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1%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=dcla0x7qh6gh8o2k6c87x6xr
2%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
3[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marilyn_monroe_headshot_7286.jpg]]
4[[caption-width-right:300:''[[Music/EltonJohn And it seems to me you lived your life\
5Like a candle in the wind\
6Never knowing who to cling to\
7When the rain set in]]'']]
8
9-> ''"To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes."''
10-->-- '''Creator/ArthurMiller''', Marilyn's third husband
11
12Without much doubt, the most famous and iconic of Hollywood's [[EveryoneLovesBlondes Blonde Bombshells]] -- and much more than that.
13
14[[StageNames Marilyn Monroe]] (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was born Norma Jeane Mortenson to a mentally unstable mother and a missing father in Los Angeles, she was placed with foster parents and lived there until she was seven. Her mother was bizarre and once tried to kidnap her from her foster parents by [[BagOfKidnapping stuffing her in a bag]]. A few years later her mother bought a house and they lived together, but a few months later her mother had a mental breakdown (neither the first nor the last of many). She was then moved into foster care as a ward of the state and her later guardian Grace [=McKee=] was the one who got her into movies. However her guardian got married and she was sent to an orphanage, and then to a string of foster homes (it is unclear how many).
15
16Several families wanted to adopt her but she ended up going back with Grace. Grace's new husband repeatedly attempted to sexually assault her and she was sent to her great-aunt Olive's. This didn't last long either because one of Olive's sons also sexually assaulted her. She was moved to her aunt Ana's, who she had a good relationship with, but Ana had health problems and went back to live with Grace. This was also short since Grace's husband found a job elsewhere and wanted to move without her, and they ended up approaching her current boyfriend's mother so she could get married.
17
18In 1942, at age 16, she married the 21-year-old factory worker James Dougherty, but with the US entry into UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, her husband enlisted with the Merchant Marine in 1943 and was shipped to the Pacific in 1944, so she moved in with his mother.
19
20Norma Jeane was working at Creator/ReginaldDenny's aviator factory during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII when someone (apparently UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan's photographer) took a picture of her for a magazine. This small event would eventually lead to her fame. Her husband, James, however, didn't like the idea of his wife having a career of her own, so the couple would divorce in 1946.
21
22Before then, she took up a successful modeling career after having dyed her brunette hair to blonde. She got some small acting jobs, but nothing big, although she did agree to change her name, which included taking on her grandmother's surname. At one point, an acquaintance convinced her to pose nude for some photos meant for a "tasteful" art calendar when she had no other jobs. These photos caused a scandal and nearly ruined her career when it ended up on a calendar, and eventually the first issue of ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}''. Marilyn headed off the scandal by admitting she posed, [[IWasYoungAndNeededTheMoney because she had no other way to pay her bills]] and by her natural charm and innocence winning everyone over.
23
24Her career took off over a number of films, but she also suffered from stage fright which eventually led to taking pills and booze to relax her.
25
26She was briefly married to UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} star [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Joe [=DiMaggio=]]] and later to playwright Creator/ArthurMiller. Allegedly, she had an affair with UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. Her singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" in a slinky dress in 1962 is commonly referenced/parodied.
27
28Behavior aside, she was also noted to be [[HiddenDepths far more intelligent]] than people gave her credit for, and made sure she learned drama (she studied acting at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actors_Studio The Actor's Studio]]). The DumbBlonde persona she had on film was, in fact, [[IAmNotLeonardNimoy acting]], and her {{typecasting}} as this tended to frustrate her. She was also a huge buff about the life of UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln.
29
30During her marriage to Arthur Miller, she converted to UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}, and may have continued her religious observance after the divorce.
31
32She died in 1962 at age 36 from an overdose of barbiturates. Her death was officially classified as a "probable suicide", but it would spark [[UrbanLegend urban legends]] for years to come.
33
34Do NOT confuse her with Music/Marilyn Manson - like anybody could! - who DID actually take his first name from her.
35----
36[[foldercontrol]]
37
38[[folder:Films on TV Tropes:]]
39* ''Film/LadiesOfTheChorus'' (1948)
40* ''Film/LoveHappy'' (1949)
41* ''Film/AllAboutEve'' (1950)
42* ''Film/TheAsphaltJungle'' (1950)
43* ''Film/ClashByNight'' (1952)
44* ''Film/{{Monkey Business|1952}}'' (1952)
45* ''Film/OHenrysFullHouse'' (1952)
46* ''Film/DontBotherToKnock'' (1952)
47* ''Film/{{Niagara}}'' (1953)
48* ''Film/GentlemenPreferBlondes'' (1953)
49* ''Film/HowToMarryAMillionaire'' (1953)
50* ''Film/TheSevenYearItch'' (1955)
51* ''Film/BusStop'' (1956)
52* ''Film/ThePrinceAndTheShowgirl'' (1957)
53* ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' (1959)
54* ''Film/TheMisfits'' (1961)
55[[/folder]]
56
57[[folder:"Tropes Are A Girl's Best Friend":]]
58* FiftiesHair: Her short and wavy platinum blonde hair is emulated by women in parties as a shorthand for Hollywood's Golden Age glamour.
59* AlliterativeName: Invoked. When she was advised to change her name upon becoming an actress, she chose her mother's maiden name of Monroe, and although she wanted to base her first name on her actual first names, Norma Jeane, 20th Century Fox head of production Ben Lyon suggested "Marilyn Monroe", partly in homage to early 20th century Broadway actor Marilyn Miller and partly because he felt an alliterative name was more attention-grabbing.[[note]] The name actually took some getting used to; when she was asked for her first autograph, she had to double check that it was "Marilyn" and not "Marylin".[[/note]]
60* ArousedByTheirVoice: Marilyn intentionally invoked this in many of her movies, and occasionally mocked at the time as being over the top. Nowadays, when a character speaks in a breathy, low voice, [[TropeCodifier they're mimicking Marilyn whether they know it or not]].
61* CreatorBreakdown:[[invoked]] ''Film/TheMisfits'' was intended to be a dramatic vehicle for her now that she had trained in method acting, and showcase her in something besides DumbBlonde roles. While Arthur Miller used a short story he'd written and expanded a minor female character in it for her, she grew increasingly annoyed when he took elements from her real life and their actual conversations to use in the script. Their marriage fell apart while filming, and both had affairs, by the end only speaking to each other through her acting coach Paula Strasberg. She was also dealing with endometriosis, but she was self medicating, as well as being sent into a panic over the frequent script changes and new lines to learn. They gave her a later call time, knowing it was unlikely she would show up on time, and sometimes she wouldn't show up at all. She was far from the only one with problems on the shoot - John Huston was frequently drunk and gambling all night, and ended up $50,000 in debt. He shut down production for two weeks, persuaded Marilyn to check into a hospital for some rest, and then leaked a story to the press that she was the reason filming was postponed.
62* DumbBlonde: She often played a platinum-blonde BrainlessBeauty in films. That being said, the real Marilyn Monroe was very intelligent, particularly for her time, but she did very frequently [[ObfuscatingStupidity play on the stereotype]] as part of her public persona. It is also worth noting that she was a brunette, before she decided to DyeHard.
63* DyeHard: When she was still just Norma Jeane, she had curly brown hair. The platinum-blonde, straight hair was an attempt to stand out as a model, and it worked, becoming a mainstay of the Marilyn Monroe persona.
64* FriendshipOnTheSet:[[invoked]]
65** Although the gossip columns tried to stir up rumours of a feud between her and Jane Russell on the set of ''Film/GentlemenPreferBlondes'', they got on very well and became good friends. She in fact was the only person who could entice Marilyn out of her trailer.
66** She befriended Montgomery Clift on the set of ''Film/TheMisfits'', reportedly saying she was glad to see someone "in worse shape than I am".
67* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: She was blonde, albeit naturally brunette, and her characters were almost invariably very charming and sweet-natured.
68* HeadAndHipPose: She struck this pose a few times it photographs. She's even the current trope image.
69* HiddenDepths: Though Monroe was ''the'' most famous bombshell and DumbBlonde of her era (and possibly of all time), she was also an extremely intelligent, gifted woman who took her craft seriously enough to attend the legendary Actors' Studio in New York, where she studied with some of the greatest teachers in the industry. She also took her mental health seriously by attending regular therapy sessions, and was perfectly aware of the seedier side of Hollywood using her body and ignoring her brains. She was also very politically active, having been a founding member of the Hollywood brand of SANE (National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy), an early supporter of racial equality in Hollywood and a supporter of unions in the film industry. Many later works about Marilyn focus on this disparity and how she longed to have people see all of her, not just her beauty.
70* HideYourPregnancy:[[invoked]] During ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', requiring her to use stand-ins for publicity photographs, with her head superimposed on top.
71* HostilityOnTheSet:[[invoked]] Creator/BetteDavis was particularly mean to her on the set of ''Film/AllAboutEve'', intimidating her so much that she went into a bathroom to vomit after filming with her.
72* MarilynManeuver: TropeNamer after her publicity stunt during the filming of ''Film/TheSevenYearItch''.
73* MsFanservice: Her films would often play up her sexiness, from focusing on her hip swaying walk, to putting her in outfits that emphasized her curves. Overlaps with InnocentFanserviceGirl at times.
74** ''Film/TheSevenYearItch'' has a scene where she stands over a grate, and there is a gust of air making her skirt fly up. She revels in it instead of being embarrassed.
75** In ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' she is introduced from the waist down doing her sexy walk.
76* NervousWreck: Had severe stage fright, which she stifled with [[TheAlcoholic booze]], barbiturates and amphetamines that would lead to her untimely death.
77* NiceGirl: She played nice girls in movies, her only villainous role being ''Niagara'', and she generally played sweet {{Innocent Fanservice Girl}}s in films like ''Some Like it Hot'', ''Let's Make Love'' and ''The Misfits''. By all accounts, she was one in real life as well.
78* ObfuscatingStupidity: Despite her image as a ditzy bombshell, she was exceptionally intelligent and well-read and played up her image as a dumb blonde for films.
79* OneTakeWonder:[[invoked]]
80** While she took eighty takes to do the "where's that bourbon?" scene in ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', for the upper berth bed scene, she said "I loved it" after the first, delighting the cast and crew, who were similarly happy with it.
81** While filming ''Film/ThePrinceAndTheShowgirl'', she discovered that Laurence Olivier had the crew taking bets on how long it would take her to finish a scene, so she set about rehearsing meticulously to prepare. When the time came to film, she did it perfectly on the first take. The scene ends with her character leaving through a door, but while they were still rolling, she opened it again to say "pretty good huh?" and they left it in.
82* PrettyInMink: Wore several furs in both her films and publicity pictures.
83** She wore a white fox wrap in ''Film/HowToMarryAMillionaire''.
84** In publicity pictures for ''Film/LoveHappy'', Marilyn wore an [[FurBikini ermine bikini]]. It wasn't shown in the film, but sure helped the marketing.
85* RomanceOnTheSet: Perhaps the most notorious one she had was with French actor Creator/YvesMontand on the set of the aptly named ''Let's Make Love'' in 1960. It caused trouble for the filming of ''Film/TheMisfits'' as well.
86%%* SexyBacklessOutfit: The famous "Happy Birthday" dress (you know, the one in the Smithsonian...).
87* SupermodelStrut: Her swaying walk was renowned, and often given focus in films, such as her introduction in ''Film/SomeLikeItHot''. There's a pretty well-substantiated story that she would sometimes cut a small piece off the tip of one of her high-heeled shoes to accentuate that sexy wobble.
88* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/AlfredHitchcock was interested in casting her as the lead in ''Film/{{Marnie}}'' after Creator/GraceKelly passed, but she was never officially given the role, and her death made it impossible. The role ultimately went to Creator/TippiHedren from ''Film/TheBirds''.
89[[/folder]]
90
91[[folder:Portrayals in fiction:]]
92* Played by Misty Rowe in ''Goodbye Norma Jean'' (1976).
93* Played by Theresa Russell in ''Insignificance'' (1985).
94* Played by Susan Griffiths in ''Marilyn & Me'' (1991). Perhaps Marilyn's most famous regular [[CelebrityImpersonator impersonator]]; she later played either Marilyn herself or Marilyn impersonators in films and TV shows such as ''Film/PulpFiction'' and ''Series/QuantumLeap''.
95* Played by Creator/MelodyAnderson in ''Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair'' (1993).
96* Played by [[TimeShiftedActor both]] Creator/AshleyJudd (as Norma Jeane) and Creator/MiraSorvino in ''Norma Jean & Marilyn'' (1996).
97* Played by Barbara Niven in ''The Rat Pack'' (1998).
98* Played by Creator/PoppyMontgomery in ''Blonde'' (2001).
99* Played by Sophie Monk in ''The Mystery of Natalie Wood'' (2004).
100* Played by Susie Kennedy in ''Io & Marilyn'' (2009).
101* Played by Creator/MichelleWilliams in ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'' (2011).
102* Played by both Creator/KatharineMcPhee and Creator/MeganHilty (as fictional characters Karen Cartwright and Ivy Lynn) in ''Bombshell'', the ShowWithinAShow in ''Series/{{Smash}}'' (2012-2013).
103* Played by Creator/KelliGarner in ''The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe'' (2015).
104* Played by Creator/AnaDeArmas in ''Film/{{Blonde}}'' (2022).
105[[/folder]]

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