Social Studies 10 Project
Personalities in Recent History—Marilyn Monroe
Outline
Biographical Information
Birth
Family
Marriage
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Education
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Death
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Born June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, CA
Norma Jean Mortensen (later changed name to Norma Jean Baker)
Mother—Gladys Pearl Baker (film technician)
Father—Edward Mortensen (a mechanic); left before Monroe was born
Mother had been committed to mental institutions; Monroe was raised in foster homes and
orphanages
--12 different foster homes in all
--was sexually molested in one of the foster homes
--remembered a woman with red hair who would occasionally visit her (that’s all she recalled
of her mother)
--she “play –acted all the time to escape from the dreariness of her life”
Mother’s parents had also been committed to mental institutions
Childhood was filled with abandonment and poverty
Lifelong fear that she would lose her sanity as an adult, like her mother and grandparents
James Dougherty—June 19, 1942
--aircraft worker
--divorced 1946
--they hardly spoke to each other; she supported herself during the war as a model and a
factory worker
Joe DiMaggio—Jan. 14, 1954
--professional baseball player
--divorced 1954
Arthur Miller—July 1, 1956
--playwright (wrote The Crucible, Death of a Salesman)
--divorced Jan. 21, 1961
--Her marriages mirrored changes in her personal life—as she wanted to shed the image of the
ditzy blonde, she married a man known for his intellect—award winning playwright Arthur
Miller
--She converted to Judaism and developed an interest in literature
Dropped out of high school at 16—married James Dougherty
Studied acting with Natasha Lytess in the late 1940s/early 1950s
Studied acting with Lee and Paula Strasberg at the Actors Studio in NYC in 1956—wanted to
change her image from a “dumb blonde”
Followed Stanislavski acting method—actor “inhabit[s] a character’s personality as fully as
possible
Aug. 4, 1962
Brentwood, CA
Drug overdose
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Activities
Rise to Movie
Stardom
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Korea
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Height of Her
Career
Decline of Her
Career
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Last Months
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Acting Persona
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Began modeling during marriage to Dougherty—supported herself while Dougherty was
serving with the Merchant Marine
Changed look (from brunette to blonde) and name (to Marilyn Monroe) in 1946; took a screen
test with Twentieth Century-Fox
Has roles in several pictures before her first “important” film—Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Monroe attributed success to Korean War (1950-1953)—“When I first started in I had several
little parts at Fox. Then the letters began pouring in from Korea and my studio was so
impressed they began to give me wonderful parts.”
Her fan mail “jumped from 50 letters to 5,000 letters a week”
On her honeymoon with Joe DiMaggio, Monroe performed for GIs at Fort Apache (Korea)—it
was her first performance for a live audience; she entertained 100,000 soldiers
She felt that entertaining the troops was the best experience she had had with any audience,
and that it was the first time she felt like a movie star
Was a “real” movie star by early 1950s—Niagara (1953); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953);
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953); The Seven-Year Itch (1955)
Most impressive performances were in Bus Stop (1956) and Some Like It Hot (1959)
Decline of her career was very quick in the 1960s—she suffered insomnia and became
addicted to sleeping pills; had begun to abuse barbiturates and alcohol by early 1960s
Began to rely increasingly on her therapist to help her through each day; began to fear that she
was succumbing to the mental illness that ran in her mother’s family
Last film The Misfits (1961) was written by Arthur Miller and it reflected the end of their
marriage—beautiful divorcee and the men who want her; Monroe’s “disintegration” became
apparent via her work on the film—she began to show up late, and sometimes didn’t show up
at all.
--Co-star Clark Gable died days after the film was completed and it upset Monroe deeply
--2 months later she and Miller divorced
--In February 1961 the film was released and received poor reviews
She did little filming after The Misfits
Fears of mental instability were confirmed after she was briefly committed in late 1961
--suffered from depression and anxiety, and was troubled by rumors of her affairs with
prominent men, like President Kennedy and his brother
She began to work in Something’s Got to Give in April 1962, but her behaviors from the set of
The Misfits began again and she was fired from the picture and sued by the studio
--however, to finish the film, the studio had to rehire her
Before the film could resume shooting, Monroe was found dead in her home.
She died of an overdose of barbiturates
DiMaggio made her funeral arrangements; for the next 30 years, he regularly placed flowers
on her grave
The image for which she is most famous—a combination of sex goddess and little girl; a “dumb
blonde”—was the result of a considerable amount of work
The tragic/vulnerable characters she played, such as in Bus Stop, far more reflected the true
personality of Monroe
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“Painful as all [of her] tragedy is, it is essential to the Marilyn Monroe story and explains the
power she continues to hold over the imagination. The agony at both ends of her existence
only makes the glamour in between all the more luminous…”
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Dress worn in The Seven Year Itch sold for $4.6 million in June 2011
In 1994, the New York Opera performed an opera based on the last day of Monroe’s life
Several hundred books have been written about her life
At her funeral, friend Lee Strasberg said of Monroe: “Marilyn Monroe was a legend. In her own
lifetime she created a myth of what a poor girl from a deprived background could attain. For
the entire world she became a symbol of the eternal feminine.”
Impact
Pop Culture
Icon
Sources
Hoberman, J. “Korea and a Career.” Artforum International 32.5 (1994): 10+. Gale Biography in Context. Web. Nov. 4,
2011.
Knight, Judson. “Marilyn Monroe.” Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures. Ed. Arnold
Markoe and Kenneth T. Jackson. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003. Gale Biography in Context. Web.
4 Nov. 2011.
“Marilyn Monroe.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Biography in Context.
Web. 4 Nov. 2011.
“Marilyn Monroe.” Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television. Vol. 19. Gale, 1998. Gale Biography in Context. Web. 4
Nov. 2011.
“Monroe’s Subway Dress Sells for $4.6 Million.” Morning Edition 20 June 2011. Gale Biography in Context. Web. 4 Nov.
2011.
Social Studies 10 Biography Project
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