Marilyn Monroe

Norma Jean Baker was born on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles. Her mother, Gladys Monroe Baker, named the girl after the then popular actress Norma Tolmadge. Gladys named Martin Mortenson as her father, but they had separated by then, and this paternity is questionable. At the age of two weeks, Norma was placed in foster care, where she lived for six years.

On June 19, 1942, Norma married Jim Daugherty, after which she dropped out of school and settled with him. A year after they married, he joined the merchant navy and Norma Jean went to work in an aircraft factory. Some time later she left the factory to pursue a career as a model. In late 1944, while Norma Jean was working at Radio Plain, an Army photographer showed up there to photograph women doing war work for a magazine to boost soldiers' morale. He offered to pose for her for $5 an hour, and Norma Jeane agreed. In 1988, "Penthouse" magazine published a sensational story that was found a film with erotic content, shot in 1944, with the participation of Norma. Subsequently, however, experts concluded that the girl on the tape, called "Strip and a bottle of Coca-Cola," was not Marilyn. The actress later admitted that she made money as a "call girl" at the beginning of her time in Hollywood. On Christmas Eve 1945 Daugherty said she had to choose one thing: to shoot for magazines or be his wife. On September 13, 1946, they divorced.

In August 1946, she was promised a contract at the studio "Twentieth Century Fox," where she was taken statistician. The studio and gave her the name by which she later became famous - Marilyn Monroe. The last name Monroe belonged to her grandmother.

In October 1948, released the film "Choristers", created by the studio "Columbia Pictures. It was the first film in which Marilyn spoke and sang. It was very bad, but her voice was highly acclaimed.

Soon Marilyn receives a seven-year contract with the studio "Twentieth Century Fox," and participate in the film "The Asphalt Jungle" in the title role. The teacher of dramatic art actress becomes famous in Hollywood emigrant from Germany (nevertheless known to all as a native of Russia) Natasha Leytess. The film was released in the summer of 1950 and was the birth of Marilyn as a movie actress. After that, she starred in several films in minor roles. Since things were very bad, Marilyn began to pose for calendars in the nude. But after a while a scandal broke out when someone saw a resemblance between the girl on the calendar and the famous actress. Around the same time Marilyn begins to use tranquilizers, prescribed at the time, studio doctors to all popular actors, which usually lead to their addiction.

In January 1954, she married baseball star Joe DiMaggio. This marriage lasted only nine months.

In March 1954, Marilyn received the "Most Popular Actress" award.

After her marriage to Di Maggio, the film studio "Twentieth Century Fox" invited her to star in the musical "There is no better business than show business.

In January 1955 Marilyn announced the creation of its own corporation, "Marilyn Monroe Productions," in which she was president and majority owner.

Even in 1950 Marilyn met with the playwright Arthur Miller, but then they broke up and met again in 1955. By that time he was divorced, and from an earlier marriage he had two children. In the summer of 1956, they were married. This marriage was the longest: they lived together for four and a half years and divorced on Jan. 20, 1961.

In 1951, Marilyn met John F. Kennedy, who later became president of the United States. From 1954 they entered into a love affair and were close until 1960. According to Robert Slatzer, who claims that he was Marilyn's secret spouse and confidant, all this time she kept a diary in which she recorded excerpts of conversations with John Kennedy. During his conversations with his friends, John would discuss political problems or explain this or that decision made by the government. Naturally, these conversations were not intended for the general public, but were an integral part of life. The diary may have contained compromising information about both the president and the politics of the country as a whole. The diary mysteriously disappeared after Marilyn's death. Meanwhile, those close to Marilyn claim that the only thing that unites Marilyn and Slatzer - photo, taken at the request of Slatzer, a member of the tour group, went to see the Niagara Falls, during the filming of "Niagara", in which, at the request of Slatzer, the actress was shot with him in his arms. This picture - the only thing that can show Slatzer in confirmation of his acquaintance with Marilyn, and therefore obtained from it is unlikely to be reliable.

Marilyn Monroe died August 4, 1962 in Brentwood (California) at the age of 36 years from a lethal dose of sleeping pills. There are five versions of the cause of her death:

* murder committed by the secret service at the behest of the Kennedy brothers to avoid publicity about their sexual affairs; * murder committed by the mob; * drug overdose;* suicide; * tragic mistake by the actress's psychoanalyst, Ralph Greenson, who ordered the patient to take chloral hydrate shortly after taking Nembutal.

What the true cause was is not known to this day.