Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 – 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2021) by the time of her death in 1962. Long after her death, Monroe remains a major icon of pop culture. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her sixth on their list of the greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Multiple film critics and media outlets have cited Monroe as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in a total of 12 foster homes and an orphanage; she married at age sixteen. She was working in a factory during World War II when she met a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit and began a successful pin-up modeling career, which led to short-lived film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. After a series of minor film roles, she signed a new contract with Fox in late 1950. Over the next two years, she became a popular actress with roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, and in the dramas Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock. She faced a scandal when it was revealed that she had posed for nude photographs prior to becoming a star, but the story did not damage her career and instead resulted in increased interest in her films.
By 1953, Monroe was one of the most marketable Hollywood stars; she had leading roles in the film noir Niagara, which overtly relied on her sex appeal, and the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which established her star image as a "dumb blonde". The same year, her nude images were used as the centerfold and on the cover of the first issue of Playboy. She played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image throughout her career, but she was disappointed when she was typecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project but returned to star in The Seven Year Itch (1955), one of the biggest box office successes of her career.
When the studio was still reluctant to change Monroe's contract, she founded her own film production company in 1954. She dedicated 1955 to building the company and began studying method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Later that year, Fox awarded her a new contract, which gave her more control and a larger salary. Her subsequent roles included a critically acclaimed performance in Bus Stop (1956) and her first independent production in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role in Some Like It Hot (1959), a critical and commercial success. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961).
Acted in
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes
2024
as Self (archive photo)
Aliens Uncovered: Marilyn Monroe Exposed
2024
as Self
Cecilia 13: El Camino al Deseo
2024
as Tentación (archive footage)
Cecilia Cloacas
2024
as Self (archive footage)
Cecilia X. Familia.
2024
as Self (archive footage)
Aliens Uncovered: Declassified
2024
as Self
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
2023
as Self (archive footage)
Le Siècle des icônes
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Becoming Marilyn
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Dream Girl: The making of Marilyn Monroe
2022
as Self (archive footage)
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Una foto de Marilyn
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Reframed: Marilyn Monroe
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Rat Pack
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Tunnel to Freedom
2021
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe: Beauty is Pain
2021
as Self (archive footage)
Cher: In Her Own Words
2021
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Signoret et Montand, Monroe et Miller : Deux couples à Hollywood
2020
as Self (archive footage)
I Am Jackie O
2020
as Self (archive footage)
First Ladies
2020
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood, la vie rêvée de Lana Turner
2019
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn and I
2019
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe for Sale
2018
as Self (archive footage)
Always at The Carlyle
2018
as Self (archive footage)
Arthur Miller: Writer
2017
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe: Auction of a Lifetime
2017
as Self (archive footage)
Andy Warhol, Fluorescent
2016
as Self (archive footage)
All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone
2016
as The Girl (archive footage)
Arthur Miller: A Man of His Century
2015
as Self - Miller's 2nd Wife (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe Declassified
2015
as Self (archive footage)
Love, Marilyn
2013
as Self (archive footage)
Footsteps on the Ceiling
2013
as Miss Caswell (archive footage)
Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe
2012
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn
2012
as Self (archive footage)
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
2012
as (archive footage)
Bert Stern: Original Madman
2011
as Self (archive footage)
The Kennedy Detail
2010
as Self (archive footage)
Smash His Camera
2010
as Self (archive footage)
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
2010
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved
2010
as (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe: Death of an Icon
2010
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1950s: The Golden Era of the Musical
2009
as Self (archive)
La Rabbia di Pasolini
2008
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn, dernières séances
2008
as Self (archive footage)
Grace Kelly: Destiny of a Princess
2006
as Self - Actress (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe: Still Life
2006
as Self (archive footage)
The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'
2006
as Self (archive footage)
The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'
2006
as Self (archive footage)
Jane Russell - Der Star aus dem Heu
2006
as Self (archive footage)
Playboy: Celebrity Centerfolds
2006
as Self (archive footage)
Playboy: 50 Years of Playmates
2004
as Self (archive footage)
Sex at 24 Frames Per Second
2003
as Self (archive footage)
Un film et son époque
2003
as Self (archive footage)
Making 'The Misfits'
2002
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn: Portrait of a Legend
2002
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days
2001
as Self (archive footage)
Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood
2001
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn on Marilyn
2001
as Self (archive footage)
Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl
1999
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn in Manhattan
1998
as Self (archive footage)
Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down The Line
1997
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn, divine et fragile
1996
as Self (archive footage)
The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful
1996
as Self (archive footage)
We Remember Marilyn
1996
as Self (archive footage)
Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie
1995
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess
1994
as Self (archive footage)
That's Entertainment! III
1994
as (archive footage)
Intimate Portrait
1993
as Self (archive footage)
Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire
1991
as Self (archive footage)
Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
1991
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn: Something's Got to Give
1990
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
1990
as (archive footage)
John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick
1989
as Self (archive footage)
Batmania: From Comics to Screen
1989
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Uncensored
1987
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood's Hidden Secrets
1987
as (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
1986
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Monroe
1986
as Self (archive footage)
Volunteers
1985
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Electric Blue Special: Nude Celebrity Special
1984
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
1982
as Self (archive footage)
Mi Marilyn
1975
as Self (archive footage)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks
1973
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn Magdalena
1972
Fake Newsreal
1970
as Self (archive footage)
The Two Kennedys
1969
as Self (archive footage)
The Love Goddesses
1965
as (archive footage)
The Marilyn Monroe Story
1963
as Self (archive footage)
Marilyn
1963
as Self (archive footage)
La Rabbia
1963
as Self (archive footage)
President Kennedy's Birthday Salute
1962
as Self
Something's Got to Give
1962
as Ellen Wagstaff Arden
The Misfits
1961
as Roslyn Taber
Let's Make Love
1960
as Amanda Dell
Startime
1959
Some Like It Hot
1959
as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk
The Prince and the Showgirl
1957
as Elsie
Bus Stop
1956
as Cherie
The Seven Year Itch
1955
as The Girl
There's No Business Like Show Business
1954
as Vicky
River of No Return
1954
as Kay Weston
How to Marry a Millionaire
1953
as Pola Debevoise
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1953
as Lorelei Lee
Niagara
1953
as Rose Loomis
Monkey Business
1952
as Lois Laurel
O. Henry's Full House
1952
as Streetwalker (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
Don't Bother to Knock
1952
as Nell Forbes
We're Not Married!
1952
as Annabel Jones
Clash by Night
1952
as Peggy
Let's Make It Legal
1951
as Joyce Mannering
Love Nest
1951
as Roberta 'Bobbie' Stevens
As Young as You Feel
1951
as Harriet
Home Town Story
1951
as Iris Martin
All About Eve
1950
as Miss Caswell
The Fireball
1950
as Polly
The Jack Benny Program
1950
as Marilyn Monroe
The Jack Benny Program
1950
as Self
Right Cross
1950
as Dusky Ledoux (uncredited)
A Ticket to Tomahawk
1950
as Clara
The Asphalt Jungle
1950
as Angela Phinlay
Love Happy
1949
as Grunion's Client
Ladies of the Chorus
1948
as Peggy Martin
Green Grass of Wyoming
1948
as Extra at Square Dance (uncredited)
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!
1948
as Betty (uncredited)
Dangerous Years
1947
as Evie
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim
1947
as Telephone Operator (voice) (uncredited)