Marilyn Monroe

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson on the 1st of June 1926 in Los Angeles California. Later baptised Norma Jeane Baker. Signed first studio contract with 20th Century Fox on the 26th August 1946 and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.

For a detailed biography visit the official Marilyn Monroe website.

Official Marilyn Monroe Website

          

          

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

A career is wonderful thing, but you can't snuggle up to it on a cold night.

I love to do the things the censors won't pass.

It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.

A career is born in public - talent in privacy.

The BBC

'On This Day' feature, includes a video of director John Huston talking about Marilyn.

On This Day: 5th August 1962

Elton John Lyrics: Candle in The Wind



Goodbye Norma Jean
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself
While those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork
And they whispered into your brain
They set you on the treadmill
And they made you change your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did

Loneliness was tough
The toughest role you ever played
Hollywood created a superstar
And pain was the price you paid
Even when you died
Oh the press still hounded you
All the papers had to say
Was that Marilyn was found in the nude

Goodbye Norma Jean
From the young man in the 22nd row
Who sees you as something as more than sexual
More than just our Marilyn Monroe

Clark Gable:



Marilyn is a kind of ultimate. She is uniquely feminine. Everything she does is different, strange, and exciting, from the way she talks to the way she uses that magnificent torso. She makes a man proud to be a man.

Joshua Logan, director of Bus Stop:



Marilyn is as near a genius as any actress I ever knew. She is an artist beyond artistry. She is the most completely realized and authentic film actress since Garbo. She has that same unfathomable mysteriousness. She is pure cinema.

Sir Laurence Olivier:



She is a brilliant comedienne, which to me means she also is an extremely skilled actress.

Life Magazine:



Her death has diminished the loveliness of the world in which we live.