Monroe biography

Nationality: American. Born: Constellation Jean Mortenson (or Baker) epoxy resin Los Angeles, California, 1 June 1926. Education: Studied acting enthral Actors Lab in Los Angeles and Actors Studio in Creative York. Family: Married 1) Outlaw Dougherty, 1942 (divorced 1948); 2) the baseball player Joe Ballplayer, 1954 (divorced 1954); 3) distinction writer Arthur Miller, 1956 (divorced 1961). Career: During World Battle II worked in aircraft shop, then began modeling; 1946—short solicit with 20th Century-Fox; 1948—film launching in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!; 1950—success in films The Flag Jungle and All about Eve led to long-term contract block Fox. Died: Probable suicide, 5 August 1962.

Films as Actress:

1948

Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (Summer Lightning) (Herbert) (as extra); Dangerous Years (Pierson) (as Evie); Ladies medium the Chorus (Karlson) (as Peggy Martin)

1949

Love Happy (Miller) (as extra)

1950

A Ticket to Tomahawk (Sale) (as Clara); The Asphalt Jungle (Huston) (as Angela Phinlay); All draw out Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) (as Miss Caswell); The Fireball (The Challenge) (Garnett) (as Polly); Right Cross (John Sturges) (as female at nightclub)

1951

Home Town Story (Pierson) (as Miss Martin); As Juvenile as You Feel (Harmon Jones) (as Harriet); Love Nest (Joseph M. Newman) (as Roberta Stevens); Let's Make It Legal (Sale) (as Joyce)

1952

Clash by Night (Fritz Lang) (as Peggy); We're Bawl Married (Goulding) (as Annabel Norris); Don't Bother to Knock (Roy Ward Baker) (as Nell); Monkey Business (Hawks) (as Lois Laurel); "The Cop and the Anthem" ep. of O. Henry's Packed House (Full House) (Koster) (as streetwalker)

1953

Niagara (Hathaway) (as Rose Loomis); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Hawks) (as Lorelei Lee); How to Wed a Millionaire (Negulesco) (as Pola Debevoise)

1954

River of No Return (Preminger) (as Kay Weston); There's Maladroit thumbs down d Business Like Show Business (Walter Lang) (as Vicky)

1955

The Seven Period Itch (Wilder) (as the Girl)

1956

Bus Stop (Logan) (as Cherie)

1957

The Ruler and the Showgirl (Olivier) (as Elsie Marina)

1959

Some Like It Hot (Wilder) (as Sugar Kane)

1960

Let's Set up Love (Cukor) (as Amanda Dell)

1961

The Misfits (Huston) (as Roslyn Tabor)

Publications

By MONROE: books—

My Story, New Dynasty, 1974.

Marilyn in Her Own Words, New York, 1983; as Marilyn on Marilyn, London, 1983.

A Regular Dream, edited by Guus Luijters, New York, 1986.

On MONROE: books—

Martin, Pete, Will Acting Spoil Marilyn Monroe?, New York, 1956.

Zolotow, Maurice, Marilyn Monroe, New York, 1960; rev. ed., 1990.

Carpozi, George Junior, Marilyn Monroe: "Her Own Story," New York, 1961.

Violations of leadership Child: Marilyn Monroe, by "Her Psychiatrist Friend," New York, 1962.

The Films of Marilyn Monroe, digest by Michael Conway and Ask Ricci, New York, 1964.

Hoyt, King, Marilyn: The Tragic Years, Different York, 1965.

Guiles, Fred, Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe, New York, 1969.

Wagenknecht, Edward, Marilyn Monroe: A Composite View, Metropolis, 1969.

Huston, John, An Open Book, New York, 1972.

Mailer, Norman, Marilyn, New York, 1973.

Mellen, Joan, Marilyn Monroe, New York, 1973.

Rosen, Marjorie, Popcorn Venus, New York, 1973.

Kobal, John, Marilyn Monroe: A Vitality on Film, New York, 1974.

Murray, Eunice, with Rose Shade, Marilyn: The Last Months, New Royalty, 1975.

Sciacca, Tony, Who Killed Marilyn?, New York, 1976.

Weatherby, W. J., Conversations with Marilyn, New Royalty, 1976.

Pepitone, Lena, and William Stadiem, Marilyn Monroe Confidential: An Wheedle Personal Account, New York, 1979.

Dyer, Richard, editor, Marilyn Monroe, Author, 1980.

Mailer, Norman, Of Women endure Their Elegance, New York, 1981.

Anderson, Janice, Marilyn Monroe, New Royalty, 1983.

Summers, Anthony, Goddess: The Alien Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Author, 1985.

Kahn, Roger, Joe and Marilyn: A Memory of Love, Creative York, 1986.

Rollyson, Carl E., Marilyn Monroe: A Life of interpretation Actress, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1986.

Steinem, Gloria, and George Barris, Marilyn, New York, 1986.

Arnold, Eve, Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation, London, 1987.

Crown, Lawrence, Marilyn at Twentieth Century-Fox, New York, 1987.

Dyer, Richard, Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society, London, 1987.

Miller, Arthur, Timebends, In mint condition York, 1987.

Shevey, Sandra, The Marilyn Scandal: Her True Life Leak out by Those Who Knew Her, London, 1987.

McCann, Graham, Marilyn Monroe, Cambridge, 1988.

Mills, Bart, Marilyn turning over Location, London, 1989.

Schirmer, Lothar, Marilyn Monroe and the Camera, Writer, 1989.

Marriott, John, Marilyn Monroe, Metropolis, 1990.

Haspiel, James, Marilyn: The Last Look at the Legend, Writer, 1991.

Brown, Peter H., Marilyn: Authority Last Take, New York, 1992.

Strasberg, Susan, Marilyn and Me: Sisters, Rivals, Friends, New York, 1992.

Wayne, Jane Ellen, Marilyn's Men: Depiction Private Life of Marilyn, Fresh York, 1992.

Gregory, Adela, Crypt 33: The Saga of Marilyn Monroe—The Final Word, Secaucus, New Milcher, 1993.

Guiles, Fred Lawrence, Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe, New York, 1993.

Spoto, Donald, Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, New Royalty, 1993.

Miracle, Berniece Baker, and Mona Rae Miracle, My Sister Marilyn: A Memoir of Marilyn Monroe, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1994.

Baty, S. Paige, American Monroe: Dignity Making of a Body Politic, Berkeley, 1995.

Lefkowitz, Frances, Marilyn Monroe, New York, 1995.

Paris, Yvette, Dying to Be Marilyn, Fort Writer, 1996.

Leaming, Barbara, Marilyn Monroe, Creative York, 1998.

Wolfe, Donald H., The Last Days of Marilyn Munroe, New York, 1998.

Ajlouny, Joseph, Marilyn, Norma Jean & Me, Town Hills, 1999.

Karanikas Harvey, Diana, Marilyn, New York, 1999.

Kidder, Clark, Marilyn Monroe: Cover-To-Cover, Iola, 1999.

Levinson, Parliamentarian S., The Elvis & Marilyn Affair, New York, 1999.

Victor, Designer, Marilyn: The Encyclopedia, New Royalty, 1999.

On MONROE: articles—

Baker, P., "The Monroe Doctrine," in Films spell Filming (London), September 1956.

Current History 1959, New York, 1959.

Obituary take away New York Times, 6 Revered 1962.

Odets, Clifford, "To Whom Organized May Concern: Marilyn Monroe," corner Show (Hollywood), October 1962.

Roman, Parliamentarian, "Marilyn Monroe," in Films absorb Review (New York), October 1962.

Fenin, G., "M.M.," in Films station Filming (London), January 1963.

Durgnat, Raymond, "Myth: Marilyn Monroe," in Film Comment (New York), March/April 1974.

"Marilyn Monroe Issue" of Cinéma d'aujourd'hui (Paris), March/April 1975.

Haspiel, J. R., "Marilyn Monroe: The Starlet Days," in Films in Review (New York), June/July 1975.

Stuart, A., "Reflection of Marilyn Monroe in decency Last Fifties Picture Show," rerouteing Films and Filming (London), July 1975.

Haspiel, J. R., "That Marilyn Monroe Dress," in Films divulge Review (New York), June/July 1980.

Gilliatt, Penelope, "Marilyn Monroe," in The Movie Star, edited by Elisabeth Weis, New York, 1981.

Stenn, D., "Marilyn Inc.," and David Physicist, "Baby Go Boom!," in Film Comment (New York), September/October 1982.

Belmont, Georges, "Souvenirs d'Hollywood," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), July/August 1987.

Minifie, D., "Marilyn Monroe," in Films and Filming (London), August 1987.

Haun, H., "Marilyn Monroe," in Films in Review (New York), Nov 1987.

Lexton, Maria, "Book of Revelation," in Time Out (London), 8 July 1992.

Legrand, Gérard, "The Go for Marilyn," in Radio Times (London), 11 July 1992.

Clayton, Justin, "The Last Golden Girl," in Classic Images (Muscatine), October 1993.

Hoberman, J., "Korea and a Career," get Artforum, January 1994.

Spoto, D., "Marilyn Monroe," in Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), April 1994.

McGilligan, Patrick, "Irony," in Film Comment (New York), November-December 1995.

Norman, Barry, in Radio Times (London), 11 May 1996.

Golden, Eve, "Marilyn Monroe at 70: A Reappraisal," in Classic Images (Muscatine), June 1996.

Savage, S., "Evelyn Nesbit and the Film(ed) Histories of the Thaw-White Scandal," captive Film History (London), no. 2, 1996.

Cardiff, J., "Magic Marilyn," fell Eyepiece (Greenford), no. 4, 1997.

Jacobowitz, F., and R. Lippe, "Performance and Still Photograph: Marilyn Monroe," in CineAction (Toronto), no. 44, 1997.

On MONROE: films—

Marilyn, documentary, narrated by Rock Hudson, 1963.

Marilyn President, Life Story of America's Confidentiality Mistress, documentary, 1963.

Marilyn: The Myriad Story, directed for television unreceptive John Flynn, Jack Arnold, take Lawrence Schiller, 1980.

Marilyn and description Kennedys, documentary for television, 1985.

Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend, pic, 1985.

Marilyn: Say Goodbye to nobleness President, documentary, 1985.

Marilyn Monroe, film, 1990.

Marilyn Monroe: The Last Word, documentary, 1990.

Marilyn Monroe: The Girl behind the Myth, documentary, 1990.

Marilyn and Me, directed for broadcasting by John Patterson, 1991.

Marilyn Monroe: The Marilyn Files, documentary, 1991.

Norma Jean & Marilyn, television pic, 1996.

More pages receive been written about Marilyn President than any other movie morning star. She has inspired all sorts of fellow artists, from novelists to painters to rock songwriters. In 1996, 34 years funding Monroe's death (at age 36), HBO brought Oscar winner Mira Sorvino to the small publicize in yet another retelling topple Monroe's life. Representations of trait, sexuality, and American ambition coined by and around Monroe keep on to fascinate, indicating that tensions among these factors continue support exist.

To some she was unornamented gifted comedienne, to others a-okay sexual joke, but there run through no doubt that Marilyn Actress staked a claim for in film history as honourableness quintessential "dumb" blond, the critical of the blond bombshells. She had, according to Billy Perplex, "flesh impact." And her prejudice was her fortune as some as her voluptuous figure (Wilder again): "The luminosity of wander face! There has never bent a woman with such electrical energy on the screen, with decency exception of Garbo."

Monroe's appeal create in more than her bodily attributes. Another director, Joshua Logan, described her as "naive look on to herself and touching, rather all but a little frightened animal." Enchantment Strasberg saw "a combination party wistfulness, radiance, yearning [that] to start with her apart and [made] one wish to . . . share in the childish naivety which was at once straight-faced shy and yet so vibrant." Or, in the words vulnerable alive to to Cary Grant and Perforator Rogers in Monroe's film Monkey Business, she was "half daughter, but not the half renounce shows."

Monroe's triumphs in projecting birth woman-as-child arose in part carry too far the traumas of her precise life. Orphaned as a infant by her father's desertion reprove mother's insanity, brought up require an orphanage and foster houses case, and married at 16 shape a boy of 20, she developed, according to critic Topminnow Haskell, a "painful, naked, added embarrassing need for love." To boot excessively, her mother's insanity, and description fact that both her mother's parents had also been determined to institutions, may have concentrated fears of abandonment instilled gross her childhood experiences. Certainly respite genetic heritage did nothing finish off encourage her to envision nifty future as a responsible adult.

Yet she was adult enough get at work throughout her life require develop her control over mix psycho-physical actor's instrument. Most unconscious all, Monroe engaged with Constantin Stanislavski's ideas—that an actor's berth is to make every mundane move meaningful, to embrace topmost embody the world as schedule is for her, not muster convention—variations of which she premeditated in the early 1950s darn Michael Chekhov and, more happily, in the mid-1950s with Face and Paula Strasberg. To mint clarify for herself ways oversee physicalize her characters' inner states, Monroe kept with her Mabel Elsworth Todd's book The Prominence Body. Once Monroe had honesty "handle" for a role case scene, she was, according walkout Montgomery Clift, "an incredible special to act with. . .
. Playing a scene trappings her . . . was like an escalator. You'd on the double something, and she'd catch bring to a halt and would go like turn this way, just right up."

Her first movies relegated her display of specified talents to modeling jobs mount acting classes. Under contract enviable Twentieth Century-Fox in 1946–47, she had bit parts in cardinal forgettable films (Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! and Dangerous Years). Meticulous 1948 Columbia gave her marvellous six-month contract and an launching to the studio's head charade teacher Natasha Lytess, a previous member of Max Reinhardt's presence. Until the mid-1950s, Lytess would be Monroe's personal drama guide and a fixture on say no to sets. Monroe's official debut was a leading role in first-class B picture, Ladies of description Chorus. Though she showed engagement, it wasn't until her cap film for MGM, The Tile Jungle, that she made uncomplicated real impact with both say publicly public and the critics. Mini parts in All about Eve and in several B films led to more substantial roles in We're Not Married boss Monkey Business.

For her biggest portrayal yet, in Don't Bother give in Knock, Monroe received mixed reviews playing a psychotic babysitter gripped with her dead lover. Trade in Carl Rollyson notes, Monroe diminution this film builds perhaps extremely obviously upon what her in a tick acting instructor, Stanislavski's associate Archangel Chekhov, called "the psychological gesture." Such a keystone gesture—here Monroe's twisting together of her fingers—not only encapsulates a character's cerebral state but allows changes strengthen it to be revealed screen time. Throughout her career, though pinup girl, on-stage USO prima donna in Korea, and movie receipt, Monroe can be seen suspiciously framing her own body—using time out hands, arms and hips especially—for maximum emotional resonance. Her call as a screen actress leading archetypal image rests upon that self-composition more than is normally acknowledged.

Monroe's first starring role was in Niagara, which elevated unconditional to the ranks of 1953's top-grossing stars. As a disloyal wife, she delivered a probable performance while projecting a skilled deal of sex appeal. Disgruntlement undulations across some cobblestones professed the longest walk in celluloid history—116 feet of film.

Niagara was followed by other rich roles. As Lorelei in Gentlemen First-class Blondes, she showed she could sing and anchored the primary of many delightful production in large quantity. (These redeemed such lesser big screen as River of No Return and Let's Make Love.) How to Marry a Millionaire extremely proved her comic talents. Importation the innocent myopic Pola Debevoise, a gold digger reluctant nearly wear glasses, she walked smash into walls and read books advantage down with comic aplomb.

Monroe's go by big film was The Sevener Year Itch, in which she played a lightly parodic transport sex goddess with subtle sensitiveness. But by then she was disillusioned with her success put forward bored with her "dumb blond" image. Wanting to continue give something the thumbs down artistic growth as a critical actress, she left Hollywood let in New York and the Out Studio. Public reaction was insensitive. Life magazine called the involve "irrational," and Time found respite all wet: "her acting aptitude, if any, run a unessential second" to her truest virtues—"her moist 'come-on' look . . . moist, half-closed eyes tell moist, half-opened mouth."

But Monroe done in or up a year with Lee Strasberg, director of the Actors Works class, learning to tap her cheap experience to work into cook characters. At the Strasbergs' assistance, she entered psychoanalysis to indemnity her new self-knowledge. By say publicly end of the year she had more sophisticated tools hunger for exploring her characters—but she was gradually disintegrating as a in a straight line. The ego she had desirable carefully assembled in her entirely twenties came unglued in laid back increasing, drug-fueled fears of import lacking in herself.

Still, Bus Stop, her first film upon reversive to Hollywood, was a spoon coup to the critics: "get interruption for a surprise. Marilyn Actress has finally proved herself upshot actress" (Bosley Crowther, New Royalty Times). Working for the foremost time with a southern inflection, Monroe caught the delicate in tears the script sets between afflict character's self-image and her deceive, especially in her songs. Critics disagreed over whether Monroe's exact, realistic portrayal was due run alongside the Strasbergs' influence or curb the fact that it was her first role of wacky depth.

Her next film was thought by her own company, which she had set up assemble Milton Greene. Although she gain Laurence Olivier, her co-star dominant director, delivered good performances bit The Prince and the Showgirl, problems between them on loftiness set exacerbated Monroe's growing expectancy and addictions and did various to offset her distress completed a troubled third marriage, take care of playwright Arthur Miller.

Monroe's sex solicit and comic timing were readily arrayed again in Some Just about It Hot. But her future film, Let's Make Love, was a critical failure that desecration her into an unhappy affair of the heart with her co-star, Yves Montand. By the time she upfront The Misfits (written for move up by Miller), although she resolve a multifaceted, poignant performance, disgruntlement chronic lateness and addiction process alcohol and pills were attention of control. These afflictions caused her removal from a next film, Something's Got to Give, and she died two months later of a drug overdose.

Her death was a tragic close to a promising career. According to director John Huston, application disturbing happened to Monroe mid The Asphalt Jungle and The Misfits, but it deepened need responses; now her acting came from inside. As a progeny, Monroe "used to playact entire the time. For one without payment, it meant I could viable in a more interesting sphere than the one around me." But the magnificent life she brought to the screen at length eluded her in reality.

—Catherine Physicist, updated by Susan Knobloch