Summary

Marilyn Monroe (real name - Norma Jean Mortenson (June 1, 1926, Los Angeles, California, USA - August 4, 1962, Brentwood, California, USA) - American actress, sex symbol of the 1950s, singer and model. She became one of the most iconic images of American cinema and the entire world culture.

Twenty films with her participation brought in the box office over $ 200 million. As part of the studio system, Monroe was tied to a contract with the "20th Century Fox" film studio, because of what, being one of the most in-demand actresses of the 1950s, at the same time belonged to the list of the least paid stars of Hollywood.

Fame it brought her roles in the films "Niagara" (1953), "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) and "The Itch of the Seventh Year" (1955). The attitude of critics to the work of Monroe was contradictory. The actress fell in love with the audience, playing the images of silly but charming blondes. For her performance of the title role in the film "Only Girls in Jazz" (1959), Monroe was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical.

For many years Monroe tried to get rid of the image of a silly blonde, the oppression of the film studio Fox and become a serious actress, but to achieve this to the full extent she failed. She had three broken marriages and three failed pregnancies. She suffered from addiction to narcotic drugs - barbiturates.

In recent years, the psychological state of the actress was unstable. She did not complete filming in her last film for "20th Century Fox", "Something's Gotta Happen" (1962). On August 5, 1962 Marilyn Monroe was found dead. Her death was due to an overdose of barbiturates. The official version of her death is suicide, but there are several alternative versions, the most popular of which are political assassination by the Kennedy brothers and a medical error by the actress' psychotherapist Ralph Greenson.

1926-1944: Childhood and First Marriage

Marilyn Monroe (née Norma Jean Mortenson) was born around 9:30 a.m. on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles and was the third child of RKO Pictures film editor Gladys Pearl Baker (nee Monroe, May 27, 1902 - March 11, 1984). When Gladys was fifteen, she married John Newton Baker, who was nine years her senior, and the couple had two children, Robert (1917-1933) and Bernice (1919-2014). In 1921, Gladys filed for divorce, and Baker took the children to his home in Kentucky (Marilyn did not learn of her older sister's existence until she was twelve). In 1924 Gladys married a second time to Martin Edward Mortensen, but even before she became pregnant with Norma Jean, they separated (they did not finally divorce until 1928). The identity of the girl's father remained unknown - the birth certificate lists Mortensen as the father (although his last name is written there as Mortenson), and when Gladys baptized her daughter, she recorded her under the last name Baker. Growing up, Marilyn did learn that her father was a man named Charles Stanley Gifford (1898-1965), with whom the actress' mother had an affair in 1925. Monroe not once made attempts to contact him, but he refused to get in touch, even though he knew that Marilyn really is his daughter. In 2022 this fact was officially confirmed after a DNA test.

The early years of Norma Jean's life were quite happy, although her mother could not give her enough attention because of her work, so soon after giving birth she gave her daughter to the temporary foster family of Albert and Ida Bolender in the rural town of Hawthorne. Other foster children grew up in the family and were raised according to the principles of evangelical Christianity. At first Gladys lived with the Bolenders, but the long commute and long work shifts eventually forced Gladys to return to Los Angeles in early 1927. She saw her daughter after that only on weekends, when she took her to the movies and on excursions to Los Angeles. Although the Bolenders wanted to adopt Monroe, by the summer of 1933 Gladys considered herself financially stable enough to take her daughter, and bought a small house in Hollywood. George and Maude Atkinson's acting family and their daughter, Nellie, lived in the house with them. A few months later, in January 1934, Gladys began to show signs of mental illness and was soon diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After spending several months in a rest home, she was admitted to the Capital State Hospital, where she spent the rest of her life and had little contact with her daughter.

After that Norma Jeane found herself in the care of the state, and she was taken in by Gladys' friend Grace McKee, who took temporary custody of her. In 1935, when the girl was nine years old, Grace married Ervin Goddard, and Norma Jeane became an unnecessary member of her guardian's new family. So she ended up in an orphanage in Los Angeles, where she was wanted several times for adoption, but Gladys refused to sign the proper papers. In 1936 the director of the orphanage convinced Grace that Norma Jean would be much better off growing up with a family, after which she formalized her legal guardianship, but she could not be removed from the orphanage until June 1937. But soon, because of sexual harassment by Grace's husband, the girl moved in with her great-aunt Olivia in Compton. But even there she did not live long (one of Olivia's sons also molested the girl), and in early 1938 Grace sent Norma Jean to her aunt Anna Atchinson Lower, who lived in Van Nuys. There Marilyn was enrolled at Emerson High School and later described her time with Lower as one of the few times when she really felt at ease. She was a pretty mediocre student at school, but showed a good talent for writing and wrote extensively for the school newspaper. But Anna had health problems, and in 1942 Norma Jean had to return to Grace. After graduating from Emerson, she began attending school at Van Nuys.

During high school Norma Jean met an older boy, James Daugherty, and an affair began between them. In 1942 Ervin Goddard received a transfer in the service to West Virginia, which caused 16-year-old Norma Jean to face a problem: under the laws of California Goddards could not take her out of the state, so the girl had to return to the orphanage. So she married Daugherty, after which she dropped out of school and settled in his home. Years later she stated that her marriage to Daugherty was rather bland, and that they spoke very little to each other. A year after they married, her husband joined the merchant navy, and she went to work at the Radioplane Co. aircraft plant. In June 1945, while Norma Jeane was still working at Radioplane, Army photographer David Conover showed up, taking propaganda pictures of women in the war plants at the behest of his boss, Ronald Reagan. After this shoot, Conover offered Norma Jean a pose for five dollars an hour, and she accepted. Soon the girl left her job at the factory to pursue a modeling career, and then she and her husband began to have disagreements because he did not approve of her new profession. In 1945, 19-year-old Norma Jean got a job at the "Blue Book" model agency in Los Angeles (head of the agency - Emmeline Snively, photographer - Andre De Dienes), and then began to gain fame and popularity.

1944-1949: Modeling and first film roles

Early in her modeling career she occasionally used the name Jeanne Norman, her curly brown hair was straightened, later she dyed her hair blond. Her figure was deemed more suitable for pinup, so she was featured mostly in advertisements and men's magazines. According to Emmeline Snively, head of the agency, Monroe was one of the most ambitious and hardworking models, by early 1946 her picture was on 33 covers of various magazines such as Pageant, Camera, Life and Peek.

Impressed by her success, Snively signed a contract for Monroe with an acting agency in June 1946. After an unsuccessful interview with producers at Paramount Pictures, she received an invitation from Ben Lyon, director of 20th Century Fox Studios. Studio executive producer Darryl F. Zanuck was not happy about this, but he was persuaded to give her a standard six-month contract to avoid her signing with rival RKO Pictures. Execution of the contract began in August 1946, and soon she and Lyon had chosen a stage name, "Marilyn Monroe." The name was chosen by Lyon after Broadway star Marilyn Miller, the last name was chosen by Monroe herself, according to her mother's maiden name. In September 1946 she divorced James Daugherty, who was against her career.

During the first months of her contract, Monroe received no film roles, so she had a lot of free time, which she devoted to studying acting, singing, and dancing. To learn more about the film industry and to promote herself, she spent a lot of time in the studio watching other actors. In February 1947, she was given her first two roles in The Dangerous Years (English) (Russian) and Scudda-oo! Scudda-ay! The studio enlisted her in an acting class that trained her in acting, she later stated: "This is my first experience of what real acting is like in real drama, maybe I can learn it." After that, Monroe did not have any major offers, and she returned to work as a model, as well as doing small jobs in the studio.

Monroe went on to study with an acting group, and in October she was to play a small part in the Beverly Hills Theater, but production of the production for unclear reasons never began. She soon became friends with journalist Sidney Skolsky, and she also became a friend of 20th Century Fox executive Joseph M. Schenk, with whom she had an intimate relationship and who persuaded his friend Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, to sign her in March 1948.

The hairline on Monroe's forehead was elevated with electrolysis, and her hair was bleached to a platinum hue. She soon began working with acting teacher Natasha Lytess, who remained her mentor until 1955. Her only film at the studio was the 1948 low-budget musical The Choristers, in which she first played the lead role, a chorus girl who is courted by a wealthy man. During the filming of the movie, she began an affair with vocal coach Fred Cardger, who paid to correct her improper bite. Despite the lead role and subsequent film auditions for the lead role in the musical Born Yesterday (1950), the contract with Monroe was not renewed due to the refusal of the actress to join the head of the studio on the boat. The musical The Choristers was released in October and was not a success.

After leaving Columbia Pictures in September 1948, Monroe became a protégé of Johnny Hyde, vice president of the William Morris Acting Agency. They soon began an affair. Hyde proposed, but Monroe declined. Hyde paid for Monroe's plastic surgery on her jaw and rhinoplasty and arranged for her to play a small role in the Marx Brothers movie Happy Love (English). Monroe also continued to work as a model; in May 1949 she posed nude for photographs taken by Tom Kelly. Although her role in Lucky Love was very small, she was chosen to appear in a promotional tour of the film, in New York City in 1949.

1950-1952: Career Breakthrough

Marilyn Monroe appeared in six films that were released in 1950. She had cameo roles in Tomahawk Ticket, Right Cross and Fireball, and small roles in two critically acclaimed films: John Huston's crime drama The Asphalt Jungle and Joseph Mankiewicz's drama All About Eve. In the first film she played Angela, the young mistress of an aging criminal. Although the actress was only on screen for five minutes, she received a mention in Photoplay magazine. In All About Eve, Monroe played Miss Casswell, a naive young actress.

After his success in these films, Johnny Hyde signed Monroe to a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox in December 1950. He died of a heart attack a few days later, this tragedy greatly affected the actress. Despite this, 1951 was a very successful year for her. In March she was the host of the 23rd Academy Awards, and in September Collier magazine became the first national magazine to publish a photo of her entire profile. She later landed supporting roles in four low-budget films: Home Town, You Can't Feel Younger, Love's Nest and Let's Make It Legal. According to Photoplay magazine, all four of her films "took on a sexy character" and she has also received praise from critics, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times described her as "a rousing actress" in You Can't Feel Younger and Ezra Goodman of the Los Angeles Daily News called her "one of the brightest actresses". To further develop her acting skills, Monroe began taking lessons from Michael Chekhov and Lottie Goslar. Her popularity with audiences increased significantly, she received several thousand letters from fans a week, the army newspaper Stars and Stripes (English) (Russian) called her "Miss Pin-Up of 1951. In her personal life during this period Monroe had an affair with director Elia Kazan.

Monroe began getting major roles in the second year of her contract. Gossip columnist Freder Muir called her "It girl" in 1952, and Hedda Hopper described her as "a pin-up queen whose box office must be off the charts. In February she was named "youngest box-office actress" by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, after which she began an affair with retired New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio, who was one of the most famous sports figures of the era; their affair later received wide publicity. The following month a scandal erupted when the actress revealed in an interview that in 1949 she posed nude for photographs that were featured in calendars. The press found out about it a few weeks later, the incident having potentially disastrous consequences for her career, the studio and Monroe decided to speak openly about it, emphasizing that she only posed nude when she was in financial difficulty. With this strategy, she managed to gain sympathy from the public and increased interest in her films, and the following month she was featured on the cover of Life magazine. Monroe presented herself as a new sex symbol, this was due to various PR moves in 1952, for example she wore a revealing dress when she was in charge of the Miss America pageant parade, also a big part of this was gossip columnist Earl Wilson, who wrote that she usually wore no undergarments.

Regardless of her popularity and sex appeal, Monroe wanted to expand her acting range. In the summer of 1952, she appeared in two commercially successful films. The first film was Fritz Lang's drama, Skirmish in the Night, for which she received many positive reviews, with critics from the Hollywood Reporter stating that "she deserves lead role status with her excellent interpretation" and critics from Variety magazine writing that "she has a comfortable appearance and character that makes her resilient for popularity". The second film was the psychological thriller Can You Come Knocking, in which she starred as the mentally ill nanny, a role she was given to test her abilities in a heavier dramatic role. The film received mixed reviews from critics, some considered her too inexperienced for such a difficult role, critics from Variety magazine stated that the film had a bad script.

In 1952 Fox Studios continued to give her roles as silly blondes in comedy films that focused on her sex appeal. Her role as the young contestant in "We're Not Married!", was designed solely to portray Marilyn in two bathing suits, according to writer Nunnally Johnson. In the Howard Hawks comedy "Monkey Labor," in which she starred alongside Cary Grant, she played a secretary who is a silly blonde who is unaware of the sexual mayhem caused around her. Also that year, Monroe had a cameo as a prostitute in The Redskins Leader and Others... (1952).

During this period Monroe found it difficult to be on the set, difficulties compounded as her career progressed. She was often late or didn't show up at all, increasingly forgot her lines, and required several reshoots of scenes until she was satisfied with her performance. Monroe's dependence on her teachers - first on Natasha Lightness and later on Paula Strasberg - greatly irritated the directors. Monroe's problems were attributed to a combination of perfectionism, low self-esteem, and stage fright; she disliked the lack of control over her work on set, and many noted that she had never experienced such problems before, even during photo shoots, in which she could behave freely rather than follow a script. To dispel her anxiety and chronic insomnia, she began taking barbiturates, amphetamines, and alcohol; this in turn further exacerbated her problems, although she rarely took pills or drank alcohol until 1956. According to Sarah Shuvelle, Monroe's behavior, especially in the later years of her career, was a response to the condescension and sexism of her male colleagues and directors. Similarly, Lewis Banner claimed that she was bullied by many of her directors.

1953-1954: Career Peak

Marilyn Monroe starred in three films that were released in 1953 and became a major sex symbol and one of Hollywood's most profitable performers. The first of these films was the film noir film Niagara, in which she played a femme fatale plotting the murder of her husband, played by Joseph Cotten. By then Monroe and her makeup artist Allan "Whitey" Snyder (English) (Russian) had developed a makeup that became associated with her: dark lancet eyebrows, pale skin and scarlet lips. According to Sarah Sewell, Niagara was one of the most sexually explicit films of Monroe's career because it included scenes in which only a sheet or towel covered her body. Her most famous scene in this film is the one showing the actress walking with her hips rippling, a scene widely used in the marketing of the film.

After the film was released in January, women's clubs protested, considering the film immoral, but it proved popular with audiences and grossed $6 million at the box office. While critics at Variety magazine called it "trite" and "morbid," the New York Times commented, "The movie falls flat and there's nothing to see in it, though Monroe may not be the perfect actress at the moment... She can be seductive even when she walks." Monroe continued to attract attention with her revealing outfits in publicity events; in January 1953 she received an award from Photoplay magazine as "Most Popular Star." At the award ceremony she wore a tight red dress, prompting actress Joan Crawford to describe her behavior to the press as inappropriate.

The movie "Niagara" made Monroe a sex symbol and created for everyone their own view of her. Her second 1953 film, the satirical musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, in which she again played the silly blonde, was soon released. The film is based on the novel by Anita Loos and its Broadway version. The motion picture focuses on two showgirls going on tour in Paris: Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw, played by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. The role of Lorelei was originally intended for Betty Grable, the most popular blonde of the 1940s, but Monroe quickly overshadowed her as a star who could appeal to both male and female audiences. As part of the film's promotional campaign, she and Russell left their handprints on the concrete outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in June. The film was released shortly thereafter and became one of the biggest box office successes of the year, grossing $5.3 million, exceeding its production costs by half. The New York Times and Variety magazines praised Monroe, particularly noting her performance; according to the latter, she demonstrated her ability to sing and also showed the significance of her presence.

In September Monroe made her television debut on The Jack Benny Program. She then starred with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall in her third 1953 film, How to Marry a Millionaire, which was released in November. Monroe was in the role of a naive model who teams up with her friends to find rich husbands. It was the second film released in the CimemaScope widescreen format, with which 20th Century Fox hoped to draw audiences back to theaters as television began to cause losses for the movie studios. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a box office success, earning $8 million at the worldwide box office.

Monroe was listed in the annual top ten "top profitable stars" in 1953 and 1954, and according to historian Aubrey Solomon she became a major asset to the studio. Monroe's position as a leading sex symbol was confirmed in December 1953 when Hugh Hefner featured her on the cover and spread in the first issue of Playboy magazine. The cover featured a photo of her at the 1952 Miss America pageant parade, and the spread featured one of her nude photos from 1949.

1954-1955: Conflict with 20th Century-Fox and marriage to Joe DiMaggio

Although Monroe became one of 20th Century Fox's greatest stars, her contract status had not changed since 1950, she had received far less attention than other stars of her rank, and she could not choose her own projects or colleagues with whom she wanted to work. Marilyn wanted to be a real actress, but her attempts to star in films other than comedies or musicals were thwarted by Zanuck, who had a strong personal grudge against her and thought she would make more money for the studio by starring in comedies. When she refused to start filming another musical comedy, an adaptation of the failed Broadway musical The Girl in Pink Tights, in which she was to star alongside Frank Sinatra, the studio suspended her contract until January 4, 1954. When the actress read the script, she was horrified by the meaninglessness and sheer stupidity of the film, and called the main character vulgar. The plot of the comedy was that a schoolteacher for the bankrupt husband from high society goes to work as a dancer in a saloon. In addition, everything was complicated by the fact that Sinatra would be paid 5,000 dollars a week to appear in the film, while Monroe's fee has remained unchanged for years, despite the fact that it was by then a star of first magnitude. The actress was both angry and frustrated, even quarreling with her acting teacher, Natasha Lytess, who persuaded her to star in the film.

This conflict was front-page news and Monroe immediately launched an advertising campaign to counter any negative press and to reinforce her position in the conflict. On January 14, 1954, she and Joe DiMaggio, whose relationship had been the subject of constant media attention since 1952, were married in San Francisco. They then traveled to Japan, combining their honeymoon with their business trip. Afterward, she traveled alone to Korea, where she performed songs from her films as part of a show for the USO, attended by more than 60,000 U.S. Marines, for four days. After returning to Hollywood in February, she was awarded a special prize as "Most Popular Star." She reached an agreement with the studio in March, which included a new contract that was signed later that year, after she was confirmed for the lead role in the film version of the hit Broadway play The Itchy Seventh Year, for which she was to be paid an additional $100,000. Her next job was Otto Preminger's adventure film "The River That Doesn't Flow Back," which was made before her contract was suspended with Robert Mitchum. She called it a "third-rate cowboy movie," though it was popular with audiences. The first movie she starred in after returning to 20th Century Fox was the musical No Better Business Than Show Business, in which she flatly refused to star, but the studio demanded that she star in it in exchange for a role in The Girl in the Pink Pantyhose, whose scripts were very similar. The musical was unsuccessful after its release in December, and Monroe's performance was considered vulgar by many critics.

In September 1954, the actress began shooting the comedy Billy Wilder, "The itch of the seventh year," along with Tom Yuell. Marilyn played a woman who becomes the object of her married neighbor's sexual fantasies. Although the film was shot in Hollywood, the studio decided to create the publicity in advance by having one of the scenes filmed on Lexington Avenue in New York. In it, Monroe stands on a trellis above a subway and the air lifts up the hem of her white dress, a scene that became one of the most famous of her career. Filming lasted several hours and drew a crowd of 2,000, including professional photographers. While Monroe's publicity stunt was featured on the international page, it also ended her marriage to Joe DiMaggio, who was furious about it. The marriage began to fall apart from the beginning as Joe was constantly jealous of her and controlling their relationship, Donald Spoto and Lois Banner also claimed that he was physically abusive. After returning to Hollywood, Monroe hired prominent attorney Jerry Gisler and announced in October 1954 that she had filed for divorce. The Seven Year Itch was released the following June and grossed more than $4.5 million at the box office, making it one of the biggest commercial successes of the year.

After starring in this film, Monroe began a new fight for her career and left Hollywood for the East Coast, where she and photographer Milton Green founded their own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP), an act that was later called "instrumental" within the studio system. Announcing the founding of this company in a press conference in January 1955, Monroe said that she was tired of the same sexy roles: "I want to do better things. People have limits, and you know that." She claimed that she was unhappy with her contract with 20th Century Fox because the studio had not fulfilled its obligations, such as not paying her the promised bonus for the movie "The Itch of the Seventh Year." A long legal battle between her and the studio soon ensued. The press largely ridiculed Monroe for her actions, saying she was parodying a play by writer George Axelrod.    (English) (Russian. (1955), in which Jane Mansfield played a silly actress who starts her own production company.

In 1955 Monroe devoted herself to learning her craft. She moved to New York and began taking acting lessons from Constance Collier and attending seminars on the acting method at the acting studio run by Lee Strasberg. Sometimes she would jot down notes for herself of what she had learned that day, recognizing that Strasberg's remarks about her were important.

She learned much from Strasberg and his wife Paula, taking private lessons in her home because of her shyness, and she soon became a member of their family. Monroe let go of her old teacher, Natasha Lites, and replaced her with Strasberg, who had an important influence on her entire career. Monroe also began taking a course in psychoanalysis at the recommendation of Strasberg, who believed that an actor should confront emotional trauma and use it in her performances.

In her personal life, Monroe continued her relationship with Di Maggio despite the ongoing divorce process. She also dated actor Marlon Brando and playwright Arthur Miller. The romance between Monroe and Miller became increasingly serious after October 1955, when her divorce from Di Maggio was finalized and Miller separated from his wife. The FBI soon opened a case against her. The studio feared Monroe would be blacklisted and urged her to end their relationship because Miller was under FBI surveillance in connection with charges of Communism and was summoned to the Committee on Un-American Activities. Despite the risk to her career, Monroe refused to end their relationship, later calling the studio executive a coward.

- Marilyn Monroe

By the end of the year Monroe and the studio had come to an agreement on a new seven-year contract. It was clear that MMF would not be able to finance the films alone, and the studio was ready to work with her again. The contract stipulated that she would star in four films for 20th Century Fox for seven years. The studio was to pay her $100,000 per film, and gave her the right to choose her own projects, directors and filmmakers. In addition, she wanted to be free to make one film with MMP, after each completed film for 20th Century Fox.

1956-1959: Critical acclaim and marriage to Arthur Miller

In 1956 Monroe announced her victory over 20th Century Fox to a press that had previously ridiculed her but now wrote favorably about her decision to fight the studio. Time magazine called her a "shrewd businessman," and Look predicted that the victory would mark the triumph of the individual over the herd for years to come. In March, she officially changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. Her relationship with Miller generated a number of negative press reports. Walter Winchell wrote that "America's most famous blonde turned movie star is now the darling of the leftist intelligentsia. Monroe and Miller were married on June 29, 1956 in White Plains, New York. A civil wedding ceremony was held that day, followed two days later by a wedding ceremony according to Jewish tradition held at the New York home of Kay Brown, Miller's literary agent. On her marriage, Monroe converted to Judaism, which led to the banning of all her films in Egypt. The media believed that the sex symbol Monroe and the intellectual Miller were not right for each other. For example, one newspaper headline read, "Erudite (literally: egghead) Married Hourglass" ("Egghead Weds Hourglass").

The drama Bus Stop was the first film in which Monroe starred under a new contract. The film was released in August 1956. She played Cherie, a singer whose dreams of fame are shattered by a naïve cowboy who falls in love with her. In choosing her costumes and makeup, she decided that her earlier films had a lot of glamour, mediocre singing and dancing. Broadway director Joshua Logan immediately agreed to work with her, despite initial doubts about her acting abilities and, in his opinion, her questionable reputation. Filming took place in Idaho and Arizona in early 1956, with Monroe as the head of IMM.

These events changed Logan's opinion of Monroe, later comparing her to Charlie Chaplin in her ability to mix comedy and tragedy. "Bus Stop was a box-office success, grossing $4.25 million and receiving mostly positive reviews. The Saturday Reviem of Literature wrote that Monroe's performance effectively dispels, once and for all, the idea that she is just a glamorous person. Bosley Crowther declared, "Hold on to your chairs, everybody, and get a rattling surprise. Marilyn Monroe finally proved herself an actress." She received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical for this role.

In August 1956, the actress began acting in the first film of the independent production of the MMP. "The Prince and the Dancer" was filmed at Pinewood Studios in England. The film was based on Terence Rettigen's play "The Sleeping Prince (English) (Russian)," about a love affair between an actress and a prince in the 1910s. The lead roles were first played on stage by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He performed his role and also directed and co-produced the film. Filming was complicated by conflicts between him and Monroe. He angered her with his line, "All you have to do is be sexy." He also did not like the constant presence of Paula Strasberg, acting as her main teacher on the set.

In retaliation for what she considered Olivier's "condescending" behavior, Monroe began arriving late and became unconstructive, later stating, "If you don't respect your artists, they can't work well." Her drug addiction escalated and she soon became pregnant, but miscarried. She also had quarrels with Green over how MMR should be run, including the fact that Miller should join the company. Despite the difficulties, the film was completed on schedule by the end of the year. It was released in June 1957, received mixed reviews, and proved unpopular with American audiences. It was better received in Europe, where Marilyn Monroe was awarded the top Italian film award, the David di Donatello, the Crystal Star Award, and was nominated for a BAFTA.

After returning to the United States, Monroe took an 18-month break from work to concentrate on family life on the East Coast. She and Miller spent their time in their Manhattan apartment, which they had purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut, spending the summer in Amagansett, Long Island. She became pregnant in mid-1957, but the pregnancy was ectopic and had to be terminated. She miscarried a year later. Her gynecological problems were largely caused by endometriosis, a condition from which she suffered throughout her adult life. Monroe was also hospitalized at this time due to a barbiturate overdose. During the hiatus, she had an argument with Green and bought out her share of the MMP company because they could not resolve their differences and she began to suspect that he was stealing money from the company.

Monroe returned to Hollywood in July 1958 to star alongside Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in

Billy Wilder's comedy Only Girls in Jazz (1959). Although she was again offered the role of the silly blonde, she accepted because of Miller's support and the offer of ten percent of the film's profits in addition to her standard pay. The difficulties during the making of the film became very serious. Monroe required dozens of repetitions and couldn't remember her lines, Curtis dashingly stated that kissing her was like "kissing Hitler" because of the number of repetitions. Monroe herself compared the shoot to a sinking ship and commented, "But why should I bother, I'm not a phallic symbol to lose." Many of these problems stemmed from the conflict between her and Wilder, who also had his own beliefs about how she should play the heroine. Monroe became angry with Wilder, asking him to change many of her scenes, but this in turn increased her stage fright; it is assumed that she deliberately ruined several scenes so that she would not play them.

In the end, Wilder was pleased with Monroe's performance, stating, "Someone might not remember the lines, but he doesn't take it, comes to the set and doesn't know what to do, and she did." Despite the difficulties of filming it, Only Girls in Jazz was critically and commercially successful, it was released in March 1959. Monroe's role earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical, with Variety magazine calling her "a comedienne with a combination of sex appeal and timing that is simply incredible." The motion picture was voted one of the best films ever made by the American Film Institute.

On February 8, 1960 Marilyn Monroe was awarded a name star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1960-1962: Career Decline and Personal Difficulties

After the movie "In a Jazz Only Girls" Monroe took another break until the end of 1959, when she returned to Hollywood and starred in the musical comedy "Let's Make Love", about an actress and a millionaire who fall in love with each other. She chose director George Cukor and asked her husband Arthur Miller to rewrite a part of the script that she thought was weak. The actress only took part in this film because she had a contract with 20th Century Fox. Filming was delayed due to her frequent tardiness and disappearances. Monroe had an affair with Yves Montand, her partner in the film, which was widely reported in the press and used in the film's advertising campaign. The film was a failure upon its release in September 1960, Bosley Crowther described Monroe as "unkempt" and said she lacked the old dynamism, and Hedda Hopper called the film "the most vulgar picture she had ever been in." Truman Capote offered her the role of Holly Golightly in the film adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's, but the role went to Audrey Hepburn, as many feared that Monroe would make filming difficult.

The last film in which Monroe starred was the 1961 John Huston drama The Misfits, the script for which Arthur Miller wrote to give her a dramatic role. She played a divorced woman who becomes a friend of three cowboys, played by Clark Gable, Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift. Filming took place in the Nevada desert between July and November 1960 and was again very difficult. Monroe and Miller's four-year marriage effectively ended, and he began a new relationship with photographer Inge Morath. Monroe didn't like that he wrote the script based in part on her life, and felt it was inferior to the male roles. She also struggled with Miller's habit of rewriting scenes the night before filming began. Her health was severely compromised, she was in pain from gallstones, her drug addiction was so severe that her makeup was applied while she was still asleep under the influence of barbiturates. In August, filming was stopped to spend a week detoxing in a Los Angeles hospital. Despite her problems, Huston stated, "When Monroe played Roslin, she didn't pretend to be emotional. It was the real thing. She was going deep into herself, she had to be found and brought to consciousness."

Monroe and Miller separated after filming was completed and she was granted a quick divorce in Mexico in January 1961. The film The Misfits was released the following month, but failed at the box office. Reviews of it were mixed, with Variety magazine complaining that the film had an intermittent development and Bosley Crowther calling Monroe "utterly hollow and inscrutable," stating, "Unfortunately, for film structure, she's not good at everything." Despite the film's initial failure, it received more positive reviews from critics and film critics in the twenty-first century. Jeff Andrew of the British Film Institute called it a classic, pundit Tony Tracy described Monroe as "the most mature accomplished actress," and Jeffrey McNab of the Independent praised her for her role as Roslin.

Monroe soon began negotiations to star in a television adaptation of William Somerset Maugham's play "Rain" on NBC, but production of the project was halted because the channel did not approve her choice of director Lee Strasberg. She then spent the first six months of 1961 dealing with health problems. Monroe underwent an operation for endometriosis and a cholecystectomy, also spent four weeks in hospital, including a brief stay in a psychiatric hospital, being treated for depression. The actress was helped by her ex-husband Joe DiMaggio, with whom she rekindled her relationship. In the spring of 1961, Monroe moved to California. She dated Frank Sinatra for several months and in early 1962 she bought a house in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Monroe changed about 40 houses and apartments during her life, but the villa in California was her only home of her own, and she spent her final days here.

Marilyn returned to the public eye in the spring of 1962, she won a Golden Globe Award and began filming a new movie for 20th Century Fox, Something Must Happen. She was a co-producer on MMP, directed by George Cucor, and partnered with Dean Martin and Sid Charisse. A few days before filming began, Monroe contracted maxillary sinusitis. Despite medical advice to postpone filming, the studio began filming as planned in late April. Monroe was too sick to work for the next six weeks, but despite confirmation from several doctors, the studio tried to pressure her by publicly claiming she was faking it. On May 19, she took a break to sing "Happy Brithday, Mr. President" onstage on President John F. Kennedy's birthday, at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. Monroe's trip to New York City irritated studio executives even more, who wanted to terminate her contract.

A scene was filmed with Monroe for the film in which she swam naked in a pool. Members of the press were invited to photograph this scene to create pre-publicity, the photos were later published in Life, the first time a major star had posed nude outside the peak of her career. When she was out sick again for a few days, 20th Century Fox decided it couldn't afford to have another movie knocked off the schedule when they were already struggling to cover the rising costs of "Cleopatra." On June 7, "20th Century Fox" fired Monroe and sued her for $750,000 in damages. She was replaced by Lee Remick, but after Dean Martin refused to star in the film with anyone other than Monroe, 20th Century Fox sued him and shut down filming. The studio blamed Monroe for the failed film and began spreading negative information about her, even claiming that she was mentally ill.

"20th Century Fox soon regretted her decision and reopened negotiations with her later in June, offering her a new contract, including a repeat performance in Something Must Happen and a starring role in the black comedy What Way!    (English) (Russian)." An agreement was reached later that summer. To recapture her image, the actress participated in several advertising campaigns, including interviews with Life and Cosmopolitan magazines and a photo shoot for Vogue magazine. She and photographer Bert Stern collaborated on two photo series, one a standard model series and one where she posed in the nude, these photo series were later published posthumously. In the last weeks of her life Marilyn was also planning to star in a biographical film about Jean Harlow.

Monroe's housekeeper Eunice Murray stayed the night at her home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood the night she died, August 5, 1962. Marilyn was lethargic all day and went to her bedroom early. Murray awoke at 3:00 a.m. and sensed something amiss. Although she saw a light from under her mistress's bedroom door, the housekeeper didn't immediately know what was wrong because the door was locked. Then Murray went out into the garden and peered through the bedroom window. She saw a naked Monroe lying motionless face down on the bed with a telephone receiver in her hand. Murray immediately called the actress' psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, who arrived at the house, broke into the bedroom and found Marilyn Monroe dead. The death was officially confirmed by Monroe's physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, who arrived at the house around 3:50 a.m., and at 4:25 a.m. they notified the Los Angeles Police Department of the tragedy.

Marilyn Monroe was an international star and her sudden death was major news in the United States and Europe. Lois Banner stated: "Since Marilyn Monroe's death, the suicide rate in Los Angeles has doubled," and the editors of the Chicago Tribune reported that they had received hundreds of phone calls from members of the public asking for information about Marilyn Monroe's death. French artist Jean Cocteau noted that "her death should serve as a terrible lesson to all those whose main occupation is spying and torturing movie stars." Colleague Laurence Olivier considers her a victim of hype and sensationalism, director Joshua Logan said she was one of the world's most underrated people. Her funeral, held at Westwood Cemetery on August 8, 1962, was a private ceremony and attended only by her closest associates. The memorial service was organized by Joe DiMaggio and his business manager, Inez Melson. Hundreds of spectators filled the streets around the cemetery. Marilyn Monroe was buried in crypt number 24 in Westwood Cemetery.

Several conspiracy theories about Monroe's death, including murder and accidental overdose, were put forward in the decades that followed. The murder version first gained mainstream attention with the publication of Norman Mailer's Marilyn: A Biography in 1973, in the following years it became widespread and even reached District Attorney John Van de Kamp, who decided to re-investigate in 1982. No signs of violence were found. Immediately after the actress's death, the overdose version was widely discussed in the American press, causing the so-called "Werther effect," with the result that hundreds of Americans followed her lead.

It is believed that Marilyn Monroe had many lovers, and her personal life was adored by the press, often also attributing to her never-existing affairs and relationships. The actress was married three times, but she had no children. There is an opinion that she had many abortions, but it is still not substantiated, and some biographers (for example, Donald Spoto) refute such claims.

Her first husband was a sailor, Jim Daugherty, whom Monroe (then Norma Jeane) married at 16 to avoid returning to the orphanage. Their marriage lasted nearly four years and broke up because Norma Jeane wanted to pursue a career while her husband wanted her to be a housewife.

In January 1954 Marilyn married baseball player Joe DiMaggio. As it later turned out, DiMaggio was insanely jealous of his wife of all the men in the world and there were rumors that he had raised his hand against her. On the grounds of jealousy, and they divorced in October 1954. However, until the end of his life, Joe loved Marilyn and he was the only one of her lover came to her funeral. It was Di Maggio all subsequent years continued to care for Marilyn and tried to provide moral support in everything.

In 1956 Marilyn married playwright Arthur Miller. This marriage was the longest of all and lasted four and a half years, but was not happy and ended in 1961. It was later revealed that Arthur made a diary entry a few weeks after the wedding that read, "I think she's a little child, I hate her!" Marilyn saw this entry and was shocked, after which she and Arthur had a fight. Marilyn always wanted to have children, she was pregnant several times, but each time unsuccessfully. She became pregnant twice with Arthur, but once the pregnancy was ectopic and the second time she miscarried.

In 1960, during the filming of "Let's Make Love" the actress had an affair with her partner on the set of Yves Montand. It is believed that the actress was pregnant by Montand. January 20, 1961 Marilyn divorced Arthur Miller. She remained at home in her darkened bedroom, existing on sleeping pills and rapidly losing weight. Then in February she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in New York, from which she was released on March 5, 1961.

In 1961, Marilyn met the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. There were rumors about their affair, as well as about Marilyn's affair with his brother Robert Kennedy. All of these rumors have no clear evidence. The affair with Robert is denied at all by Marilyn's friend James Haspil, in his book about her: "Marilyn Monroe: Between Fame and Loneliness". In the 2000s there was also a certain Joseph F. Kennedy who claimed to be the son of Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy, but he could not prove his kinship, nor could others who made similar claims.

In the last years of her life, the actress resumed a close relationship with her second husband Joe Di Maggio. In the early 1960s they vacationed together in Florida. It is believed that they were going to get married again, but did not make it due to the death of the actress.

Also many men (and sometimes women) have said themselves after Marilyn's death that they were her lovers. These include actors Marlon Brando and Tony Curtis, who wrote about it in their biographies, and journalist Robert Slatzer, who wrote a book about Marilyn in which he claimed that they were secretly married for several days and remained close friends until the actress' death. But Slatzer was unable to prove his claim with documentation, at the same time his words are refuted in his books by Jim Haspiel.

According to the testimony of Marilyn Monroe's friend and secretary, Patricia Newcomb, Marilyn unsuccessfully asked the reporter who interviewed her last to end an article about her with her statement: "What the world really needs is a real sense of kinship. Everyone: stars, workers, blacks, Jews, Arabs - we are all brothers. Please don't make me out to be unserious. Finish the interview with what I believe in."

Monroe was friends with the black jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and helped her in her career. Ella Fitzgerald later recounted:

- Ella Fitzgerald

In Mexico in 1962 she was openly associated with Americans identified by the FBI as Communists, such as Frederick Vanderbilt Field. Monroe's last psychiatrist's daughter, Joanna Greenson, said Monroe was "passionate about equal rights, rights for blacks, rights for the poor. She identified with the workers."

When 20th Century Fox began to attract more and more new stars, Monroe became very sought after for them as they wanted to put her as a younger woman in place of Betty Grable, who was the most popular blonde of the 1940s. The 1940s was the heyday of actresses who were perceived as tough and intelligent, such as Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck, who were able to embody complex dramatic characters. The studio wanted to make Monroe the new star of the decade who would draw people into movie theaters. From the start 20th Century Fox was instrumental in creating her image, and so by the end of her career Monroe was almost entirely under her control. Monroe developed many publicity strategies of her own, cultivating friendships with gossip columnists such as Sidney Skolsky (English) and Luella Parsons, and controlling the use of her images. In addition to Grable, she is often compared to another famous blonde, 1930s movie star, Jean Harlow. The comparison was due in part to Monroe herself, who called Harlow her childhood idol, with whom she would have liked to star in a movie together, she even hired Harlow's stylist to make her hair color look like Jean Harlow.

Monroe's image focuses on her blond hair and the stereotypes associated with it, as well as her silliness, naivety, sex appeal, her characteristic gestures and her own gait. She often used aspirations, spoke in a naïve, slightly childlike voice in films, and in interviews gave the impression that everything she said was completely innocent and uncalculated, parodying a kind of ambiguity, this particular style of behavior later became known as "Monroeisms". Monroe began her career as a model, and her figure was one of her most celebrated features. Film critic Richard Dyer wrote that Monroe in publicity photos was often positioned so that her opulent silhouette was in the foreground.

Clothes played an important role in Monroe's stellar image. She wore revealing outfits that showed off her figure. The actress' publicity stunts many times revolved around her clothes, in press accounts Monroe was portrayed as the embodiment of the American dream, a girl who rose from a hard and impoverished childhood to Hollywood fame.

Although the idea of creating Monroe's on-screen persona as a diminutive but sexually attractive blonde was only a well-crafted act, and audiences and film critics believed that this was her real personality and that she was no longer faking it when she played her in comedies. This became an obstacle later in her career when she wanted to change character and pursue other kinds of roles, to be a respected and serious actress. Film academician Sarah Shane studied the stories about Monroe and stated:

- Sarah Shane

Lois Banner wrote that the actress often subtly parodied sex symbol status in her films and in public. Monroe stated that she was influenced by Mae West saying that "she learned a few tricks from her - how to impress, how to laugh properly, how to display her own sexuality properly." She also studied the art of comedy and dance in IIM classes in the 1950s. In the film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953), in which she played a silly blonde, in one scene Monroe was told the phrase: "I can be smart when I need to be, but most men do not like it.

Richard Dyer stated that Monroe's stellar image was created mainly to attract the male sex, and that she usually played a girl who was highly attractive to men: "She almost always played a chorus girl, a secretary or a model who created a show and gave men pleasure. Scholar Thomas Harris, who analyzed Monroe's image in 1957, wrote that her unremarkable background and lack of family made Marilyn seem more sexually available, "the perfect partner," unlike her contemporary Grace Kelly, who was also presented as an attractive blonde, but because she came from an upper-class background, Kelly came to be seen as a sophisticated actress, unattainable to most male viewers.

According to Dyer, Monroe became "practically a household name for the male sex," in the 1950s her image stands on the stream of ideas about morality and sexuality that characterized America with The Freudian View of Sex, The Kinsey Report (English) (Russ. (1953) and the book The Feminine Mystique (Eng.) (Russ. (1963). Monroe was the first sex symbol to present sex as a natural and non-threatening activity, unlike how it was presented in the 1940s. She has also been described as the embodiment of the "postwar ideal of the American girl" - soft, needy of love, attractive, naive, showing her sexuality unashamedly, which is reflected in the words of Moly Haskell, who declared that "she was a 1950s fiction, the lie that women had no sexual needs and that they should only please men." Norman Mailer wrote that "Marilyn demonstrated that sex could be difficult and dangerous with others but not with her," and Groucho Marx characterized her as "May West, Ted Bara and Little Bo Peep (English) all in one bottle. According to Haskell, because of her status as a sex symbol, Monroe proved less popular with women than with men, as most women could not personify themselves with her.

Richard Dyer also argued that blond hair became Monroe's defining trait because it made her "racially unambiguous," that is, exclusively white, so many saw her as a symbol of racism in the twentieth century. Lois Banner agreed that this could not be a coincidence, since Monroe launched the "platinum blonde" trend during the civil rights movement, but also criticized Dyer, pointing out that he mischaracterized Monroe's personal life as related to people of other backgrounds, such as Joe DiMaggio (of Italian-American descent) and Arthur Miller (of Jewish descent). According to Banner, the actress was sometimes criticized for the prevailing racial norms in her publicity photos.

Monroe came to be seen as a specifically American star, Lois Banner also calls her the greatest symbol of twentieth-century pop culture, a star whose joyous and glamorous image helped the nation cope with its paranoia in the 1950s associated with the Cold War, the atomic bomb and the totalitarian communist Soviet Union. Historian Fiona Handyside wrote that in French, women's society, she represented modernity and purity, so Monroe became a symbol of the modern, liberated woman whose life takes place in the public sphere. Film historian Laura Mulvey described her as a person who supported American consumer culture:

- Laura Mulvey

"20th Century Fox profited from Monroe's popularity by creating several similar actresses, such as Jane Mansfield and Shearie North. Other studios also tried to "create their own Marilyn Monroe": Universal Pictures with Mamie Van Doren, Columbia Pictures with Kim Novak, and Rank Organization with Diana Dors.

As an icon of American pop culture, Monroe has few rivals in popularity, including Elvis Presley and Mickey Mouse, "...no other star has conveyed such a wide range of emotions, from passion to pity, from envy to remorse," according to U.S. popular culture authorities. Historian Gail Levine has said that Monroe is considered "the most photographed person of the 20th century," the American Film Institute ranked her sixth on AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie stars of 100 years. The Smithsonian Institution listed her as one of the "100 Most Important Americans of All Time" and VH1 placed her in the top ten list of the greatest pop culture icons of the 20th century. Hundreds of books have been written about Marilyn Monroe, she is the subject of films, plays, operas and songs. The actress has influenced many artists and entertainers, such as Andy Warhol and Madonna. In addition, she remains a valuable brand, her image and name have been licensed for hundreds of products, she has also been featured in advertisements for multinational corporations and brands such as Max Factor, Chanel, Mercedes-Benz, and Absolut Vodka.

Monroe's enduring popularity is due to her contradictory image. On the one hand, she remains a sex symbol, a beauty icon, and one of the most famous stars of classic Hollywood cinema. She is also remembered for her unusual life, her unstable childhood, her struggle for professional respect and her unexpected, tragic death and the conspiracy theories surrounding her. She has been written about by scholars and journalists interested in gender equality and feminism, such as Gloria Steinem, Jacqueline Rose, Molly Haskell and Lois Banner. Some, such as Steinem, viewed her as a victim of the studio system. Others have noted her active role in the actress' career and participation in creating her image.Because of the contrast between her fame and her personal life, Monroe was closely associated with a wide media discussion. According to historian Suzanne Ham, because of her relevance, her influence on modern society is being debated:

- Suzanne Ham

Similarly, Lois Banner called Monroe a "perpetual shapeshifter" who is created anew in each generation.

While Marilyn Monroe remains an important cultural icon, critics argue about her legacy as an actress. Critic David Thomson has called her film work disembodied, and Pauline Kael has written that she could not act and the studios used her lack of acting skills to amuse audiences: "She had the intelligence or vulgarity or desperation to turn nothing into obligations - and conversely, she did things that others could not do. According to Peter Bradshaw, Monroe was a talented comic actress who understood how to achieve the right comedic range, and Roger Ebert wrote: "Monroe's oddities and neuroses made her famous, what audiences got out of her on screen was magical." Jonathan Rosenbaum has stated that her acting contains perverse sexist themes and that some people's difficulty in perceiving her intelligence goes back to a repressive era when it was thought that women were not supposed to be intelligent.

On June 19, 2011, Marilyn Monroe's famous "flying dress" (a famous shot from the movie "The Itch of the Seventh Year") sold at auction at Profile in History in Los Angeles for $4.6 million.

In May 2022 at Christie's auction, Andy Warhol's shot portrait "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" sold for $195 million, making it the most expensive work by an American artist in history and the most expensive painting of the 20th century.

According to The Guardian, about three hundred books, dissertations, etc. have been written about Marilyn Monroe. The first and only lifetime publication was in 1961, Marilyn Monroe by biographer Maurice Zolotow.

In honor of Marilyn Monroe, there is a special variety of rose named after her.

In Norway there is a permanent monument to Marilyn Monroe because of the misconception that the actress' father was Norwegian Edward Mortenson, her mother's second husband.

On July 15, 2011, an eight-foot sculpture, Marilyn Forever, was unveiled in Chicago, depicting Monroe as she stood on a vent at the intersection of 52nd Street and Lexington Avenue in New York City in the 1955 film comedy The Itch of the Seventh Year, with the air current lifting up her dress. The sculptor is Seward Johnson.

The songs dedicated to Marilyn Monroe are Lady Gaga "Government Hooker" and "Dance in the Dark", Blue System "The Wind Cries (Who Killed Norma Jean)", Mark Ashley "Marilyn's Dream", Floran Mothe "Marylin", Glenn Danzig "Who Killed Marylin", Elton John "Candle in the Wind", Jane Birkin "Norma Jean Baker," Nicki Minaj "Marilyn Monroe," Lana Del Rey "Marilyn Monroe," Pharrell Williams "Marilyn Monroe" and Amanda Lepore "Marilyn," and the poem "Marilyn Monroe Monologue" by Andrey Voznesensky.

Many documentaries and feature films were made about Marilyn Monroe, telling about her life. In 2011 the film "7 Days and Nights with Marilyn" was released worldwide, the role of Monroe was played by Michelle Williams. The film is about the time the artist spent with Laurence Olivier while working on The Prince and the Dancer (1957). In 2015, Lifetime a biographical mini-series "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe" starring Kelly Garner was released. The project was critically acclaimed and received three Emmy Award nominations. In the fall of 2022, the feature film Blondie, starring Ana de Armas as Monroe, is expected to be released on Netflix.

In 2010 the screens came out the video "Coco Mademoiselle", the plot of which was based on the story of the romantic relationship between Marilyn and photographer Douglas Kirkland.

The American photographer Philip Hulsman in 1952 created a photo collage "Marilyn in the image of Mao," on the basis of which Salvador Dali painted "Self-Portrait" (1972).

Australian photographer Polixeni Papapetrou addressed the image of Marilyn Monroe in her series "Seaching for Marilyn" (2002), she photographed a transvestite impersonator (Ben Jacobson, "he knows all her facial expressions and gestures. I didn't really have to direct him," "Jacobson, having transformed into Marilyn and into a woman, is engaged in the same transformation as Norma Jeane Baker when she transformed into Marilyn Monroe," Papapetrou claimed) to present Marilyn Monroe as a creation of Hollywood, an artificially created personality who was constantly changing depending on what the everyday people expected of her.

Marilyn Monroe is often the subject of rumors, speculation and outright hoaxes. Some photos or videos of other women are passed off as photos and videos of Marilyn Monroe. Many people over the years have made various sensational claims about the actress and

When the actress was still alive in 1952, at the height of her fame, some malefactors distributed nude photos of the little-known model Arlene Hunter, passing them off as pictures of Marilyn Monroe. The actress sued them, which proved that the photos were not of Marilyn, due to the absence of Hunter's distinctive wedge-shaped protrusion on her forehead.

There are also a number of rumors about the actress that are still unproven and sufficiently substantiated, such as:

- main role

The list is according to IMDb.com.

Sources

1. Marilyn Monroe
2. Мэрилин Монро