Marilyn Monroe - Biography, Achievements and Quotes

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer, who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s.
After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946 with Twentieth Century-Fox. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950), drew attention. 

By 1952 she had her first leading role in Don't Bother to Knock and 1953 brought a lead in Niagara, a melodramatic film noir that dwelt on her seductiveness. Her "dumb blonde" persona was used to comic effect in subsequent films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Limited by typecasting, Monroe studied at the Actors Studio to broaden her range. Her dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) was hailed by critics and garnered a Golden Globe nomination. Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and won a David di Donatello award. 

She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959). Monroe's last completed film was The Misfits (1961), co-starring Clark Gable with screenplay by her then-husband, Arthur Miller.

The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for unreliability and being difficult to work with. The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a "probable suicide", the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as of homicide, have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth-greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the decades following her death, she has often been cited as both a pop and a cultural icon as well as the quintessential American sex symbol. In 2009, TV Guide Network named her #1 in Film's Sexiest Women of All Time.

Achievements & Facts About Marilyn Monroe

• "Niagara" is the only movie Monroe made in which her character dies.
• Monroe notoriously became Playboy magazine's first monthly Playmate in 1953 after the magazine published a nude calendar photo she had posed for six years earlier, for which she had been paid just $50. (Hugh Hefner had paid the photographer $500 for the rights.) Back then, the magazine called its centerfold "Sweetheart of the Month."
• The famous subway grate/billowing skirt scene from "The Seven Year Itch" began with a late-summer 1954 shoot on Manhattan's Lexington Avenue that drew a mob of noisy onlookers even though the cameras didn't roll until 1 a.m. One of those onlookers was a disgusted Joe DiMaggio, and after the wee-hours argument that ensued between him and Monroe, she rushed back to California and soon filed for a divorce to end their nine-month marriage. 
• Sculptor Seward Johnson's enormous painted statue of Monroe's iconic pose in that scene, which became a Windy City tourist attraction last year, is called "Forever Marilyn." It is 26 feet tall and is made of 34,000 pounds of stainless steel and aluminum. In May 2012, it was transported (at a cost of $40,000) from Chicago to Palm Springs, California, where it will remain on display outdoors until next June.
• The pleated dress Monroe wore in the scene wound up in the celebrated collection of movie memorabilia accumulated by Debbie Reynolds. Last year, the veteran movie actress auctioned off the famous costume for $5.6 million.
• The woman born Norma Jeane Mortensen was acutely aware of what a Hollywood creation "Marilyn Monroe" was, and of the differences between her private self and the woman she played onscreen and in public. 
• Author pal Truman Capote once wrote that, after a lunch together, she went to the powder room and stayed so long that he went in to find her. When he discovered her in front of the mirror and asked what she'd been doing, she replied, "Looking at Her."
• The headline in Variety when highbrow playwright Arthur Miller married Monroe in 1956 read, "EGGHEAD WEDS HOURGLASS."
• For decades, Tony Curtis denied the remark attributed to him that smooching "Some Like It Hot" co-star Monroe was like "kissing Hitler." In his 2008 memoir, he finally admitted uttering the insult but said he had meant it as a joke.
• Capote wanted her to star as party girl Holly Golightly in the 1961 adaptation of his novel "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Of course, the role became a signature part for Audrey Hepburn instead.
• After she died, Monroe reportedly inspired not just one but two characters in Arthur Miller's plays. The damaged Maggie in 1964's "After the Fall" is believed to be based on Monroe. 
• Forty years later, in his final play, "Finishing the Picture," Miller presents a thinly veiled account of the notoriously troubled production of "The Misfits," whose screenplay he had written for her while they were married.
• Monroe’s dress scene in The Seven Year Itch has been parodied to death, but some film buffs consider her scene to be a parody of the 1901 film What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City. In this short, Florence Georgie’s dress is blown up above her knees, similar to Monroe’s more than 50 years later. Similarities: the dress she wears is white, the woman is accompanied by a man and it occurs above a grate in the sidewalk. Coincidental? I think not.
• In 1999, Marilyn was named the Number One Sex Star of the 20th Century by Playboy magazine. Back in December 1953, she was the first Playboy “Sweetheart” of the Month, later renamed Playmate of the Month. 
• In 1947 Marilyn Monroe did a nude photoshoot and in 1953 the rights to the photos were purchased for $500 by Hugh Hefner for his first edition of Playboy.
• Marilyn was passionate about art and became a collector later in life. Her favorite artists were Goya, Picasso, and El Greco.
• For 20 years after her death Joe DiMaggio had a dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week. He never remarried. It is claimed that Joe’s last words were: “I’ll finally get to see Marilyn.”
• At age 16, Marilyn Monroe married 21 year old James Dougherty in order to avoid being sent to an orphanage or to yet another foster home. She divorced him when she was 20.
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953,  How to Marry a Millionaire, 1953 and There’s No Business Like Show Business, 1954 were all named One of the Ten Worst Films of the Year, from the Harvard Lampoon proving that critics aren’t always right.
• You can visit Marilyn’s star at 6774 Hollywood Boulevard, right in front of McDonald’s. The star was placed here on February 9, 1960.
• Marilyn was driven to become a better actress and bored of the sex symbol image which made her a star, stating “I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.”
• Most poorly paid star ever? For her first contract with Fox in 1945, Monroe was paid a measly $75 per week. For River of No Return, There’s No Business Like Show Business, and The Seven Year Itch, 1954 – 1955, her wage was $1500 per week. 
• For Something’s Got To Give, her last and unfinished picture in 1962, Marilyn would’ve received $100,000 had she finished it. (Compare this to Elizabeth Taylor’s whopper salary for Cleopatra or what Julia Roberts pockets today.)
• Issued on June 1, 1995, Marilyn was featured on a 32¢ US commemorative postage stamp. The hottest postage stamp ever?
• In 1946, she began using the stage name Marilyn Monroe, but did not legally change her name until February 23, 1956.
• Her death was ruled to be “acute barbiturate poisoning” by Dr. Thomas Noguchi of the Los Angeles County Coroners office and listed as “probably suicide”, but because of a lack of evidence, her death was not classified as “suicide”. Jack Clemmons was the first police officer to arrive on the scene. 
• He reported, “Marilyn was lying face down in what I call the soldier’s position. Her hands were by her side and her legs were stretched out perfectly straight. It was the most obviously staged death scene I have ever seen. The pill bottles on her bedside table had been arranged in neat order and the body deliberately positioned. It all looked too tidy.”
• Marilyn’s beauty regime is well documented. On the set of River of No Return she used to smear Vaseline on her skin and frighten the locals off set. First husband James Dougherty said she would rinse her face 15 times each time she washed it. She told photographer Bert Stern in 1962 that she swore by Nivea.
• Marilyn’s favourites of her own performances were The Asphalt Jungle and Don’t Bother to Knock
• Way before the jogging craze of the Eighties, Marilyn would jog LA’s back streets. She also took to practising yoga in 1962 and stayed out of the sun as much as possible.
• Marilyn’s hair was originally a mousy-reddish brown and believe it or not she was reluctant to go blonde when an agent advised her to hit the bleach. 
• Marilyn later had her hair bleached once a week by the same colorist who had bleached Jean Harlow’s hair.
• Marilyn’s favourite singers were Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.
• Contrary to her image, Marilyn was a shy person who allegedly broke out in hives when meeting new people. “She seemed very shy, and I remember that when the studio workers would whistle at her, it seemed to embarrass her” said Cary Grant, Marilyn’s co-star in Monkey Business.
• In an interview she gave in the weeks before her death, she suggested to Life magazine that she was tired of fame. Of her notoriety, she said, "It might be kind of a relief to be finished."
• At their 1954 wedding (according to biographer Donald Spoto), Monroe asked DiMaggio whether, should she die first, he would decorate her grave with fresh flowers every week, as William Powell had done for proto-platinum blonde bombshell Jean Harlow after her tragically early demise. DiMaggio said he would, and even though he had been long divorced from Monroe when she died in 1962, he made good on the promise for the next 20 years.
• "On the basis of my own involvement in the case, beginning with the autopsy, I would call Monroe's suicide 'very probable,'" wrote Thomas Noguchi, the coroner who investigated Monroe's death, in his 1983 memoir. "But I also believe that until the complete FBI files are made public and the notes and interviews of the suicide panel released, controversy will continue to swirl around her death."
• Last year, Monroe came in third (behind Michael Jackson and Elvis) on Forbes' annual list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities. According to Forbes, she earned $27 million last year. Authentic Brands Group, which owns her likeness rights, is reportedly planning to license a chain of Monroe-themed cafes.
• Marilyn did her famous nude photoshoot in 1947 nearly SIX YEARS BEFORE the photos were used for Playboy's 1953 first edition. the rights to the photos were purchased for $500 by Hugh Hefner and Marilyn Monroe became the first 'Sweetheart of the Month'. Later the name was changed to Playmate of the Month. In 2007 Playboy published 20,000 EXACT replicas of this first edition. Some copies of this republication are still available for purchase for approximately $50.
• Marilyn's great love was probably baseball giant Joe Dimaggio. When they were married, Joe was intensely jealous of the attention showered on Marilyn Monroe by men everywhere. When the "The Seven Year Itch", was filmed in New York, now famous promotional photos were taken on a subway ventilator outside the Trans-Lux 
• Theater on 52nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Joe watched Marilyn's skirt fly up again and again, revealing her white panties before thousands of enthusiastic photographers and fans. Jealous Joe angrily stormed off. Later the couple had a huge fight in the hotel. Two weeks later they separated and eventually divorced.
• After their divorce, Joe Dimaggio rescued Marilyn Monroe from forced institutionalization at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic (67th Street and York Avenue, NY City). For 20 years after her death he had a dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week. He never remarried. It is claimed that Joe's last words were: "I'll finally get to see Marilyn"
• Marilyn Monroe was a NOT a dumb blond bimbo. She was a savvy business woman. Fox, the movie studio she had a contract with was forcing her to do stupid, low level films that she hated. Marilyn Monroe broke her contract and fled Hollywood to study acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York. She set up her own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions. 
• She was such a huge box office draw, Fox agreed to her terms, giving Marilyn Monroe approval of the director as well as the option to act in other studios' projects. The first film under the new contract was Bus Stop, for which she received critical acclaim and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
• Over 40 years after her death Forbes.com compiled a survey titled "Highest-Earning Dead Celebrities," which compared the money the celebrities' estates earn annually from sales.
• The exact events surrounding Marilyn Monroe's death have remained shrouded in mystery. Much of the evidence and testimony obtained during the investigation has, for the most part, been destroyed or lost, including many of the police files and interviews taken following her death.
• Marilyn Monroe's family had a long history of depression. Marilyn's uncle and great-grandfather both committed suicide by hanging. Marilyn Monroe's mother was also forcibly institutionalized due to a breakdown.
• At 4:25 a.m. Sunday morning, August 5 Sergeant Jack Clemmons of the West Los Angeles Police Department got a call that he would never forget. Dr. Hyman Engelberg, Marilyn's personal physician, told him that she had committed suicide. When he and the backup police car that he had ordered arrived at Marilyn's home, there were three people – Eunice Murray, Dr. Ralph Greenson and Dr. Hyman Engelberg.
• They led Clemmons into the bedroom where her nude body was lying covered with a sheet and pointed out the bottles of sedatives. Donald Wolfe quotes Clemmons: "'She was lying facedown in what I call the soldier's position. Her face was in a pillow, her arms were by her side, her right arm was slightly bent. Her legs were stretched out perfectly straight.'" He immediately thought she had been placed that way. He had seen a number of suicides, and contrary to the common conception, an overdose of sleeping tablets usually causes victims to suffer convulsions and vomiting before they die in a contorted position."
• The statements taken from the three individuals were very strange and Clemmons was convinced that he was not hearing the truth. They claimed that Marilyn's body had been discovered some four hours earlier, but that they could not contact the police until 20th Century Fox's publicity department had given them permission. Clemmons also noted that there was no drinking glass in the bedroom from which Marilyn could have taken the many pills that she was credited with swallowing.
• The preliminary autopsy was conducted by Dr. Thomas Noguchi. As the results of various tests were analyzed, Coroner Theodore Curphey determined that Marilyn died from an overdose of barbiturates. Remnants of the drug pentobarbital (sleeping pills) were found in her liver and chloral hydrate was found in her blood. He claimed that there was no distinguishable physical evidence of foul play. Marilyn's death was listed as a "probable suicide."
• However, whether Marilyn committed suicide or not has been the source of great debate for more than 40 years.

Awards Received by Marilyn Monroe

• Most Promising Female Newcomer of 1952, the Look Magazine Achievement Awards.
• The Most Advertised Girl in the World 1953, from the Advertising Association of the West.
• Fastest Rising Star of 1952, from Photoplay magazine awards.
• Best Young Box Office Personality, from Redbook magazine awards, 1953.
• The Best Friend a Diamond Ever Had, from the Jewelry Academy, 1953.
• World Film Favorite, the Golden Globe Awards, 1953.
• Best Actress, from Photoplay magazine awards, 1954, for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and How to Marry a Millionaire,
• The Thank-God Award: To Marilyn Monroe, who in a sweeping public service has made no movies this year, from Harvard Lampoon, 1958.
• Best Foreign Actress of 1958, the David di Donatello Prize (Italian Oscar) for The Prince and the Showgirl.
• Best Foreign Actress, 1959, the Crystal Star Award (French Oscar) for The Prince and the Showgirl.
• Best Actress in a Comedy, 1959, the Golden Globe Awards, for Some Like It Hot.
• World Film Favorite, 1961, the Golden Globe Awards.

Superb Quotes by Marilyn Monroe

• “I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
• “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
• “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
• “A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left.”
• It's nice to be included in people's fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.
• I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.
• I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.
• 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.
• Fame is like caviar, you know -- it's good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.
• 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.
• People respect you because they feel you've survived hard times and endured, and although you've become famous, you haven't become phony.
• Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer.
• “I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.”
• The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.
• I’ve often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.
• We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.
• Your clothes should be tight enough to show you are a woman, but lose enough to show you’re a lady.
• “If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.”
• “The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.”
• “It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.”
• “When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I'm already better than them.”