Perhaps the name Norma Jeane Baker does not sound in your head, but just by saying Marilyn, we already draw the figure of the blonde American actress, model, and singer, one of the most popular of the 20th century, who is considered a sexual symbol and became an all-time pop icon.
The truth is that the beautiful actress had a short but fascinating life that immortalized her in the imagination of American cinema and that today inspires thousands of young artists who long to remain in history like her.
Yet her childhood dramas, divorces, and addictions are what truly made Marilyn a legend. Not even the best screenwriter in Hollywood would have imagined a more tragic ending for its protagonist: a death disguised as a suicide in which no one was missing, not even the CIA or the Kennedy family.
A life marked by pain: Marilyn Monroe
The young Norma was the daughter of a single woman who could never raise her since she suffered from a psychiatric illness that forever removed her from her maternal role, which is why she grew up in adoptive families.
It is precisely in one of them that she was abused in her puberty, this being the first of many events that would remind her of how unfair life can be for someone who, no matter how beautiful she is, grows up alone. So it was that in the context of the time, he thought that his only way out of that suffering was to get married, and he did it for the first time.
Thus, in 1945, at the age of 16, Marilyn married James Dougherty, a young sailor whom the war removed from her life, and it was here that Norma began her work as a model, and then gradually got to know the cinema.
After several photographic productions that included nudes for the first covers of Playboy, Marilyn began her work with 20th Century Fox, a company with which she had a love-hate relationship for several decades.
“The movies or me,” said her husband when he returned from the war, and the actress did not hesitate to respond, as ambition was gaining ground in her life. Soon after, she married the athlete Joe DiMaggio , to whom many authors attribute the title of having been “the only man who truly loved her”, although sick jealousy ended up destroying their relationship: he did not tolerate that his wife was so desired.
The memorable scene of the white dress on the racks of the New York subway filled their patience and they separated within a few months of getting married. At this point, the divorce was a national scandal for being the most popular actress in Hollybood, and because of the pressure, Marilyn remarried for the last time soon after to the screenwriter Arthur Miller, with whom she married in love and convinced that now she does. He had found the love of his life and the father of his children, but it could not be. After a miscarriage, Marilyn began to be, in everyone’s eyes, “the saddest woman in the world.”
Marilyn Monroe’s relationship with Kennedy
However, the end of the actress began to take shape when she began an affair with the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy , which would end up destroying her.
The relationship became an obsession for her, to the point of leaving everything behind, even the cinema, as when she decided to escape from the filming of Something’s got to give to sing a sensual “happy birthday” to Kennedy, a scene that went down in film history and politics.
That night at the Carlyle Hotel in New York would be the last they would both share, as the president’s brother-in-law announced that it was the last time they could see each other and humiliated her. Three months after this, Marilyn Monroe was found half-naked and lifeless in her bed at home, and to this day, her death is shrouded in a mystery that perhaps no one can solve.
The controversial autopsy determined that he had died from a barbiturate overdose (they found more than 40 pills in his stomach) and spoke of a “probable suicide” that has not yet been clarified today . It later emerged that the CIA had been investigating her for months, and when the police arrived at her home, the sheets were impeccable.
That August 1962 was marked as the tragic month in which the life of the most famous actress of Hollybood had been taken, despite her decline, and also because in that same week of her death in New York City, 12 suicides in a single day.
Marilyn Monroe’s influence
“Minnie”, as some close associates nicknamed her, was a star that millions of people fell in love with throughout her life and even became even more popular after her death.
Thus he became a legend, which to this day inspires great artists who imitate his image and pay tribute to him.
Along this path, the Netflix platform announced its adaptation of Blonde, the acclaimed novel of the same name, written by Joyce Carol Oates and directed by Andrew Dominik, and the one chosen to play the blonde was Ana de Armas, the Cuban actress, wife of actor Ben Affleck.
“I cried. It was something really important to me,” the actress acknowledged in an interview published in Allure magazine. “It was a very important role for me, a great challenge, something that I was preparing for a long time and finally sitting in the chair and putting on the wig and makeup … it was very special. I completely transformed. One of the most beautiful things about my job, I think, is seeing how you become another person. ”
The film, which is in post-production and will hit theaters in August 2021, chronicles the life of Marilyn Monroe from its inception to consolidation as one of the proper names of the 20th century. A complicated path, with addictions and serious mental problems , which will also feature Brad Pitt as one of its producers and Adrien Brody as a co-star.
