Marilyn Monroe

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Born on 06-01-1926 Nationality American		Buy Marilyn Monroe Contact Information Posters and Photos DVDs/Videos Autographs		Search for Marilyn Monroe Mailing Address Auctions
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Biography

Norma Jeane Mortenson, better known as Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926 and died on August 5, 1962. She was born in Los Angles, California in the charity ward of Los Angeles County Hospital. She did not know who her father was and never met him. Her maternal grandmother later had her baptized as Norma Jeane Baker. Her mother, Gladys, who suffered from mental illness tried to persuade her mother to look after Norma Jeane, but she refused. Thus, she ended up in a foster home until she was seven. She believed that her foster parents were her real parents until abruptly told otherwise by her caregivers. Her mother visited her every Sunday, but was emotionally withholding and never showed affection to young Norma.

Eventually, Gladys purchased a home and took her daughter to live with her. Soon after she suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to a mental institution. Norma was declared a ward of the state and Gladys's best friend, Grace, became her guardian. When Grace married, around the time Norma turned nine years old, she sent the child to an orphanage. Norma subsequently ended up in numerous foster homes where she suffered abuse and neglect. Subsequently Grace took her back and remained her guardian until she was fifteen. Grace was moving away with her family and could not, for some reason, take Norma with her. She did however, set her up with the boy next door who she hoped Norma would marry so she could avoid ending up in foster care again. She did marry her neighbor, James Dougherty, just after her sixteenth birthday and moved in with his mother while he did a stint in the Merchant Marines.

While working in a local factory she was discovered by a photographer who ended up getting her several modeling jobs. She divorced James Dougherty to pursue her career in acting. She changed her name to Marilyn Monroe and was later signed to several studios. She was dropped and re-signed by 20th Century Fox who put her in a few small roles. The most notable of these were All About Eve and the Asphalt Jungle. She received so much fan mail from these small parts that Fox decided to start giving her larger roles. Monroe had enormous sex appeal and, despite what the critics said, she also possessed acting talent and great comedic timing. Every movie she was cast in from 1950 to 1962 drew attention and large box-office receipts. The most notable of her films included, Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, There's No Business Like Show Business, The Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop, Some Like It Hot, The Misfits and her last film, which was not completed, Something's Got to Give. She was notoriously "difficult" on the set and earned a reputation for being stubborn. Most speculate that this label was a sign of the times; any woman who spoke up for herself and negotiated on her own behalf was considered difficult in her era.

Eventually her disastrous personal life, caused by her horrifying childhood, caused her to die of a drug overdose at the age of thirty-six years old. Almost as many conspiracy theories have bloomed from Marilyn's death as from the death of John F. Kennedy. She was married two times after her "marriage of convenience" to James Dougherty. She married baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in 1954 and they divorced less than a year later, although they stayed close friends. She later married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956 and divorced him in 1961. She was also romantically linked to Frank Sinatra and, most notoriously to President John F. Kennedy.

Although Marilyn died in 1962 she continues to draw public fascination long after the names of her critics have been forgotten. Countless books, movies and TV shows have been created in her honor, and 21st Century starlets and singers continue to emulate and honor her memory. She has been dubbed "The Icon" of the 20th Century. Oddly enough, for all those who adored her and claimed to be her friend, after her death her body lay unclaimed in the morgue for two days. Her ex-husband Joe DiMaggio finally collected her remains and arranged for her burial. Perhaps Marilyn summed it up best herself when she said, "Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul."

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