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The Biography of Norma Jean Mortensen
Born
June 1st, 1926 at 9:30 am in Los Angeles California as Norma Jean
Mortensen. Her mother, Gladys, was a widowed film cutter at RKO Studios.
She abandoned young Marilyn to a series of foster homes.
At 16 she married a man named James Dougherty who worked at the same Aircraft
Factory where she was employed. He soon joined the military and they were
divorced several years later.
Around this time Marilyn began modeling and her pictures were seen by Howard Hughes who offered her a screen test.
Her agent suggested that 20th Century Fox might be a better choice and she soon signed for $125 a week on a six month contract.
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim in 1947 was her first screen role however it was a very small part. Two of the three scenes she shot for her next movie Scudda Do! Scudda Hay! in 1948 were cut from the film.
Her third film had a slightly better role as Evie in Dangerous Years however her contract with the studio was not renewed and she soon went back to modeling.
She was soon back in the movies with Columbia Pictures Ladies of the Chorus. That stint was short lived as she soon started working for United Artists in their movie Love Happy in 1949. That was also the same year that she posed naked for the now famous first issue of Playboy magazine, though the shots were originally created for a calendar.
That
exposure from Playboy Magazine propelled her career and she was soon in
several more movies including The Asphalt Jungle from MGM and All
About Eve from Fox.
The first time she appeared with her signature platinum blonde hair that became her trademark was several movies later in Monkey Business. Soon she was dating Joe DiMaggio and appearing in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Now that she was a recognized as a star quality box office draw she appeared with the likes of Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable and Rory Calhoun in How to Marry a Millionaire.
Marilyn married Joe DiMaggio on January 14, 1954.
Her next two movies included There's No Business Like Show Business and The Seven Year Itch. The second of which included the famous scene in which Marilyn is standing above a subway grating and the wind from a passing subway train billows her white dress up for the audience.
Her short marriage with Joe DiMaggio lasted only eight months when she announced their divorce in October.
She was suspended from her next two roles at Fox due to her unwillingness to cooperate with her producers, directors, and fellow actors as well as constantly being late to the set and frequent illnesses.
She soon redeemed herself with her role in Bus Stop, a major departure from her usual roles. She also married Arthur Miller that same year.
Her
biggest film in her final years was Some Like It Hot with Tony
Curtis and Jack Lemmon, until her last film, The Misfits, which
also proved to be the final film for Clark Gable, who soon thereafter
died of a heart attack.
She was later dropped from her last movie Something's Got to Give and found dead less than four months later in her home.
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