Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 –
August 5, 1962), born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was
an American actress,
singer and model. After spending
much of her childhood in foster
homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946. Her early film appearances were
minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both
1950) were critically acclaimed. In a few years, Monroe reached stardom and was
cast as the leading lady in such films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
How to Marry a Millionaire,
The Seven
Year Itch, and Some Like It Hot.
The typecasting of Monroe's "dumb blonde"
persona limited her career prospects, so she broadened her range. She studied at
the Actors Studio and
formed Marilyn Monroe Productions. Her dramatic performance in Bus Stop was hailed
by critics, and she won a Golden
Globe Award for Some Like it Hot.
The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems,
and a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to work with. The
circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture.
Though officially classified as a "probable suicide," the possibility of an accidental overdose, as
well as the possibility of homicide, have not been ruled out. There are several
theories that involve JFK and his brother Robert, and several books have been
written on the subject. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time
by the American Film Institute.
In the years and decades following her death, Monroe has often been cited as
a pop and cultural icon. Monroe was born in the Los Angeles County
Hospital on June 1, 1926, as Norma Jeane
Mortenson (soon after changed to Baker), the third child born to Gladys Pearl
Baker, née Monroe, (1902–1984).
Monroe's birth certificate names the father as Martin Edward Mortensen with
his residence stated as "unknown". The name Mortenson
is listed as her surname on the birth certificate, although Gladys immediately
had it changed to Baker, the surname of her first husband and which she still
used. Martin's surname was misspelled on the birth certificate leading to more
confusion on who her actual father was. Gladys Baker had married a Martin E.
Mortensen in 1924, but they had separated before Gladys' pregnancy. Several of
Monroe's biographers suggest that Gladys Baker used his name to avoid the stigma
of illegitimacy. Mortensen died at
the age of 85, and Monroe's birth certificate, together with her parents'
marriage and divorce documents, were discovered. The documents showed that
Mortensen filed for divorce from Gladys on March 5, 1927, and it was finalized
on October 15, 1928.
Throughout her life, Marilyn Monroe denied that Mortensen was her father. She said
that, when she was a child, she had been shown a photograph of a man that Gladys
identified as her father, Charles Stanley Gifford. She remembered that he had a
thin mustache and somewhat resembled Clark Gable, and that she had amused herself by
pretending that Gable was her father.
Gladys was mentally unstable and financially unable to care for the young
Norma Jeane, so she placed her with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender of Hawthorne,
California, where she lived until she was seven.
While living with the Bolenders, an unusual incident occurred. One day,
Gladys came to the Bolenders and demanded that Norma Jeane be released back into
her care. Ida knew that Gladys was unstable at the time and insisted that this
situation would not benefit Norma Jeane. Unwilling to cooperate, Gladys managed
to pull Ida into the yard while she ran inside the house, locking the door
behind her. After several minutes, Gladys walked out of the front door with one
of Albert Bolender's military duffel bags. To Ida's horror, Gladys had stuffed
the now screaming Norma Jeane inside the bag, zipped it up, and proceeded to
leave the house. Ida charged towards Gladys and the quarrel resulted in the bag
splitting open. Norma Jean fell out and began weeping loudly as Ida grabbed her
and pulled her back inside the house, away from Gladys. This was just one of the
many bizarre exchanges between young Norma Jeane and her disturbed mother.
In 1933, Gladys bought a house and brought Norma Jeane to live with her. A
few months after moving in, however, Gladys suffered a mental breakdown,
beginning a series of mental episodes that would plague her for the rest of her
life. In My Story, Monroe recalls her mother "screaming and laughing" as
she was forcibly removed to the State Hospital in Norwalk. Norma
Jeane was declared a ward of the state, and Gladys' best friend, Grace
McKee, became her guardian. It was Grace who had told Monroe that
someday she would become a movie star. Grace was captivated by Jean Harlow, and would let
Norma Jeane wear makeup and take her out to get her hair curled. They would go
to the movies together, forming the basis for Norma Jeane's fascination with the
cinema and the stars on screen.
Grace McKee married Ervin Silliman (Doc) Goddard in 1935, and nine-year-old
Norma Jeane was sent to the Los Angeles Orphans Home (later renamed Hollygrove),
and then to a succession of foster homes. During the time at
Hollygrove, several families were interested in adopting her; however,
reluctance on Gladys' part to sign adoption papers thwarted those attempts. In
1937, Grace took Norma Jeane back to live with her, Goddard, and one of
Goddard's daughters from a previous marriage. This arrangement did not last for
long, as she was nearly sexually assaulted by a drunk Doc Goddard on at least
one occasion. Grace sent her to live in with her great-aunt, Olive Brunings.
This arrangement also did not last long, as 12-year-old Norma Jeane was
assaulted (some reports say sexually) by one of Olive's sons. Biographers and
psychologists have questioned whether at least some of Norma Jeane's later
behavior (i.e. hypersexuality, sleep disturbances, substance abuse, disturbed
interpersonal relationships), was a manifestation of the effects of childhood
sexual abuse in the context of her already problematic relationships with her
psychiatrically ill mother and subsequent caregivers. In early 1938,
Grace sent her to live with yet another one of her aunts, Anna Lower, who lived
in the Van Nuys
section of Los Angeles. The time with Lower provided the young Norma Jeane with
one of the few stable periods in her life. Years later, she would reflect fondly
about the time that she spent with Lower, whom she affectionately called "Aunt
Ana." Unfortunately, by 1942, the elderly Lower developed serious health
problems, and thus Norma Jeane went back to live with the Goddards. It was there
where she met a neighbor's son, James Dougherty, and began a relationship with
him.
Her time with the Goddards would once again prove to be short. At the end of
1942, Grace and Doc decided to relocate to Virginia, where Doc had received a
lucrative job offer. It is unclear whether the Goddards did not or could not
take Norma Jeane with them; nevertheless, Grace needed to find a home for her
before they moved. An offer from a neighborhood family to adopt Norma Jeane was
proposed but Gladys still would not allow it. With few options left, Grace
approached Dougherty's mother and suggested that Jim marry her so that she would
not have to return to an orphanage or foster care. Dougherty was initially
reluctant because Norma Jeane was only sixteen years old, but he finally
relented and married her in a ceremony, arranged by Ana Lower, after graduating
from high school in June 1942. Monroe would state in her autobiography that she
did not feel like a wife; she enjoyed playing with the neighborhood children
until her husband would call her home. In 1943, with World War II raging,
Dougherty enlisted in the Merchant Marine and was shipped out to the
Pacific. Frightened that he might not come back alive, Norma Jeane begged him to
give her a child before he left. Dougherty disagreed, feeling that she was too
young to have a baby, but he promised that they would revisit the subject when
he returned home. After he shipped out, Norma Jeane moved in with Dougherty's
mother.
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