Marilyn Monroe Newsletter
Sign-up to receive daily news on Marilyn Monroe by email.
Marilyn Monroe Filmography
Source:
Theiapolis
Marilyn Monroe Resources
Table of Content
Marilyn Monroe: Fame
She posed nude for photographer Tom Kelley on May 27, 1949, and was paid $50. The model of the Miss Golden Dreams calendar from that shoot was billed as "anonymous." In 1952, a blackmailer threatened to reveal her as Marilyn, but she thwarted the scheme by announcing the fact herself. When asked why she did it, she said, "I was hungry" (in
My Story, she said she did it to get her car out of hock).
Hugh Hefner bought the rights to use the photo for the first issue of his new men's magazine, Playboy; although the term had not yet been coined, Monroe is considered to be the magazine's first "Playmate".
A dying Hyde repeatedly asked Marilyn to marry him, assuring her that she would be a rich widow. But she refused. She loved him, she explained in
My Story, but was not in love with him. According to Donald Spoto's biography, she renewed contact with producer and "party circuit" host Joseph Schenck, ignoring Hyde for weeks at a time. When Hyde suffered a fatal heart attack in Palm Springs on December 18, 1950, Marilyn, who had refused to join him, blamed herself for his death. His family threw her out of his Beverly Hills estate. The day after his funeral, she attempted suicide.
By late 1951, Fox was convinced of her potential and gave her a big buildup. Though she was the biggest star in the world by 1954 (with films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, and There's No Business Like Show Business), she tired of the dumb blonde roles
Darryl F. Zanuck assigned her. She broke her contract and went to New York to study acting at The Actor's Studio; she formed her own production company with photographer Milton H. Greene, in which the first venue was Marilyn's blockbuster hit The Seven Year Itch. These moves were met with both success and failure with the movie industry (Marilyn's next film under her production company, The Prince and the Showgirl, flopped). Yet, when
Jayne Mansfield,
Mamie Van Doren, and Sheree North failed to click with audiences, Zanuck finally admitted defeat, but most of Mansfield, Van Doren, and North's roles were originally meant for Monroe, but Marilyn turned them down due to fear of typecasting (so the studio put her on suspension). Her new contract gave her more creative control and the right to make one movie a year; the first project under the deal was Bus Stop. Her co-stars during these years included
Cary Grant,
Clark Gable,
Laurence Olivier,
Joseph Cotten,
Richard Widmark,
Jane Russell,
Lauren Bacall,
Ethel Merman,
Charles Laughton,
Tony Curtis, and Yves Montand (with whom she had an affair during the filming of Let's Make Love).
<<
Start of career -
Marriages >>
Table of Content
Latest Film News
Latest news on Marilyn Monroe
NewsAndy Warhol Would Have Loved Sarah Palin -- the Ultimate Soup Can
What Warhol did with Mao Zedong and Marilyn Monroe is precisely what the Republican Party has done with Sarah Palin.
Published: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:00:01 GMT - Source: Alternet.Org - Read the articleEuropeRare 1950s Monroe footage surfaces
Multimedia: Watch amateur film of Marilyn Monroe on the set of Some Like it Hot
Published: Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:36:23 GMT - Source: Guardian.Co.Uk - Read the articleNews}'Hot' Monroe footage goes up for sale in Australia
Amateur footage featuring Marilyn Monroe on the set of Some Like It Hot is put up for auction in Australia.
Published: Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:10:30 GMT - Source: News.Bbc.Co.Uk - Read the article
Sign-up to receive daily news on Marilyn Monroe by email. See Also:
