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Norma Jeane Mortenson is arguably the most iconic figure in the history of Hollywood. Born into a poor family and spending the majority of her childhood in foster homes, she quickly rose to fame and built a legacy that has endured for over fifty years, despite her tragic death at the age of 36.
Odds are, you have no idea who I’m talking about. Perhaps if I referred to her as Marilyn Monroe – does that ring a bell? Best remembered for her hourglass figure and platinum blonde curls, Monroe has come to symbolize classic Hollywood’s glamour and sexuality. However, the public, both before and after her death, have often refused to look past this “blonde bombshell” persona, masking the shy, insecure, and (gasp!) intellectual woman behind this façade. So who was the real Marilyn Monroe?
Monroe was born in Los Angeles, California, on June 1, 1926. She was far from the glamour of Hollywood, though; both her maternal grandparents and her mother were committed to mental institutions, and she lived with several foster families before marrying a neighbor named James Dougherty to avoid being placed in an orphanage at sixteen. While she was working in a California munitions factory, she was “discovered” by a photographer, marking the start of her modeling career. This was followed by a divorce from Dougherty in 1946 and a successful film contract with 20th Century Fox. It was also during this time that Norma Jeane dyed her hair blonde and adopted the stage name Marilyn Monroe, which would become her legal name in 1956.
Her real breakthrough occurred in 1953 when she starred in “Niagara”, “How to Marry a Millionaire”, and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” for 20th Century Fox. And for the next nine years, Monroe would star in 11 films, becoming a household name despite the brevity of her career.
The end. Moral of the story, everyone: Always make sure to look photogenic at work, and maybe your face will be on magnets and T-shirts in the next fifty years. Or not, because we don’t live in 1940s LA, and Monroe’s level of fame brought a dark side as well.
Take her marriages as an example. After baseball star Joe DiMaggio married her in January 1954 after two years of dating, he grew increasingly uncomfortable with her “sexy public image”, horrified that other people might find his celebrity wife attractive. One of the most iconic photos of Monroe shows her standing above a subway grate with her white skirt flying up to expose her legs, but her husband notoriously hated that dress. Unsurprisingly, after nine months of marriage, Monroe filed for divorce, citing “mental cruelty”. This was followed by her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller in 1956 and third divorce in January 1961. Monroe had been battling many of her own insecurities and personal struggles during this time, and was devastated to find some notes of his when he was writing The Misfits, a movie she was starring in. Miller “confessed to being ‘disappointed’ with his wife and ‘embarrassed’ by her in front of his intellectual friends.”
Despite her own husband’s doubt in her intellectual abilities and her sweet but stupid on-screen personality, Monroe was, in fact, an avid reader: The 1999 Christie’s auction included 390 books from her personality library, from political biographies to scientific books to poetry by Emily Dickinson. Unfortunately, literature wasn’t the only thing on her mind, and Monroe’s struggles with mental health grew worse in the later years of her life.
Surprisingly, the actress suffered from stage fright throughout her career, and, according to her co-star Don Murray in 1956’s Bus Stop, would break out in a rash before every scene. She was also frequently late to set, particularly in the 60s as her condition worsened.
Monroe also took several prescription drugs, initially “painkillers for her endometriosis and barbiturates and other sedatives for her insomnia”. Following her divorce in 1961, she signed herself into a psychiatric ward in New York, but was prevented from leaving until her ex-husband Joe DiMaggio managed to get her out. Monroe’s glamorous but tormented life came to an end in 1962, when her housekeeper Eunice Murray found her dead early in the morning on August 5. Her death was ruled a suicide, although there have been speculations of murder throughout the years.
Monroe has been immortalized in movies and photos, but the truth is that there was a vulnerable woman behind all of that. A woman who was beautiful, charismatic, and intelligent, but also insecure and chronically late to set. A woman far more complex than the public made her out to be.
