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Marilyn Monroe (born June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer. Known for playing the “blonde bombshell” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s and symbolizes the changing attitude of that era towards sexuality. She was the top-rated actress for only a decade, but her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2019) until her death in 1962. Long after her death, she continued to be the major icon of pop culture.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage and married at 16. She was working in a factory as part of a WWII effort when she met a photographer from the First Picture Unit and began a successful modeling career, leading to short-term filming contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. After a series of supporting film roles, she signed a new contract with Fox in the late 1950s. Over the next two years, she became a popular actress, appearing in several comedies, including As Young As You Feel, and Monkey Business, as well as dramas Clash by Night and Don’t Bother to Knock. She faced scandal when it was revealed that she posed for nude photos before becoming a star, but the story did not hurt her career, but instead led to an increased interest in her films.

Until 1953, Monroe was one of the best-selling stars in Hollywood; she starred in the film Niagara, which focused on her sex appeal, and in the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which created their stellar “dumb blonde” image. In the same year, her nude images became the centerpiece of the cover of the first issue of Playboy. She played a significant role in creating and managing her public image throughout her career, but was disappointed when she was typecast and underpaid by the studio. In early 1954, she was suspended from a film project, but returned to a role in the movie “The Seven Year Itch” (1955), which became one of the biggest box office successes of her career.

When the studio was still reluctant to change Monroe’s contract, in 1954 she founded her own film production company. In 1955, she devoted herself to creating a troupe and began to study the method while acting in an acting studio. Later that year, Fox awarded her a new contract, which gave her more control and a larger salary. She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959), which was a critical and commercially successful. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961).

Monroe’s troubled personal life received a lot of attention. She fights with addiction, depression and anxiety. Her marriage to retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller was highly publicized and both ended in divorce. On August 4, 1962, she died at the age of 36 from a barbiturates overdose at her home in Los Angeles. Her death was ruled a likely suicide, although several conspiracy theories have been proposed in the decades after her death.

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