Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe, stage name of Norma Jean Mortenson (1926-62). US film actress, who became internationally famous as a sex symbol. She grew up in orphanages and married at the age of 14. Her second and third husbands were the baseball star Joe di Maggio and the playwright Arthur Miller. Although she enjoyed great success, her real acting talent was frustrated by her Hollywood image as a ‘dumb blonde’. Her films include The Seven-Year Itch (1955), Some Like it Hot (1959), and The Misfits (1960). She died from an overdose of sleeping pills.
“I know people who say `Hollywood broke her heart’ and all that, but I don’t believe it. She was very observant and tough-minded and appealing, but she had this bad judgment about things. She adored and trusted the wrong people… she had to challenge the gods at every turn, and eventually she lost. George Cukor on Marilyn Monroe, in Gavin Lambert, On Cukor”
