Premium Essay

Marilyn Monroe Biography

Submitted By
Words 1068
Pages 5
Did you ever know that many celebrities we love today, come from dark childhoods of abuse, foster homes and unloved backgrounds. Marilyn Monroe is only one out of millions of stars where people do not know about their troubled personal lives. Although she was very adored by the public eye, behind the lights Monroe struggled with depression and anxiety. She could never find the person that would appreciate her and love her for her personality. From her very first month of life, Marilyn learned quick that the world was going to be hard. Monroe wrestled with hardship through her childhood, early life and sadly her quick ending life. Little did Marilyn Monroe know, she was going to have an insane future ahead of her. Monroe was born with no father …show more content…
While working at the factory, David Conover took pictures of her and other women for calendars (Owings 28). Conover discovered her modeling naturality, so Norma set in motion a career in modeling in 1946 (Owings 28). Loving the attention, Norma felt she wanted to go into the Hollywood spotlight. She began to take acting classes to help her (Peterson). Norma then signed with Twentieth Century-Fox (“Marilyn”). However the same year, Jim and Norma filed for a divorce, since they had not been seeing each other for quite some time (Owings 31). This did not stop her from her dream and she began to focus on her acting, although she only got small roles. To make sure she had even a chance of stardom, Norma changed her name to Marilyn Monroe (Peterson) and changed her hair color to the famous blond that we all love to this day (Peterson). Eventually, Norma got bigger roles with the help of Johnny Hyde (“Marilyn”). Some big roles she filmed were Dangerous Years in 1947 and Scudda Hoo, Scudda Hay in 1948 (Owings 36). It was in 1951 that a calendar she had modeled for caused an uproar. (“Marilyn”). Monroe had posed for nude pictures because of some financial problems she was having (“Marilyn”). Joe DiMaggio, a baseball star, saw these and had a liking for Monroe. In 1954, Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio married, nonetheless the two decided to split the same year (Peterson). With the overwhelming stress,

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Marilyn Monroe Biography

...Monroe, Marilyn (1 June 1926-5 Aug. 1962), film actress and sex symbol, was born Norma Jeane Mortensen (and was also known as Norma Jeane Baker in her youth) in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Gladys Monroe Baker Mortensen, a film cutter, who was unmarried when she gave birth to Monroe (her father has never been positively identified). Gladys Mortensen was an avid movie fan, but Monroe spent very little time with her often unstable mother. Within two weeks of her birth, Monroe was placed in the first of what would be a succession of foster homes, guardianships, and orphanages. This experience convinced her that she was a "mistake," a person easily abandoned. Given an insecure childhood that included the trauma of sexual molestation and an early marriage (to James Dougherty in 1942; they were divorced in 1946) arranged in part to prevent her return to an orphanage, it is a testament to Monroe's tenacity, personal strength, and resilience that she managed to achieve the heights in her career that she did. Her marriage to Dougherty compelled Monroe to quit high school, and her lack of formal education furthered her sense of inadequacy. While her husband served in the merchant marine during World War II, Monroe found a job inspecting parachutes at the Radioplane Company (1944-1945). Army photographers who had arrived at the plant to take commercial and military pictures of female war workers discovered her. From this first successful posing arose Monroe's fabled "love affair"...

Words: 1853 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Marilyn Monroe Biography

...Strong beautiful women have long been admired by American society. While standards have changed as to what is considered beautiful, nothing has changed in the way that people idolize celebrities. Back in the mid-1900s, women were most beautiful when they were curvy and had fuller bodies. During the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe, an actress, singer, and model, was the ideal image of the perfect woman. She had beautiful blonde hair, a curvy figure, and was successful. She was the woman that every man wanted to be with and that every woman wanted to be. However, there was much more to her than what met the eye. Monroe had a rocky upbringing and because of this she suffered from many psychological issues including attachment disorder, depression, insomnia,...

Words: 1014 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Marilyn 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. But I have no words to describe the myth and legend. Nor would she want us to do so." Those were the words delivered at her Eulogy by Lee Stratsberg (Lefkowitz 114). The Eulogy summed up her impact then and it does now as well. Marilyn Monroe impacted music, movies, society and culture, in her time ,and still does today. Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson, as it said on her birth certificate, although she was also known as Norma Jeane Baker because she never knew the true identity of her father. She was born on June 1 st, 1926 in Los Angeles (Lefkowitz 21). Norma Jeane's childhood and life was anything but perfect. Shortly after she was born, her mother, Gladys Baker, was admitted into a rehabilitation center. Looking back on it she remembered her mother only as the "woman with red hair", who on occasions, would stop in and visit her (Wilson Biography II). From that point on she went from foster home to foster home. She also spent time in an orphanage in Los Angeles (Wilson Biography1). When her final set of foster parents was to move to California she decided to get married. At the age of sixteen she married 23 year old, Jim Dougherty. (McKittnick 1) The marriage lasted until 1943 when Dougherty joined the Merchant Marines during World War I. (Biography.com article 2) During...

Words: 1254 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

The True Light of Marylin

...The True Light of Marilyn When we here the name Marilyn Monroe many thoughts come to mind. Was she that big time Hollywood star that overdosed on drugs? Was she Hollywood’s angel with hidden secrets? Internally she was stuck in darkness and externally it seemed as if she was always in the light. All of these thoughts circulate in our heads about who Marilyn Monroe really was when in reality, she was just a person who wanted to be loved and feel wanted. Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jean on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California. Her issues started as a child. Her mother was a single parent and was not around due to work and later being placed in a rest home due to her mental illness of schizophrenia. Consequently, Norma was moved around between family members and eventually ended up in several orphanages. By the age of 15, one of Norma Jean’s family members thought it would be good for her to marry their next door neighbor so she could have some stability in her life. The union between them only lasted several weeks because shortly after the marriage he went to the merchant marines and was shipped away. Feeling alone and needing extra money, Norma Jean began to work at a factory where she was discovered and got her first break as a model. She was featured in over 33 magazine covers and later began getting in to film. As her imaged changed so did her name. Formally known as Norma Jean she was now Marilyn Monroe. She had platinum blonde hair and a...

Words: 1736 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Personality Disorders: Marilyn Monroe

...Marilyn Monroe was a troubled woman who wanted to understand herself, her institutionalized mother, and her chaotic childhood. She wanted to understand her pain and be released from it. Her whole family had seemed to yield to madness, so the threat of “insanity” stalked her at every turn. She sought to educate and get cutting edge treatment to strip off what she feared was inevitable. Most of her life she wasn’t the glamourous starlet we envision her to be. Under the glitter was a regular girl trying to get a grip on things and constantly trying to learn and improve. She read at length, and treated everyone she encountered as a teacher. Poetry was her favorite. She would delight in words, seeking to frame and define her twisting and glorious emotions. Gloria Steinem was one of the first biographers to look for Marilyn the person. After she wrote a relatable article about Marilyn in Ms. Magazine, tons of letters poured in from women who identified with Marilyn in some way. They, too, had suffered miscarriages, domestic violence, childhood molestation that no one believed. They had been overprescribed painkillers, sleeping pills and tranquilizers for common problems, they, too, struggled with the difference between their internal identity and the way others perceived them. Marilyn represented something so big on the screen, something so inaccessible and fantastic, that her vulnerability could seem aggressive. “How dare she be just as vulnerable and unconfident as I felt?” Gloria...

Words: 1828 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Marilyn Monroe

...Stephanie Robinson November 17, 2015 Project Part 1 I chose to do my paper on Marilyn Monroe who overcame a difficult childhood and became one of the biggest and most enduring sex symbols. She born June 1st, 1926 in Los Angeles, never met her father and has one half-sister who she only met a couple times. Her father was not a part of her life and her mother was mentally ill making Monroe an orphan and in foster care. She was in and out of homes until family friends were paid $25 a week to take care of Monroe. While living with them she was not allowed to go to movies or have much of a social life. The home was short-lived due to the couple having to relocate for a job. Returning to the life of foster care at age 7 caused Monroe to be sexually assaulted on multiple occasions until getting married at age 16. Having no high school diploma Monroe started work in a factory until being discovered as a model which later caused her get a divorce. Her career took off as she changed her image to be the model she always dreamt of being. Starting out as a small part in The Asphalt Jungle jumped started her acting career as well. She then stared in many musicals, plays and movies such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall and The Seven Year Itch (Bibliography, n.d.). After many failed marriages her personal life was still a mess and sadly at age 36 Monroe was found dead at her Los Angeles home with an empty bottle of sleeping pills found...

Words: 453 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Dialectic Journal

...works based on friends, his own life, and family. People believed he was a man of integrity and a hero because of the ways he portrayed himself. He was born in 1915 in Harlem, New York and raised in a very wealthy household by his parents, Isidore and Augusta Miller. After high school Miller worked lots of jobs to save up enough money to attend the University of Michigan, where he wrote his first paper that turned into his first play, called “No Villain”. Once he realized what he was good at, he moved east to start his new career. There he met his first wife Mary Slattery, but their relationship did not last long, and three weeks after the divorce he married actress Marilyn Monroe. This relationship was very good look for him because of what Marilyn Monroe’s career was at the time. He “divorced Monroe after five years”, and several months later “got married to Inge Morath”, whom he had two children with, Rebecca and Daniel Miller. There was one flaw about this family though, that “Miller excluded his son Daniel out of their lives” for the longest time. Miller did not want Daniel around because Daniel was diagnosed with Down syndrome, but Miller’s daughter, Rebecca, was married to a wise man that convinced Miller to keep seeing his son, because he did not feel that Miller was doing the right thing. Miller lived a crazy life, but this all lead up to something that soon the world would never forget.(Synopsis) Arthur Miller’s career started off a bit shaky with his first...

Words: 1113 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

All About the Ads

...Shah Rukh Khan: n 2005, Shah Rukh Khan came onto the brand to feature in a memorable TVC with Hema Malini, Sridevi, Juhi Chawla and Kareena Kapoor. This time, the product he endorses has a fragrance created by world renowned perfumer Didier Gaffet. Inspired by the perfume Kenzo Flower and keeping in mind the sensory preferences of Indian women; this Master Perfumer has created a fragrance that’ll make Indian woman feel elegant and polished. In Shah Rukh Khan’s own words, “The fragrance of Lux reminds me of being happy and being in love.”   At the shoot, Shah Rukh Khan also said, “I’m happy to be associated with Lux yet again! The fragrance of Lux will captivate you just as it has made me ‘Bekaboo’. The fragrance of Lux that stands for love and sensuality brings out the lover in me.”   Katrina Kaif added, “Lux for me is a very special and iconic brand; it symbolizes beauty. When I think of Lux, I think of fun and spontaneity. Lux embodies a type of a woman rather than just soap and of course the fragrance that embodies sensuality. Lux’s amazing fragrance makes the whole experience of bathing fun!”   Product Definition Navratna: The most trusted brand in the category. Navratna is a force to recon with cool oil category. It commands a holding of 50% of Market Share of the cool oil market. Amazingly, it has a virtual monopoly in the southern states with a market share of 98 %. We do believe that Navratna will do wonders in the FMCG category in near future. Navratna:...

Words: 1778 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Week 4 Psy300

...development and personality paper on is Marilyn Monroe. I have always been very fascinated with Marilyn Monroe. She is an American icon but did not lead the life of glam and glory that she led people to believe. Inside she was a very troubled, sad and insecure woman. In this paper I am going to explore the personality and background of Marilyn Monroe from the viewpoint of developmental psychology. In my exploration of Marilyn Monroes’ background and how I can point out what impacted the young stars life from the viewpoint of developmental psychology I will focus on the influences of her heredity and environment. As well as what family and social support systems influenced Marilyn Monroes’ developmental growth and adjustments. I will also address two different theories of personality I have tied with Marilyn Monroe and lastly I will explain which theoretical approach I believe best explains Marilyns’ achievements and behaviors. I believe that the early childhood development, or should I say lack of played a key role in Marilyn Monroes’ life and her unhappiness. Marilyn Monroe, who was actually born Norma Jean Baker was born into a family that had a long line of mental illness. Marilyns’ great grandfather commited suicide, her uncle went on a run for errands one day only to never be seen again and her mother who had been married and divorced twice prior to Marilyn left her two eldest children to be cared for by neighbors. When Marilyn was only two weeks old her mother left...

Words: 1372 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

His145 Week 2 Matrix

...University of Phoenix Material Modern America Matrix Week 2 Week 2: 1960s Part One Kennedy’s Presidency From the following list, choose five events from the 1960s. Identify the basic facts, dates, and purpose of the event in 2 to 3 sentences in the Identify column. Include why the event is significant in the Significance column, and add a reference for your material in the Reference column. • Domestic Reforms • Tariff Reductions • Tax Cuts to Spur Growth • The Age of Camelot • The Peace Corps • Space Exploration • The Alliance for Progress • The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 • The Equal Pay Act of 1963 • Marilyn Monroe • Jacqueline Kennedy • JFK’s Assassination |Event |Identify |Significance |Reference | |Marilyn Monroe |She was a Movie Star and had an |At the Time she was involved Joe |http:www.illinois.edu | | |affair with JFK in 1961 and 1962, |Dimaggio and was also the biggest and | | | |also with Bobby Kennedy. Sang her |highest paid movie stars, she attracted| | | |Famous Happy Birthday song in 1962 |a lot of attention wherever she went | | |JFK Assassination |November 22, 1963 JFK was riding in a|He was arguably at the time the most |www...

Words: 388 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Andy Warhol

...This artwork is a series of fifty paintings of the trendy actress Marilyn Monroe, the reason I’ve chosen this image is because at first appearance it might seem like an easy piece of art to make, as it is just reproducing the same image of Marilyn, the one and only subject topic of the artwork, but looking deeper than just its visual features, its concealing many meanings behind its repetitions and the way colour tones have been used. It is a silk-screen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, formed by two panels, each 208.3 x 144.8 cm, one of the panels is coloured using six different colours for a dramatized and loud effect, and the other panel is in black and white, providing a severe contrast to the bright colours on the other panel. According to how heavily or thinly the screens were inked, some of them reproduce her facial features behind a black fade. In order to create its final coloured paintings, he would have built up the images in reverse. First he would have under painted the background and some of its colourful areas, like the pink face, the red lips and the golden hair, then over printed the silk-screened photographic image of the actress. It was constructed 4 months after Marilyn committed suicide in august 1962. Upon hearing the news of the stars passing, Andy Warhol began to construct a work of art in dedication to her, which some have come to believe represents the mortality of her glamorous life. It has been suggested that Andy Warhol wanted to touch...

Words: 352 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

My Life

...Get quotes daily Join Goodreads Quotes About Life Quotes tagged as "life" (showing 1-30 of 3,000) “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss tags: attributed-no-source, cry, crying, experience, happiness, joy, life, optimism, sadness, smile, smiling 132914 likes like “I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.” ― Marilyn Monroe tags: attributed-no-source, best, life, love, mistakes, out-of-control, truth, worst 115438 likes like “You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.” ― William W. Purkey tags: dance, heaven, hurt, inspirational, life, love, sing 89292 likes like “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” ― Mae West tags: humor, life 76368 likes like “In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.” ― Robert Frost tags: life 70442 likes like “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” ― Narcotics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous tags: humor, insanity, life, misattributed-albert-einstein 50112 likes like “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde tags: life ...

Words: 1221 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Shirley Temple Accomplishments

...Shirley Temple started her career at the age of four! How could anyone be able to work at the age of four? Shirley Temple Black was a famous entertainer, and later in life was a famous politician. Shirley began a career very young, pursuing her dream of being an actress and singer, and later becoming a politician. Shirley Temple, a famous child star in 1930’s who has made many popular movies before the age of ten. Shirley was born in Santa Monica, California on April 23, 1928. When she was three, her mother signed her into the Ethel Meglin Dance Studio. Even though it wasn’t the best in its time, they could tell little Shirley had a gift (Bankston 6). “Three year old Shirley was given a scene to play and told what to do. She was crazy about the whole performance, not a bit frightened, did everything they told her to do” (Bankston 9). Shirley Temple’s first job was to be in the series of shorts named,”Baby Burlesk” (Bankston 10). After many different shorts, Shirley’s first big role came. It was a Paramount film called, Little Miss Marker (Bankston 17). The New York Film Review called it “a nostalgic flight in times of stern realities” (Bankston 23). Later in Shirley’s life,On December 21, 1933, her parents signed a seven year contract with Fox studios, her wages were $150 a week (Bankston 14). In the middle of 1930’s, Shirley’s movies earned more than any other star. She was invited to attend the Academy Awards (Bankston 24). On December 16, 1950, Shirley Temple married Charles...

Words: 591 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Blue Collar Brilliance Analysis

...should be encouraged to become more intellectual by focusing on subjects that interest them. According to Graff, “...they would be more prone to take on intellectual identities if we encouraged them to do so at first on subjects that interest them rather than ones that interest us” (Graff 788). This idea is expanded upon through the use of Graff’s personal experience as an example. According to Graff, he grew up only caring about sports. He feels that had his education been more focused on the things that he enjoyed in his youth, he would have formed an intellectual identity earlier. He suggests that the time period in which he matured was ambivalent toward intelligence, using the divorce and subsequent marriage of Marilyn Monroe to establish his point. “When Marilyn Monroe married the playwright Arthur Miller in 1956 after divorcing the retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio, the symbolic triumph of geek over jock suggested the way the wind was blowing” (Graff 789). He also quotes Elvis to demonstrate the ambivalence, as Elvis did not give much thought to intellectual concerns, but did understand the importance of intelligence. In reference to the presidential election of 1956, Elvis stated, “I don’t dig the intellectual bit...But I’m telling you, man, he knows the most” (Graff 789). Graff also compares the intellectual world to those of school and sports. To show this comparison, he reveals “the real intellectual world, the one that existed in the big world beyond school, is organized...

Words: 843 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Willy's Delusions In Death Of A Salesman

...The only thing a salesman needs is a smile and shoeshine. For year Willy Loman lives a life of traveling and selling, but as his age increases his mental state declines. In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, we follow a delusional, suicidal man who is forced to face the harsh truth of his life. Throughout this play, Willy reimagines his life as he saw, but is really running from the truth with his delusions of grandeur. He believes he plays an important role in his job, his oldest son Biff is a prodigy, and that his is going to make it out alive. As readers watch Willy’s mental state unravel, his death is inevitable and unavoidable. The death of Willy Loman rests in the hands of his son Biff; once his true identity is revealed it’s too much for his father to bare. Biff is the apple of his father’s eyes, he was a football star, an aspiring salesman, and idolized his father. In many of Willy’s delusions we see him remembering the good old days of a young appreciative Biff; a Biff that did not run of to the west to be a farmer. Willy is at ease when he dreams up the past it is the only time in which stage directions, such as smiling and laughter take place, “laughs appreciatively: You better go down and tell them what to do, Biff” (Miller 34). To Willy his young son took charge and was going to great things, but once he reaches adulthood he runs off to the west to be a cowboy, which breaks his father’s heart and starts the delusions, “Go back to the West! Be carpenter, a cowboy...

Words: 945 - Pages: 4