Notes

1953: Rising star
Monroe in Niagara. A close-up of her face and shoulders; she is wearing gold hoop earrings and a shocking pink top
Monroe in Niagara (1953), which dwelt on her sex appeal
Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She is wearing a shocking pink dress with matching gloves and diamond jewelry, and is surrounded by men in tuxedos
Monroe performing the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire. She is wearing an orange swimsuit and is seated next to Betty Grable, who is wearing shorts and a shirt, and Lauren Bacall, who is wearing a blue dress.
Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall in How to Marry a Millionaire, her biggest box office success of 1953
Monroe starred in three movies that were released in 1953 and emerged as a major sex symbol and one of Hollywood's most bankable performers.[113][114] The first was the Technicolor film noir Niagara, in which she played a femme fatale scheming to murder her husband, played by Joseph Cotten.[115] By then, Monroe and her make-up artist Allan "Whitey" Snyder had developed her "trademark" make-up look: dark arched brows, pale skin, "glistening" red lips and a beauty mark.[116] According to Sarah Churchwell, Niagara was one of the most overtly sexual films of Monroe's career.[101] In some scenes, Monroe's body was covered only by a sheet or a towel, considered shocking by contemporary audiences.[117] Niagara's most famous scene is a 30-second long shot behind Monroe where she is seen walking with her hips swaying, which was used heavily in the film's marketing.[117]

When Niagara was released in January 1953, women's clubs protested it as immoral, but it proved popular with audiences.[118] While Variety deemed it "clichéd" and "morbid", The New York Times commented that "the falls and Miss Monroe are something to see", as although Monroe may not be "the perfect actress at this point ... she can be seductive—even when she walks".[119][120] Monroe continued to attract attention by wearing revealing outfits, most famously at the Photoplay awards in January 1953, where she won the "Fastest Rising Star" award.[121] A pleated "sunburst" waist-tight, deep decolleté gold lamé dress designed by William Travilla for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but barely seen at all in the film, was to become a sensation.[122] Prompted by such imagery, veteran star Joan Crawford publicly called the behavior "unbecoming an actress and a lady".[121]

While Niagara made Monroe a sex symbol and established her "look", her second film of 1953, the satirical musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, cemented her screen persona as a "dumb blonde".[123] Based on Anita Loos' novel and its Broadway version, the film focuses on two "gold-digging" showgirls played by Monroe and Jane Russell. Monroe's role was originally intended for Betty Grable, who had been 20th Century-Fox's most popular "blonde bombshell" in the 1940s; Monroe was fast eclipsing her as a star who could appeal to both male and female audiences.[124]

As part of the film's publicity campaign, she and Russell pressed their hand and footprints in wet concrete outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in June.[125] Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released shortly after and became one of the biggest box office successes of the year.[126] Crowther of The New York Times and William Brogdon of Variety both commented favorably on Monroe, especially noting her performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"; according to the latter, she demonstrated the "ability to sex a song as well as point up the eye values of a scene by her presence".[127][128]

In September, Monroe made her television debut in the Jack Benny Show, playing Jack's fantasy woman in the episode "Honolulu Trip".[129] She co-starred with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall in her third movie of the year, How to Marry a Millionaire, released in November. It featured Monroe as a naïve model who teams up with her friends to find rich husbands, repeating the successful formula of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It was the second film ever released in CinemaScope, a widescreen format that Fox hoped would draw audiences back to theaters as television was beginning to cause losses to film studios.[130] Despite mixed reviews, the film was Monroe's biggest box office success at that point in her career.[131]

Monroe was listed in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll in both 1953 and 1954,[114] and according to Fox historian Aubrey Solomon became the studio's "greatest asset" alongside CinemaScope.[132] Monroe's position as a leading sex symbol was confirmed in December 1953, when Hugh Hefner featured her on the cover and as centerfold in the first issue of Playboy; Monroe did not consent to the publication.[133] The cover image was a photograph taken of her at the Miss America Pageant parade in 1952, and the centerfold featured one of her 1949 nude photographs.[133]

1954–1955: Conflicts with 20th Century-Fox and marriage to Joe DiMaggio
Monroe had become one of 20th Century-Fox's biggest stars, but her contract had not changed since 1950, meaning that she was paid far less than other stars of her stature and could not choose her projects.[134] Her attempts to appear in films that would not focus on her as a pin-up had been thwarted by the studio head executive, Darryll F. Zanuck, who had a strong personal dislike of her and did not think she would earn the studio as much revenue in other types of roles.[135] Under pressure from the studio's owner, Spyros Skouras, Zanuck had also decided that Fox should focus exclusively on entertainment to maximize profits and canceled the production of any 'serious films'.[136] In January 1954, he suspended Monroe when she refused to begin shooting yet another musical comedy, The Girl in Pink Tights.[137]

Close-up of Monroe and DiMaggio kissing; she is wearing a dark suit with a white fur-collar and he a dark suit.
Monroe and Joe DiMaggio after getting married at San Francisco City Hall in January 1954
This was front-page news, and Monroe immediately took action to counter negative publicity. On January 14, she and Joe DiMaggio were married at the San Francisco City Hall.[138] They then traveled to Japan, combining a honeymoon with his business trip.[139] From Tokyo, she traveled alone to Korea, where she participated in a USO show, singing songs from her films for over 60,000 U.S. Marines over a four-day period.[140] After returning to the U.S., she was awarded Photoplay's "Most Popular Female Star" prize.[141] Monroe settled with Fox in March, with the promise of a new contract, a bonus of $100,000, and a starring role in the film adaptation of the Broadway success The Seven Year Itch.[142]

In April 1954, Otto Preminger's western River of No Return, the last film that Monroe had filmed prior to the suspension, was released. She called it a "Z-grade cowboy movie in which the acting finished second to the scenery and the CinemaScope process", but it was popular with audiences.[143] The first film she made after the suspension was the musical There's No Business Like Show Business, which she strongly disliked but the studio required her to do for dropping The Girl in Pink Tights.[142] It was unsuccessful upon its release in late 1954, with Monroe's performance considered vulgar by many critics.[144]

Monroe is posing for photographers, wearing a white halterneck dress, which hem is blown up by air from a subway grate on which she is standing.
Monroe posing for photographers in The Seven Year Itch (1955)
In September 1954, Monroe began filming Billy Wilder's comedy The Seven Year Itch, starring opposite Tom Ewell as a woman who becomes the object of her married neighbor's sexual fantasies. Although the film was shot in Hollywood, the studio decided to generate advance publicity by staging the filming of a scene in which Monroe is standing on a subway grate with the air blowing up the skirt of her white dress on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.[145] The shoot lasted for several hours and attracted nearly 2,000 spectators.[145] The "subway grate scene" became one of Monroe's most famous and The Seven Year Itch became one of the biggest commercial successes of the year after its release in June 1955.[146]

The publicity stunt placed Monroe on international front pages, and it also marked the end of her marriage to DiMaggio, who was infuriated by it.[147] The union had been troubled from the start by his jealousy and controlling attitude; he was also physically abusive.[148] After returning from NYC to Hollywood in October 1954, Monroe filed for divorce, after only nine months of marriage.[149]

After filming for The Seven Year Itch wrapped up in November 1954, Monroe left Hollywood for the East Coast, where she and photographer Milton Greene founded their own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP)—an action that has later been called "instrumental" in the collapse of the studio system.[150][h] Monroe stated that she was "tired of the same old sex roles" and asserted that she was no longer under contract to Fox, as it had not fulfilled its duties, such as paying her the promised bonus.[152] This began a year-long legal battle between her and Fox in January 1955.[153] The press largely ridiculed Monroe and she was parodied in the Broadway play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955), in which her lookalike Jayne Mansfield played a dumb actress who starts her own production company.[154]

Monroe, who is wearing a skirt, blouse and jacket, standing below a sign for the Actors Studio looking up towards it
Monroe at the Actors Studio in 1961
After founding MMP, Monroe moved to Manhattan and spent 1955 studying acting. She took classes with Constance Collier and attended workshops on method acting at the Actors Studio, run by Lee Strasberg.[155] She grew close to Strasberg and his wife Paula, receiving private lessons at their home due to her shyness, and soon became a family member.[156] She replaced her old acting coach, Natasha Lytess, with Paula; the Strasbergs remained an important influence for the rest of her career.[157] Monroe also started undergoing psychoanalysis, as Strasberg believed that an actor must confront their emotional traumas and use them in their performances.[158][i]

Monroe continued her relationship with DiMaggio despite the ongoing divorce process; she also dated actor Marlon Brando and playwright Arthur Miller.[160] She had first been introduced to Miller by Elia Kazan in the early 1950s.[160] The affair between Monroe and Miller became increasingly serious after October 1955, when her divorce was finalized and he separated from his wife.[161] The studio urged her to end it, as Miller was being investigated by the FBI for allegations of communism and had been subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, but Monroe refused.[162] The relationship led to FBI opening a file on her.[161]

By the end of the year, Monroe and Fox signed a new seven-year contract, as MMP would not be able to finance films alone, and the studio was eager to have Monroe working for them again.[153] Fox would pay her $400,000 to make four films, and granted her the right to choose her own projects, directors and cinematographers.[163] She would also be free to make one film with MMP per each completed film for Fox.[163]

1956–1959: Critical acclaim and marriage to Arthur Miller
Cropped photo of Monroe and Miller cutting the cake at their wedding. Her veil is lifted from her face and he is wearing a white shirt with a dark tie.
Monroe and Arthur Miller at their wedding in June 1956
Monroe began 1956 by announcing her win over 20th Century-Fox.[164] The press now wrote favorably about her decision to fight the studio; Time called her a "shrewd businesswoman"[165] and Look predicted that the win would be "an example of the individual against the herd for years to come".[164] In contrast, Monroe's relationship with Miller prompted some negative comments, such as Walter Winchell's statement that "America's best-known blonde moving picture star is now the darling of the left-wing intelligentsia."[166]

In March, Monroe began filming the drama Bus Stop, her first film under the new contract.[167] She played Chérie, a saloon singer whose dreams of stardom are complicated by a naïve cowboy who falls in love with her. For the role, she learned an Ozark accent, chose costumes and make-up that lacked the glamour of her earlier films, and provided deliberately mediocre singing and dancing.[168] Broadway director Joshua Logan agreed to direct, despite initially doubting her acting abilities and knowing of her reputation for being difficult.[169]

The filming took place in Idaho and Arizona, with Monroe "technically in charge" as the head of MMP, occasionally making decisions on cinematography and with Logan adapting to her chronic lateness and perfectionism.[170] The experience changed Logan's opinion of Monroe, and he later compared her to Charlie Chaplin in her ability to blend comedy and tragedy.[171]

Monroe and Don Murray in Bus Stop. She is wearing a ragged coat and a small hat tied with ribbons and is having an argument with Murray, who is wearing jeans, a denim jacket and a cowboy hat.
Monroe's dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) marked a departure from her earlier comedies.
On June 29, Monroe and Miller were married at the Westchester County Court in White Plains, New York; two days later they had a Jewish ceremony at the home of Kay Brown, Miller's literary agent, in Waccabuc, New York.[172][173] With the marriage, Monroe converted to Judaism, which led Egypt to ban all of her films.[174][j] Due to Monroe's status as a sex symbol and Miller's image as an intellectual, the media saw the union as a mismatch, as evidenced by Variety's headline, "Egghead Weds Hourglass".[176]

Bus Stop was released in August 1956 and became critical and commercial success.[177] The Saturday Review of Literature wrote that Monroe's performance "effectively dispels once and for all the notion that she is merely a glamour personality" and Crowther proclaimed: "Hold on to your chairs, everybody, and get set for a rattling surprise. Marilyn Monroe has finally proved herself an actress."[178] She also received a Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination for her performance.[84]

In August, Monroe also began filming MMP's first independent production, The Prince and the Showgirl, at Pinewood Studios in England.[179] Based on a 1953 stage play by Terence Rattigan, it was to be directed and co-produced by, and to co-star, Laurence Olivier.[165] The production was complicated by conflicts between him and Monroe.[180] Olivier, who had also directed and starred in the stage play, angered her with the patronizing statement "All you have to do is be sexy", and with his demand she replicate Vivien Leigh's stage interpretation of the character.[181] He also disliked the constant presence of Paula Strasberg, Monroe's acting coach, on set.[182] In retaliation, Monroe became uncooperative and began to deliberately arrive late, stating later that "if you don't respect your artists, they can't work well."[180]


Olivier and Monroe
Monroe also experienced other problems during the production. Her dependence on pharmaceuticals escalated and, according to Spoto, she had a miscarriage.[183] She and Greene also argued over how MMP should be run.[183] Despite the difficulties, filming was completed on schedule by the end of 1956.[184] The Prince and the Showgirl was released to mixed reviews in June 1957 and proved unpopular with American audiences.[185] It was better received in Europe, where she was awarded the Italian David di Donatello and the French Crystal Star awards and was nominated for a BAFTA.[186]

After returning from England, Monroe took an 18-month hiatus to concentrate on family life. She and Miller split their time between NYC, Connecticut and Long Island.[187] She had an ectopic pregnancy in mid-1957, and a miscarriage a year later;[188] these problems were most likely linked to her endometriosis.[189][k] Monroe was also briefly hospitalized due to a barbiturate overdose.[192] As she and Greene could not settle their disagreements over MMP, Monroe bought his share of the company.[193]

A ukulele-playing Monroe with a cross-dressing Lemmon in the bass and Curtis in the saxophone. There are also three other women playing different instruments.
Monroe with Lemmon and Curtis in Some Like It Hot (1959), for which she won a Golden Globe
Monroe returned to Hollywood in July 1958 to act opposite Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Billy Wilder's comedy on gender roles, Some Like It Hot.[194] She considered the role of Sugar Kane another "dumb blonde", but accepted it due to Miller's encouragement and the offer of ten percent of the film's profits on top of her standard pay.[195] The film's difficult production has since become "legendary".[196] Monroe demanded dozens of re-takes, and did not remember her lines or act as directed—Curtis famously stated that kissing her was "like kissing Hitler" due to the number of re-takes.[197]

Monroe herself privately likened the production to a sinking ship and commented on her co-stars and director saying "[but] why should I worry, I have no phallic symbol to lose."[198] Many of the problems stemmed from her and Wilder—who also had a reputation for being difficult—disagreeing on how she should play the role.[199] She angered him by asking to alter many of her scenes, which in turn made her stage fright worse, and it is suggested that she deliberately ruined several scenes to act them her way.[199]

In the end, Wilder was happy with Monroe's performance and stated: "Anyone can remember lines, but it takes a real artist to come on the set and not know her lines and yet give the performance she did!"[200] Some Like It Hot became a critical and commercial success when it was released in March 1959.[201] Monroe's performance earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and prompted Variety to call her "a comedienne with that combination of sex appeal and timing that just can't be beat".[186][202] It has been voted one of the best films ever made in polls by the BBC,[203] the American Film Institute,[204] and Sight & Sound.[205]

1960–1962: Career decline and personal difficulties
Monroe and Montand standing next to a piano in a studio-type setting and looking at sheet music.
Monroe with Yves Montand in Let's Make Love (1960), which she agreed to make only to fulfill her contract with Fox
After Some Like It Hot, Monroe took another hiatus until late 1959, when she starred in the musical comedy Let's Make Love.[206] She chose George Cukor to direct and Miller re-wrote some of the script, which she considered weak. She accepted the part solely because she was behind on her contract with Fox.[207] The film's production was delayed by her frequent absences from the set.[206] During the shoot, Monroe had an extramarital affair with her co-star Yves Montand, which was widely reported by the press and used in the film's publicity campaign.[208]

Let's Make Love was unsuccessful upon its release in September 1960.[209] Crowther described Monroe as appearing "rather untidy" and "lacking ... the old Monroe dynamism",[210] and Hedda Hopper called the film "the most vulgar picture [Monroe's] ever done".[211] Truman Capote lobbied for Monroe to play Holly Golightly in a film adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's, but the role went to Audrey Hepburn as its producers feared that she would complicate the production.[212]

The last film that Monroe completed was John Huston's The Misfits, which Miller had written to provide her with a dramatic role.[213] She played a recently divorced woman who becomes friends with three aging cowboys, played by Clark Gable, Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift. The filming in the Nevada desert between July and November 1960 was again difficult.[214] Monroe and Miller's marriage was effectively over, and he began a new relationship with set photographer Inge Morath.[213]

Monroe holding a hat and standing in the middle of a crowd of people, facing the camera. On her right is Gable and on her left, Winwood. There is a sign that says 'BAR' in the background.
Monroe, Estelle Winwood, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift, and Clark Gable in The Misfits (1961). It was the last completed film for Monroe and Gable, who both died within two years.
Monroe disliked that he had based her role partly on her life, and thought it inferior to the male roles. She also struggled with Miller's habit of re-writing scenes the night before filming.[215] Her health was also failing: she was in pain from gallstones, and her drug addiction was so severe that her make-up usually had to be applied while she was still asleep under the influence of barbiturates.[216] In August, filming was halted for her to spend a week in a hospital detox.[216] Despite her problems, Huston stated that when Monroe was acting, she "was not pretending to an emotion. It was the real thing. She would go deep down within herself and find it and bring it up into consciousness."[217]

Monroe and Miller separated after filming wrapped, and she obtained a Mexican divorce in January 1961.[218] The Misfits was released the following month, failing at the box office.[219] Its reviews were mixed,[219] with Variety complaining of frequently "choppy" character development,[220] and Bosley Crowther calling Monroe "completely blank and unfathomable" and stating that "unfortunately for the film's structure, everything turns upon her".[221] It has received more favorable reviews in the twenty-first century. Geoff Andrew of the British Film Institute has called it a classic,[222] Huston scholar Tony Tracy has described Monroe's performance the "most mature interpretation of her career",[223] and Geoffrey McNab of The Independent has praised her for being "extraordinary" in portraying the character's "power of empathy".[224]

Monroe was next to star in a television adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's Rain for NBC, but the project fell through as the network did not want to hire her choice of director, Lee Strasberg.[225] Instead of working, she spent the first six months of 1961 preoccupied by health problems. She underwent a cholecystectomy and surgery for her endometriosis, and spent four weeks hospitalized for depression.[226][l] She was helped by ex-husband Joe DiMaggio, with whom she rekindled a friendship, and dated his friend, Frank Sinatra, for several months.[228] Monroe also moved permanently back to California in 1961, purchasing a house at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles in early 1962.[229]

Monroe wearing a form-fitting white dress with flowers and an open back. She is standing and smiling over her shoulder at the camera.
Monroe on the set of Something's Got to Give. She was absent for most of the production due to illness and was fired by Fox in June 1962, two months before her death.
Monroe returned to the public eye in the spring of 1962. She received a "World Film Favorite" Golden Globe Award and began to shoot a film for Fox, Something's Got to Give, a remake of My Favorite Wife (1940).[230] It was to be co-produced by MMP, directed by George Cukor and to co-star Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse.[231] Days before filming began, Monroe caught sinusitis. Despite medical advice to postpone the production, Fox began it as planned in late April.[232]

Monroe was too sick to work for the majority of the next six weeks, but despite confirmations by multiple doctors, the studio pressured her by alleging publicly that she was faking it.[232] On May 19, she took a break to sing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" on stage at President John F. Kennedy's early birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York.[233] She drew attention with her costume: a beige, skintight dress covered in rhinestones, which made her appear nude.[233][m] Monroe's trip to New York caused even more irritation for Fox executives, who had wanted her to cancel it.[235]

Monroe next filmed a scene for Something's Got to Give in which she swam naked in a swimming pool.[236] To generate advance publicity, the press was invited to take photographs; these were later published in Life. This was the first time that a major star had posed nude at the height of their career.[237] When she was again on sick leave for several days, Fox decided that it could not afford to have another film running behind schedule when it was already struggling with the rising costs of Cleopatra (1963).[238] On June 7, Fox fired Monroe and sued her for $750,000 in damages.[239] She was replaced by Lee Remick, but after Martin refused to make the film with anyone other than Monroe, Fox sued him as well and shut down the production.[240] The studio blamed Monroe for the film's demise and began spreading negative publicity about her, even alleging that she was mentally disturbed.[239]

Fox soon regretted its decision and re-opened negotiations with Monroe later in June; a settlement about a new contract, including re-commencing Something's Got to Give and a starring role in the black comedy What a Way to Go! (1964), was reached later that summer.[241] She was also planning on starring in a biopic of Jean Harlow.[242] To repair her public image, Monroe engaged in several publicity ventures, including interviews for Life and Cosmopolitan and her first photo shoot for Vogue.[243] For Vogue, she and photographer Bert Stern collaborated for two series of photographs, one a standard fashion editorial and another of her posing nude, which were published posthumously with the title The Last Sitting.[244]