Work on her last picture The Misfits (1961), written for her by departing husband Miller was interrupted by exhaustion. Two miscarriages and gynecological surgery followed. They went to England that fall where she made The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) with Laurence Olivier, fighting with him and falling further prey to alcohol and pills. True to form, she had no veil to match her beige wedding dress so she dyed one in coffee he wore one of the two suits he owned. Critics praised her transformation in Bus Stop (1956) and the press was stunned by her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller. She worked with director Lee Strasberg and also underwent psychoanalysis to learn more about herself. After The Seven Year Itch (1955), she wanted serious acting to replace the sexpot image and went to New York's Actors Studio. That same year, she married and divorced baseball great Joe DiMaggio (their wedding night was spent in Paso Robles, California). When she went to a supper honoring her in the The Seven Year Itch (1955), she arrived in a red chiffon gown borrowed from the studio (she had never owned a gown). Niagara (1953) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) launched her as a sex symbol superstar. Mankiewicz saw her in a small part in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and put her in All About Eve (1950), resulting in 20th Century re-signing her to a seven-year contract.
In 1948, Columbia gave her a six-month contract, turned her over to coach Natasha Lytess and featured her in the B movie Ladies of the Chorus (1948) in which she sang three numbers : "Every Baby Needs a Da Da Daddy", "Anyone Can Tell I Love You" and "The Ladies of the Chorus" with Adele Jergens (dubbed by Virginia Rees) and others. 20th Century Fox gave her a contract but let it lapse a year later. She owned 200 books (including Tolstoy, Whitman, Milton), listened to Beethoven records, studied acting at the Actors' lab in Hollywood, and took literature courses at UCLA downtown. At sixteen, she worked in an aircraft plant and married a man she called Daddy he went into the military, she modeled, they divorced in 1946. At nine, the LA Orphans' Home paid her a nickel a month for kitchen work while taking back a penny every Sunday for church. She was almost smothered to death at two, nearly raped at six. Her mother was a film-cutter at RKO Studios who, widowed and mentally ill, abandoned her to a sequence of foster homes. She owned 200 books (including Tolstoy, Whitman, Milton), listened to Beethoven records, studied Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on Jin Los Angeles, California.
Description: Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on Jin Los Angeles, California.