::Biography of Marilyn Monroe:::


					Norma Jeane Baker or Norma Jean Mortenson Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson at 9:30 in the morning on 1 June 1926 in the Charity Ward of Los Angeles General Hospital. She began life with one significant strike against her. Within no father to help raise her. Thought her birth certificate identifies her father as Edward Mortenson, who was Gladys's second husband, most biographers agree that Norma Jean's father was actually C. Stanley Gifford also worked at Consolidated Film Industries, but he abandoned Gladys after being told of the pregnancy. After she was born, Gladys didn't feed Norma Jean with much of anything, for the little girl was farmed out to foster parents while Gladys worked to save for a home seeing Norma Jeane, when she could, at weekends. It took eight years before she had earned enough for a down-payment on a bungalow and she and her daughter could live together . But only a short while later Gladys was comitted to an asylum. There was a strong streak of mental instability in her family; both her parents and her brother lived much of their lives in mental institutions. In 1933, Norma Jeane lived briefly with her mother. Gladys begin to show signs of mental depression and in 1934 was admitted to a rest home in Santa Monica. Grace McKee, a close friend of her mother took over the care of Norma Jeane. Grace loved and adored her recalled one of her co-workers. Grace, telling her...Don't worry, Norma Jeane. You're going to be a beautiful girl when you get big...an important woman, a movie star. Grace was captivated by Jean Harlow, a superstar of the twenties, and Marilyn would later say...and so Jean Harlow was my idol Grace was to marry in 1935 and due to financial difficulties, Norma Jeane was placed in an orphanage from September 1935 to June 1937. Grace frequently visited her, taking her to the movies, buying clothes and teaching her how to apply makeup at her young age. Norma Jeane was to later live with several of Grace's relatives. 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. In September 1941 Norma Jeane was again living with Grace when she met Jim Dougherty, 5 years her senior. Grace encouraged the relationship and on learning that she and her husband would be moving to the East Coast, set in motion plans for Norma Jeane to marry Dougherty on June 19, 1942, 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 Dougherty joined the Merchant Marines in 1943 and in 1944 was sent overseas. Norma Jeane, while working in a factory inspecting parachutes in 1944, was photographed by the Army as a promotion to show women on the assembly contributing to the war effort. One of the photographers, David Conover, asked to take further pictures of her. By spring of 1945, she was quickly becoming known as photographers and had appeared on 33 covers of national magazines. In the fall of 1946 she was granted a divorce...later saying, 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 July 23, 1946 she signed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox Studios. She selected her mother's family name of Monroe. From this point on she would be known as Marilyn Monroe to all her fans. She had a minor part in the movie Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay! and was dismissed as a contract player in August. Rehired in 1948, Marilyn sang here first song in the movie Ladies of the Chorus. Johnny Hyde, of the William Morris Agency, became her mentor and lover in 1949. Also, in 1949, Marilyn agreed to pose nude for a calendar. A fact that was to stir controversy later in her career as a superstar. Her first serious acting job came in 1950 when she had a small but crucial role in The Asphalt Jungle and received favorable reviews. Clash By Night in 1952 earned her several favorable notices...Alton Cook of the New York World-Telegram and Sun wrote..a forceful actress, a gifted new star, worthy of all that fantastic press agentry. Her role here is not very big, but she makes it dominant. Marilyn's first leading part in a serious feature was to be in Don't Bother to Knock also filmed in 1952.Marilyn met Joe DiMaggio in early 1952, she was 25 and he was 37. In 1952 Marilyn began filming Niagara with Joseph Cotten...a film that was to establish her stardom. After her next big film, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, she and Jane Russell signed their names and placed their hands and feet in the wet cement in front of the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard...the same place she had visited with Gladys and Grace years earlier as a child. I want to be a big star more than anything. It's something precious Fox suspended Marilyn in 1954 for failure to appear on the set of Pink Tights.The studio had refused to let her look at the script prior to accepting the part. She felt that due to her star status, she should have the right to script approval. On January 14 Joe and Marilyn were married. The wedding captured the headlines worldwide. Joe was an extremely jealous type of guy and resented her popularity among other men. He desired a housewife, not a star of such magnitude ...the marriage was in trouble from the beginning. I didn't want to give up my career, and that's what Joe wanted me to do most of all.She was asked to go on a USO tour of Korea in February to entertain the troops, beginning on the 16th for four days.She entertained over 60,000 soldiers, many who had never seen a Monroe film..having been in the service during her rise to stardom... most had seen still photos of her in many magazines and newspapers. She was a huge success. Joe did not accompany her on this trip...explaining, Joe hates crowds and glamour On May 29, Marilyn began filming There's No Business Like Show Business. Throughout the summer she was ill with bronchitis and anemia. For the firsttime, Marilyn began showing serious side-effects of the many sleeping pills she had been taking for the last few years...often groggy, lethargic and crying on the set. The famous skirt blowing scene from the Seven Year Itch filmed in 1954 was to be a hit with both amateur and professional photographers. Several hundred, along with 2000 spectators gathered outside the Trans-Lux Theater in New York City in the early morning hours of September 15th to see and record her as she posed for over two hours for her adoring fans.In the fall of 1954 Marilyn and Joe separated...later to divorce. On October 6, Jerry Giesler made a press announcement and stated as her attorney, I am speaking for her and can only say that the conflict of careers has brought about this regrettable necessity. With the press hounding her, Marilyn answered in a choked voice, I can't say anything today. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. When I married him (Joe), I wasn't sure of why I married him, I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. In early 1955 Marilyn again returned to New York and joined the Actors Studio, in pursuit of becoming a serious actress. There she met Lee Strasberg, head of the Studio and drama coach. Mr. Strasberg and his family would play an important role in her life. She was to renew her acquaintance with Arthur Miller and have an affair with him before their marriage over a year later. To Marilyn, Miller represented the serious theater and an intellect that she found attractive. To Miller, years later..quot;It was wonderful to be around her, she was simply overwhelming. She had so much promise. It seemed to me that she could really be a great kind of phenomenon, a terrific artist. She was endlessly fascinating, full of original observations...there wasn't a conventional bone in her body Marilyn returned to Hollywood in February 1956, after over a years absence, to film Bus Stop. After completing the film she returned to New York in June. Miller also returned to New York after obtaining a divorce in Reno, Nevada. They where married June 29 in White Plains, NY. The Millers departed for London soon after their marriage so that Marilyn could start production on "The Prince and the Showgirl with Lawrence Olivier. As early as July, Arthur began to have doubts about the marriage. Sidney Skolsky remarked that...Miller looked on Marilyn strictly as an ideal and was shocked to discover that she is a human being, a person, even as you and I and maybe Miller.Bus Stop opened in London in October 1956. A Times review said...Miss Monroe is a talented comedienne, and her sense of timing never forsake her. She gives a complete portrait, sensitively and sometimes even brilliantly conceived. Marilyn Monroe did not return to Hollywood until 1958 to make Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Her health continued to deteriorate due to increased dependency on drugs and involvement in an unhappy marriage. She often came to the set late and was unable to remember her lines. Director, Billy Wilder later said...Anyone can remember lines, but it takes a real artist to come on the set and not know her lines and yet give the performance she did. Her next film Let's Make Love proved to be an unremarkable film with much publicity over her brief affair with co-star Yves Montand. I am invariably late for appointments...sometimes, as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing. Early in 1960, Marilyn was consulting with Dr. Ralph Greenson, a prominent psychoanalyst to Hollywood stars. As common during this period, he relied heavily on drug therapy...routinely prescribing barbiturates and tranquilizers in addition to hispsychotherapy. July 1960 marked the start of filming The Misfits...a short story by Arthur Miller adapted for film. While on location the Millers lived in separate quarters and were barely speaking. Meanwhile, pills for Marilyn were regularly flown in from her Los Angeles doctors, including Dr. Greenson. Allan Snyder recalled. It took so long to get her going in the morning that usually I had to make her up while she lay in her bed. But once again, she managed to give an exceptional performance. On November 5th, the day after The Misfits was completed, co-star Clark Gable suffered a serious heart attack and died on November 16, 1960. Marilyn felt a great deal of guilt, commenting.I kept him waiting kept him waiting for hours and hours on that picture. Evelyn Moriarty remembered. Marilyn was being blamed for everything. All of her problems were exaggerated to cover up for Director Huston's gambling and the terrible waste of money on that production. It was easy for her to be made the scapegoat Marilyn divorced Arthur Miller in January 1,1961, the same month that The Misfits was released. Another unhappy marriage was terminated. In 1961 Marilyn purchased a house in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. At the urging of her psychoanalyst, Dr Greenson, she hired Eunice Murray as housekeeper. Murray, calling herself a nurse, had neither the training or credentials. It is suspected that she was a spy for Dr. Greenson who continued to have more and more control over Marilyn's life, seeing her almost daily when she was in Los Angeles.A reported affair with John F. Kennedy began in late 1961. At the President's gala birthday celebration in Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, Marilyn sang her now famous; Happy Birthday tribute to JFK. The Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy was also reported to have had an affair with Marilyn shortly before her death. Marilyn began production on Somethings Got to Give in April 1962. Much has been said about her inability to show up on the set and her trip to New York for the Presidents birthday celebration...but her illnesses had been well documented by physicians and she had obtained permission from the Studio well in advance of the trip to New York. I feel stronger if the people around me on the set lo ve me, care for me, and hold good thoughts for me. It creates an aura of love, and I believe I can give a better performance. The Studio was deeply in debt over their production of Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The filming was way behind schedule and costing millions over budget. It is theorized, if Fox scrapped the Marilyn Monroe film with far fewer expensive sets and actors, they possibly could be reimburse by the insurance company for losses due to a star's illness, and recoup monies spent. Fox fired Marilyn and filed suit against Marilyn Monroe Productions on June 7, but the suit was later dropped. Marilyn had been seeing Joe DiMaggio frequently during this time and had finally agreed to remarry him. The wedding date was set for August 8, 1962. Fox rehired her on August 1 to complete Somethings Got to Give with a salary of $250,000, which was two and a half times the original amount. Of course these events would never come to pass due to her untimely death on August 5, 1962				On June 19, 1942 she wed her 21-year-old neighbor Jimmy Dougherty