her death
When putting
her imprints at Grauman's she joked that Jane Russell
was best known for her large frontside and she was known
for her wiggly walk, so Jane could lean over, and she
could sit in it. It was only a joke, but she dotted
the "I" in her name with a diamond, which
was stolen within days.
The character
of Ginger from TV's Gilligan's Island was loosely based
on her.
Her first
modeling job paid only five dollars.
Frequently
used Nivea moisturizer.
During the
filming of Niagara (1953), Marilyn was still under contract
as a stock actor, thus, she received less salary than
her make-up man.
Often carried
around the book, "The Biography of Abraham Lincoln."
Was an outstanding
player on the Hollygrove Orphanage softball team.
Because the
bathing suit Marilyn wore in the movie Love Nest (1951)
was so risque (for the time period) and caused such
a commotion on the set, director Joseph M. Newman had
to make it a closed set when she was filming.
It was in
Marilyn's contract that she did not have to work when
she was having her menstrual cycle.
Fearing blemishes,
Marilyn washed her face fifteen times a day.
Marilyn was
suggested as a possible wife for Prince Rainier of Monaco.
He later married actress Grace Kelly.
Thought the
right side of her face was her "best" side.
The first
time she signed an autograph as Marilyn Monroe, she
had to ask how to spell it. Marilyn didn't know where
to put the "i" in "Marilyn".
Born at 9:30
am
Suffered
from endometriosis, a condition in which tissues of
the uterus lining (endometrium) leave the uterus, attach
themselves to other areas of the body, and grow, causing
pain, irregular bleeding, and, in severe cases, infertility.
Divorced
first husband, James Dougherty, in Las Vegas, NV.
Divorced
last husband, Arthur Miller, in Juarez, Mexico.
Wore glasses.
Obtained
order from the City Court of the State of New York to
legally change her name from Norma Jeane Mortenson to
Marilyn Monroe. [23 February 1956]
Married Arthur
Miller twice: the 1st time in a civil ceremony, then
in a Jewish (to which she had converted) ceremony 2
days later.
Won an interlocutory
decree from Joe DiMaggio on 27 October 1954, but, under
California law, the divorce was not finalized until
exactly 1 year later.
Offered to
convert to Catholism in order to marry the Catholic
Joe DiMaggio in a Church ceremony, but was turned down
because she was divorced. Subsequently, when the divorced
DiMaggio married Marilyn in a civil ceremony at San
Francisco City Hall, he was automatically excommunicated
by the Church; this edict was struck down by Pope John
XXIII's Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) in 1962.
Even the
origin of Marilyn's name has been subject to debate.
Although it's believed that her movie-crazy mother,
Gladys, named her after Norma Talmadge, Gladys reportedly
told her daughter, Bernice (Marilyn's half-sister),
that she named Marilyn after Norma Jeane Cohen, a woman
Gladys knew while she lived in Kentucky with Bernice's
father.
Pictured
on a 32¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the
Legends of Hollywood series, issued 1 June 1995.
Went to Van
Nuys High School (Los Angeles) in the early 1940s but
never graduated.
Elton John
(British Pop/Rock Star) recorded a tribute to Marilyn
Monroe entitled "Candle in the Wind". In 1997
this was re-recorded with updated lyrics in memory of
Princess Diana, an equally troubled person who also
met an untimely death.
Her behavior
on the unfinished "Something's Got to Give"
dimmed her reputation in the industry, but she was still
big box office at the time of her death, slated to appear
in (among other projects) the splashy musical "What
a Way to Go" and the stark drama "The Stripper".
When told
she was not the star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Marilyn was quoted "Well whatever I am, I'm still
the blonde."
The famous
nude photo of her by Tom Kelley originally appeared
as Anonymous on a calendar entitled "Miss Golden
Dreams." In 1952, a blackmailer threatened to identify
the model as Marilyn, but she shrewdly thwarted the
scheme by announcing the fact herself. Hugh Hefner then
bought the rights to use the photo for $500. Marilyn
became "The Sweetheart of the Month" in the
first issue of Hefner's magazine, Playboy. Neither Kelley
or Monroe ever saw a dime of the millions the calendar
made for its publisher.
Formed her
own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions {31
December 1955)
Appears on
sleeve of The Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band" album.
Batman writer/artist
Bob Kane used Marilyn as a reference when he drew Vicki
Vale.
She is mentioned
in the song "Lady Nina" by rock band Marillion.
Her USO Entertainer
Identification Card listed her name as "Norma Jean
DiMaggio".
She was "discovered"
by press photographers during a WW2 photo shoot at the
Radioplane plant in California (a manufacturer of military
drone targets), owned by actor Reginald Denny. She was
one of the plant's employees and her attractive looks
and natural charm made her a "magnet" for
the photographers.
Was referenced
in the dialogue of Dolce vita, La (1960), in the context
of dieting.
Measurements:
37C-24-35 (definitive measurements for the majority
of her career), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
The Emily
Ann Faulkner/Rita Shawn character (played by Kim Stanley)
in the 1958 John Cromwell film The Goddess was based
on her.
The first
Playboy magazine cover, featuring her, is pictured on
one of six stamps issued in a souvenir sheet, issued
by Grenada & the Grenadines on 1 December 2003 to
celebrate Playboy's 50th anniversary.
American
mother, Norwegian father.
Her father,
Martin Edward Mortensen, emigrated from Haugesund, Norway.
Today the town has a statue of Marilyn sitting on the
docks with her back to the ocean, created by legendary
Norwegian artist Nils Aas (1933-2004).
Trade mark
Lisp, breathless voice
Personal quotes
"I love a natural look in pictures. I like people
with a feeling one way or another - it shows an inner
life. I like to see that there's something going on
inside them."
"My
problem is that I drive myself... I'm trying to become
an artist, and to be true, and sometimes I feel I'm
on the verge of craziness, I'm just trying to get the
truest part of myself out, and it's very hard. There
are times when I think, 'All I have to be is true'.
But sometimes it doesn't come out so easily. I always
have this secret feeling that I'm really a fake or something,
a phony."
"They
were terribly strict. They didn't mean any harm...it
was their religion. They brought me up harshly."
- on living with the Bolenders when she was a little
girl
"I was
surprised to be so crazy about Joe. I expected a flashy
New York sports type, and instead I met this reserved
guy who didn't make a pass at me right away! He treated
me like something special. Joe is a very decent man,
and he makes other people feel decent too." - on
meeting Joe DiMaggio for the first time
"Joe
hates crowds and glamour." - explaining why Joe
DiMaggio didn't come on one of her USO tours
"My
marriage didn't make me sad, but it didn't make me happy
either. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other.
This wasn't because we were angry. We had nothing to
say. I was dying of boredom." - on why she divorced
James Dougherty
"I didn't
want to give up my career, and that's what Joe wanted
me to do most of all." - on why her marriage to
Joe DiMaggio couldn't work
"I want
to be a big star more than anything. It's something
precious."
"Jean
Harlow was my idol." - on her favorite actress,
the first platinum blonde
"The
world around me then was kind of grim. I had to learn
to pretend in order to - I don't know - block the grimness.
The whole world seemed sort of closed to me... [I felt]
on the outside of everything, and all I could do was
to dream up any kind of pretend game." - on drifting
in and out of orphanages when she was little
"Grace
McKee arranged the marriage for me, I never had a choice.
There's not much to say about it. They couldn't support
me, and they had to work out something. And so I got
married." - on her early marriage to James Dougherty
"I had
the radio on." [Q. Did you have anything on ?]
"Chanel
No. 5." [Q. What do you wear to bed ?]
"I'm
not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful."
"A career
is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold
night."
"Sometimes
I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die,
young, but then you'd never complete your life, would
you? You'd never wholly know yourself..."
"A dollar
for your thoughts..."
"I've
been on a calendar, but never on time."
"No
one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl.
All little girls should be told they're pretty, even
if they aren't."
"In
Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than
her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what
you are. Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a
thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your
soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer
often enough and held out for the fifty."
"Dogs
never bite me. Just humans."
"Sex
is a part of nature. I go along with nature."
"Fame
will go by and, so long, I've had you, Fame. If it goes
by, I've always known it was fickle."
"I knew
I belonged to the public and to the world, not because
I was talented or even beautiful, but because I never
had belonged to anything or anyone else."
"People
had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind
of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they
saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked
themselves by calling me the lewd one."
"A sex-symbol
becomes a thing, I just hate being a thing. But if I'm
going to be a symbol of something I'd rather have it
sex than some other things we've got symbols of."
"The
truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool
themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what
I was. Instead they would invent a character for me.
I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving
somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would
blame me for disillusioning them---and fooling them."
"To
put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure
with no foundation. But I'm working on the foundation."
"If
I had observed all the rules, I'd never have gotten
anywhere."
"I want
to grow old without face-lifts... I want to have the
courage to be loyal to the face that I have made."
"It's
often just enough to be with someone. I don't need to
touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between
you both. You're not alone."
"I'm
a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because
of the image they've made of me and that I've made of
myself, as a sex symbol. Men expect so much, and I can't
live up to it."
"It
stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that,
well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They
feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk
up to you and say anything to you, you know, of any
kind of nature - and it won't hurt your feelings."
"Fame
is fickle, and I know it. It has it's compensations
but it also has it's drawbacks, and I've experienced
them both."
"My
illusions didn't have anything to do with being a fine
actress. I knew how third rate I was. I could actually
feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes
I was wearing inside. But my God, how I wanted to learn,
to change, to improve!"
"If
I play a stupid girl, and ask a stupid question, I've
got to follow it through. What am I supposed to do,
look intelligent?"
On posing
nude for the calendar in 1949: "My sin has been
no more than I have written, posing for the nude because
I desperately needed fifty dollars to get my car out
of hock."
"An
actor is supposed to be a sensitive intrument. Isaac
Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everyone
jumped on his violin?"
"There
was my name up in lights. I said 'God, somebody's made
a mistake!' But there it was in lights. And I sat there
and said, 'Remember, you're not a star.' Yet there it
was up in lights."
"Some
people have been unkind. If I say I want to grow as
an actress, they look at my figure. If I say I want
to develop, to learn my craft, they laugh. Somehow they
don't expect me to be serious about my work."
"I was
never used to being happy, so that wasn't something
I ever took for granted. I did sort of think, you know,
marriage did that. You see, I was brought up differently
from the average American child because the average
child is brought up expecting to be happy - that's it,
successful, happy, and on time."
"You
know, when you grow up you can get kind of sour, I mean,
that's the way it can go."
"Wouldn't
it be nice to be like men and get notches in your belt
and sleep with most attractive men and not get emotionally
involved?"
"I used
to think as I looked at the Hollywood night, 'There
must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming
of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry
about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.'"
"The
trouble with censors is they worry if a girl has cleavage.
They ought to worry if she hasn't any."
"I used
to say to myself, 'What the devil have you got to be
proud about, Marilyn Monroe?' And I'd answer, 'Everything,
everything.'"
On stardom:
"It scares me. All those people I don't know, sometimes
they're so emotional. I mean, if they love you that
much without knowing you, they can also hate you the
same way."
"Goethe
said, 'Talent is developed in privacy, ' you know?And
it's really true. There is a need for aloneness which
I don't think most people realize for an actor. It's
almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself
that you'll let the whole world in on only for a moment,
when you're acting."
"Please
don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I
believe... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity."
"I've
never dropped anyone I believed in."
On John F.
Kennedy: "It would be so nice to have a president
who looks so young and good-looking."
"I restore
myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public --
talent in private."
"Talent
is developed in privacy... but everybody is always tugging
at you. They'd all like sort of a chunk at you. They'd
kind of like to take pieces out of you."
"I want
to be an artist... not an erotic freak. I don't want
to be sold to the public as a celluloid aphrodisiacal."
"Hollywood
is a place where they'll pay a million dollars for a
kiss... and fifty cents for your soul."
(About Montgomery
Clift): He's the only person I know that is in worse
shape than I am.
"I've
never liked the name Marilyn. I've often wished that
I had held out that day for Jean Monroe. But I guess
it's too late to do anything about it now."
Marilyn Monroe - Filmography
Below is a complete filmography
(list of movies she's appeared in)
American Masters: None Without Sin (2003) (TV) (archive
footage) .... Self
Memories From the Sweet Sue's (2001) (V) (archive footage)
.... Sugar Kane
Something's
Got to Give (1962) .... Ellen Wagstaff Arden
Misfits, The (1961) .... Roslyn Taber
Let's Make Love (1960) .... Amanda Dell
... aka Billionaire, The (1960)
... aka Millionaire, The (1960)
Some Like
It Hot (1959) .... Sugar Kane Kowalczyk
Prince and the Showgirl, The (1957) .... Elsie Marina
Bus Stop (1956) .... Cherie
... aka Wrong Kind of Girl, The (1956)
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
... aka Howard Hawks' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (2001)
(USA: complete title)
Niagara (1953) .... Rose Loomis
O. Henry's Full House (1952) .... Streetwalker (The
Cop and the Anthem)
... aka Full House (1952/I) (UK)
Monkey Business (1952) .... Miss Lois Laurel
... aka Be Your Age (1952)
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) (uncredited) .... Dusky Ledoux
Fireball, The (1950) .... Polly
... aka Challenge, The (1950/I)
All About Eve (1950) .... Miss Caswell
Asphalt Jungle, The (1950) .... Angela Phinlay
Ticket to Tomahawk, A (1950) (uncredited) .... Clara
Love Happy (1950) .... Grunion's Client
... aka Kleptomaniacs (1950) (USA)
Ladies of
the Chorus (1948) .... Peggy Martin
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948) (uncredited) .... Girl
in Canoe (lake scenes)
... aka Summer Lightning (1948) (UK)
Dangerous Years (1947) .... Evie
Shocking Miss Pilgrim, The (1947) (uncredited) ....
Bit Part
Marilyn Monroe - Notable TV
Guest Appearances
"Entertainment Tonight" (1981)
playing "Herself" (archive footage) 11 October
2003
"Great Performances" (1972) playing "Herself"
(archive footage) in episode: "Making "The
Misfits" 2 October 2003
"Blond in Hollywood" (2003) playing "Herself"
(archive footage) in episode: "Marilyn Monroe"
(episode # 1.2) 7 February 2003
"ABC Stage 67" (1966) playing "Herself"
in episode: "The Legend of Marilyn Monroe"
(episode # 1.10) 30 November 1966
"DuPont Show of the Week, The" (1961) playing
"Herself" in episode: "USO - Wherever
They Go!" (episode # 1.4) 8 October 1961
"Toast of the Town" (1948) playing "Herself"
30 June 1957
"Person to Person" (1953) playing "Herself"
8 April 1955
"Jack Benny Program, The" (1950) playing "Herself"
in episode: "Honolulu Trip" (episode # 4.1)
13 September 1953
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