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Marilyn
Monroe - The world's greatest sex symbol.
Marilyn
Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1,
1926 – August 5, 1962), was a Golden Globe
award winning American actress, model, Hollywood
icon and sex symbol.
She was known for her comedic skills and screen
presence. She became one of the most popular
movie stars of the 1950s and early 1960s. During
the later stages of her career, she worked towards
serious roles with a measure of success. However,
she faced disappointments in her career and
personal life during her later years.
Her
premature death was classified as a probable
suicide. Conspiracy theorists speculate that
she was murdered. She is #9 on the Forbes top
earning dead celebrities list.
Early
years
While
her husband was in the Merchant Marine during
World War II, Norma Jeane Dougherty moved in
with her mother-in-law where she started working
in the Radioplane Company factory owned by Hollywood
actor Reginald Denny. Her job required spraying
airplane parts with fire retardant and inspecting
parachutes. Army photographer David Conover
was scouting local factories, taking photos
for a YANK magazine article about women contributing
to the war effort. He saw her potential as a
model, and she was soon signed by The Blue Book
modeling agency. Shortly after signing with
the agency, Monroe had her hair cut, straightened,
and lightened to golden blonde. She soon began
researching actresses, enrolling in drama classes,
and singing classes.
She
became one of Blue Book's most successful models,
appearing on dozens of magazine covers. In 1946,
she came to the attention of talent scout Ben
Lyon. He arranged a screen test for her with
20th Century Fox. She was offered a standard
six-month contract with a starting salary of
$125 per week.[18]
Lyon
suggested she adopt Marilyn (after the famous
actress Marilyn Miller) as her stage name, since
Norma Jeane was not considered commercial enough.
For her last name, she took her mother's maiden
name. Thus, the 20-year-old Norma Jeane Baker
became Marilyn Monroe. During her first six
months at Fox, Monroe was given no work, but
Fox renewed her contract and she was given minor
appearances in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! and Dangerous
Years, both released in 1947. [20]In Scudda
Hoo!, her part was edited out of the film except
for a quick glimpse of her face when she speaks
two words. Fox decided not to renew her contract
again. Monroe returned to modelling and began
to network and make contacts in Hollywood. During
this time is when she posed for nude photographs
which would later be featured in the first issue
of Playboy.
In
1948, during a six-month stint at Columbia Pictures,
she starred in Ladies of the Chorus. However
the low-budget musical was not a success and
Monroe was dropped yet again. She then met one
of Hollywood's top agents, Johnny Hyde, who
had Fox re-sign her after MGM turned her down.
Darryl F. Zanuck, the vice-president of Fox,
was not convinced of Monroe's potential, but
because of Hyde's persistence, she gained supporting
parts in the Marx Brothers film Love Happy (1949),
and in Fox's All About Eve and MGM's The Asphalt
Jungle (both 1950). Even though the roles were
small, moviegoers as well as critics took notice.
Hyde also arranged for her to have minor plastic
surgery on her nose and chin, adding that to
earlier dental surgery.
The
next two years were filled with inconsequential
roles in standard fare such as We're Not Married!
and Love Nest. However, RKO executives used
her to boost box office potential of the Fritz
Lang production Clash by Night. After the film
performed well, Fox employed a similar tactic,
and she was cast as the ditzy receptionist with
Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers in Howard Hawks's
slapstick comedy Monkey Business. Critics no
longer ignored her, and both films' success
at the box office was partly attributed to Monroe's
growing popularity.
Fox
finally gave her a starring role in 1952 with
Don't Bother to Knock, in which she portrayed
a deranged babysitter who attacks the little
girl in her care. It was a cheaply made B-movie,
and although the reviews were mixed, they claimed
that it demonstrated Monroe's ability and confirmed
that she was ready for more leading roles. Her
performance in the film has since been noted
as one of the finest of her career.
Stardom
Monroe
proved she could carry a big-budget film when
she starred in Niagara in 1953. Movie critics
focused on Monroe's connection with the camera
as much as on the sinister plot.[28] She played
an unbalanced woman planning to murder her husband.
Around
this time, the nude photos of Monroe began to
surface, taken by photographer Tom Kelley during
her unemployment. Prints were bought by Hugh
Hefner and, in December 1953, appeared in the
first edition of Playboy. To the dismay of Fox,
Monroe decided to publicly admit it was indeed
her in the pictures. When a journalist asked
her what she wore in bed she replied, "Chanel
no.5".[29] When asked what she had on during
the photo shoot, she replied, "The radio".
Over
the following months, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
and How to Marry a Millionaire cemented Monroe's
status as an A-list actress, and she became
one of the world's biggest movie stars. The
lavish Technicolor comedy films established
Monroe's "dumb blonde" on-screen persona.
In
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monroe's turn as gold-digging
showgirl Lorelei Lee won her rave reviews,[31]
and the scene where she sang "Diamonds
Are a Girl's Best Friend" has inspired
the likes of Madonna,[32] Kylie Minogue[33]
and Geri Halliwell. In the Los Angeles premiere
of the film, Monroe and co-star Jane Russell
pressed their foot- and handprints in the cement
in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
In
How to Marry a Millionaire, Monroe was teamed
up with Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable. She
played a short-sighted dumb blonde, and even
though the role was stereotypical, critics took
note of her comedic timing.
Her
next two films, the western River of No Return
and the musical There's No Business Like Show
Business, were not successful. Monroe tired
of the roles that Zanuck assigned her. After
completing work on The Seven Year Itch in early
1955, she broke her contract and fled Hollywood
to study acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors
Studio in New York. Fox would not accede to
her contract demands and insisted she return
to work on productions she considered inappropriate,
such as The Girl in Pink Tights (which was never
filmed), The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, and
How to Be Very, Very Popular.
Once
in New York Monroe set up her own production
company Maryiln Monroe Productions with fashion
photographer Milton H. Greene. She told a press
conference she had set up the production company
'so I can play the better kind of roles I want
to play.
As
The Seven Year Itch raced to the top of the
box office in the summer of 1955, and with Fox
starlets Jayne Mansfield and Sheree North failing
to click with audiences, Zanuck admitted defeat
and Monroe returned to Hollywood. A new contract
was drawn up, giving Monroe approval of the
director as well as the option to act in other
studios' projects.
The
first film to be made under the contract and
production company was Bus Stop, directed by
Joshua Logan. She played Chérie, a saloon
bar singer who falls in love with a cowboy.
Monroe deliberately appeared badly made-up and
unglamorous. She was nominated for a Golden
Globe for the performance and was praised by
critics. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times
proclaimed: "Hold on to your chairs, everybody,
and get set for a rattling surprise. Marilyn
Monroe has finally proved herself an actress."
In his autobiography, Movie Stars, Real People
and Me, director Joshua Logan wrote: "I
found Marilyn to be one of the great talents
of all time... She struck me as being a much
brighter person than I had ever imagined, and
I think that was the first time I learned that
intelligence and, yes brilliance have nothing
to do with education."
The
second movie filmed under her production company
was The Prince and the Showgirl starring Laurence
Olivier. Olivier praised Monroe's performance
by saying she was, "a brilliant comedienne,
which to me means she is also an extremely skilled
actress" However Olivier became furious
at her habit of being late to the set, as well
as her dependency on her drama coach, Paula
Strasberg. Monroe's performance was hailed by
critics, especially in Europe, where she was
handed the David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent
of the Academy Award, as well as the French
Crystal Star Award. She was also nominated for
the British BAFTA award.
Later years
In
1959, she scored the biggest hit of her career
starring alongside Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis
in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot. After shooting
finished, Wilder publicly blasted Monroe for
her difficult on-set behavior. Soon, however,
Wilder's attitude softened, and he hailed her
as a great comedienne. Some Like It Hot is consistently
rated as one of the best films ever made. Monroe's
performance earned her a Golden Globe for best
actress in musical or comedy.
After
Some Like It Hot, Monroe shot Let's Make Love
directed by George Cukor and co-starring Yves
Montand. Monroe was forced to shoot the picture
because of her obligations to Twentieth Century-Fox.
While the film was not a commercial or critical
success, it included one of Monroe's legendary
musical numbers, Cole Porter's "My Heart
Belongs to Daddy".
Arthur
Miller wrote what became her and her co-star
Clark Gable's last completed film, The Misfits.
The exhausting shoot took place in the hot Nevada
desert. Monroe, Gable and Montgomery Clift delivered
performances that are considered excellent by
contemporary movie critics. Tabloid magazines
blamed Gable's death of a heart attack on Monroe,
claiming she had given him a hard time on the
set. Gable, however, insisted on doing his own
stunts and was a heavy smoker. After Gable's
death, Monroe attended the baptism of his son.
In
1961 some of the most famous photographs of
Monroe were taken by Douglas Kirkland as a feature
for the 25th anniversary issue of LOOK magazine.
Monroe
returned to Hollywood to resume filming on the
George Cukor comedy Something's Got to Give,
a never-finished film that has become legendary
for problems on the set and proved a costly
debacle for Fox. In May 1962, she made her last
significant public appearance, singing Happy
Birthday, Mr. President at a televised birthday
party for President John F. Kennedy.
After
shooting what was claimed to have been the first
ever nude scene by a major motion picture actress,
Monroe's attendance on the set became even more
erratic. On June 1, her thirty-sixth birthday,
she attended a charity event at Dodger Stadium.
Financially
strained by the production costs of Cleopatra,
starring Elizabeth Taylor, Fox dropped Monroe
from the film and replaced her with Lee Remick.
However, co-star Dean Martin, who had a clause
in his contract giving him an approval over
his co-star, was unwilling to work with anyone
but Monroe. She was rehired.
Monroe
conducted a lengthy interview with Life, in
which she expressed how bitter she was about
Hollywood labeling her as a dumb blonde and
how much she loved her audience. She also did
a photo shoot for Vogue and began discussing
a future film project with Gene Kelly and Frank
Sinatra, according to the Donald Spoto biography.
She
was planning to star in a biopic of Jean Harlow
as well as starring alongside Jack Lemmon in
Irma La Douce, a Billy Wilder comedy that eventually
starred Shirley MacLaine. Other projects under
consideration were What a Way to Go! (in which
Shirley MacLaine replaced her), Kiss Me, Stupid,
a comedy starring Dean Martin and Kim Novak,
and a musical version of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.
Before
the shooting of Something's Got to Give resumed,
Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home
on the morning of August 5, 1962. She remains
one of the 20th century's legendary public figures
and archetypal Hollywood movie stars. (Credit:
Wikipedia).
Marilyn Monroe official website
Rachel
St. James official website
Profiles
Rachel St. James is Marilyn
Munroe (Sydney, Australia) - lookalike and impersonator
Burlesque
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Contact
greg@mediaman.com.au
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