Marilyn Monroe Biography and Works.

Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles General Hospital. Prior to her birth, Marilyn’s father headed north to San Francisco, abandoning the family in Los Angeles. Marilyn grew up not knowing for sure who her father really was. Her mother, Gladys, had entered into several relationships, further confusing her daughter as to who t was who fathered her.

Her first film was in 1947 with a bit part in The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. Her next production was not much better, a bit in the eminently forgettable Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948). Two of the three brief scenes she appeared wound up on the cutting room floor. Later, she was given a somewhat better role as waitress, Evie in Dangerous Years. However, Fox declined to renew her contract, so she went back to modelling and the acting school.

Columbia gave her a six-month contract in the B movie, Ladies of the Chorus (1948) in which she sang two numbers. Joseph L. Mankiewiez saw her in a small part in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and put her in All About Eve (1950), resulting in resigning her to a seven-year contract with the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. Niagara (1953) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) launched her as a sex symbol superstar.

The work on her last picture, The Misfit (1961), written for her by departing husband Miller was interrupted by exhaustion. She was dropped from the unfinished Something’s Got to Give (1962) due to chronic lateness and drug dependency. Four months later, she was found dead in her Brentwood home of a drug overdose, adjudged “probable suicide” on August 5, 1962.

Trivia

She has voted the ‘Sexiest Woman of the Century’ by the People magazine. [1999]

Quote

“A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.”