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born as Norma Jeane Mortensen, whom later changed her name to Marilyn Monroe
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At the age of 12 weeks old Marilyn's mother was unable to continue to take care of her, therefore her mother paied five dollars a week for her close personal friend to keep Marilyn
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On September 13, 1935 Marilyn was taken to the Los Angeles Orphans Home Society
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During the Depression, couples who took in foster children got money from the state, the arrangement did not encourage the best of motivations for helping out parentless children. During her years in foster care at one point Marilyn was rapped, and when she said anything to the foster mother she slapped Norma Jeane, shouting, "I don't believe you. Don't you dare say such things about that nice man."
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She wed her boyfriend Jimmy Dougherty on June 19, 1942, at the age of 16. By that time, Monroe had dropped out of high school (age 15).
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Dougherty was later sent to the South Pacific. Monroe went to work in a munitions factory in Burbank, California, she was then discovered by a photographer. By the time Dougherty returned in 1946, Monroe had a successful career as a model, and had changed her name to Marilyn Monroe in hope for an acting career.
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The couple divorced in 1946
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Her small part in John Huston's crime drama The Asphalt Jungle (1950) garnered her a lot of attention. That same year, she impressed audiences and critics alike with her performance as Claudia Caswell in All About Eve, starring Bette Davis. She would soon become the center of alot of gossip with her relationship with Sir Laurence Olivier in 1957's The Prince and the Showgirl.
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1953, Monroe made a star-making turn in Niagara
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The emerging sex symbol was paired with another bombshell, Jane Russell, for the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
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How to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, There's No Business like Show Business with Ethel Merman and Donald O'Connor
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Her 1954 marriage to baseball great Joe DiMaggio only lasted nine months
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The Seven Year Itch
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Bus Stop playing a saloon singer kidnapped by a rancher who has fallen in love with her.
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she wed playwright Arthur Miller from 1956 to 1961
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Some Like It Hot, with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.
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Monroe starred opposite Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift in The Misfits
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The Misfits was the last movie fully made by Monroe. In 1962, Monroe was dismissed from Something's Got to Give also starring Dean Martin for missing so many days of filming.
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On August 5, 1962, at only 36 years old, Marilyn Monroe died at her Los Angeles home. An empty bottle of sleeping pills was found by her bed.
