1926–1943: Childhood and first marriage

Monroe as an infant, c. 1927

Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson at the Los Angeles County Hospital in Los Angeles,
California, on June 1, 1926. [3] Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker (née Monroe, 1902–1984), was from a
poor Midwestern family who had migrated to California at the turn of the century.[4] At the age of 15,
Gladys married John Newton Baker, an abusive man nine years her senior, and had two children by
him named Robert (1917–1933)[5] and Berniece (b. 1919).[6] She successfully filed for divorce and
sole custody in 1923, but Baker kidnapped the children soon after and moved with them to his
native Kentucky.[7] Monroe was not told that she had a sister until she was 12, and met her sister for
the first time as an adult.[8] Following the divorce, Gladys worked as a film negative cutter
at Consolidated Film Industries.[9] In 1924, Gladys married Martin Edward Mortensen, but they
separated only some months later and divorced in 1928. [9] The identity of Monroe's father is
unknown, and she most often used Baker as her surname. [10][a]
Although Gladys was mentally and financially unprepared for a child, Monroe's early childhood was
stable and happy.[14] Gladys placed her daughter with evangelical Christian foster parents Albert and
Ida Bolender in the rural town of Hawthorne; she also lived there for the first six months, until she
was forced to move back to the city due to work.[15] She then began visiting her daughter on
weekends.[14] In the summer of 1933, Gladys bought a small house in Hollywood with a loan from
the Home Owners' Loan Corporation and moved seven-year-old Monroe in with her.[16] They shared
the house with lodgers, actors George and Maude Atkinson and their daughter, Nellie. [17] In January
1934, Gladys had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.[18] After
several months in a rest home, she was committed to the Metropolitan State Hospital.[19] She spent
the rest of her life in and out of hospitals and was rarely in contact with Monroe. [20] Monroe became
a ward of the state, and her mother's friend, Grace Goddard, took responsibility over her and her
mother's affairs.[21]
"When I was five I think, that's when I started wanting to be an actress [...] I didn't like the world around me because it
was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. [...] When I heard that this was acting, I said that's what I want to be [...]
Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way
into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it."[22]
—Monroe in an interview for Life in 1962

In the next four years, Monroe's living situation changed often. For the first 16 months, she continued
living with the Atkinsons, and was sexually abused during this time.[23][b] Always a shy girl, she now
also developed a stutter and became withdrawn.[29] In the summer of 1935, she briefly stayed with
Grace and her husband Erwin "Doc" Goddard and two other families, [30] and in September, Grace
placed her in the Los Angeles Orphans Home. [31] The orphanage was "a model institution" and was
described in positive terms by her peers, but Monroe felt abandoned. [32] Encouraged by the
orphanage staff who thought that Monroe would be happier living in a family, Grace became
her legal guardian in 1936, but did not take her out of the orphanage until the summer of 1937.
[33]
 Monroe's second stay with the Goddards lasted only a few months because Doc molested her;
[34]
 she then lived brief periods with her relatives and Grace's friends and relatives in Los Angeles
and Compton.[35]
Monroe found a more permanent home in September 1938, when she began living with Grace's
aunt, Ana Lower, in Sawtelle.[36] She was enrolled in Emerson Junior High School and went to
weekly Christian Science services with Lower.[37] Monroe was otherwise a mediocre student, but
excelled in writing and contributed to the school newspaper. [38] Due to the elderly Lower's health
problems, Monroe returned to live with the Goddards in Van Nuys in around early 1941.[39] The same
year, she began attending Van Nuys High School.[40] In 1942, the company that employed Doc
Goddard relocated him to West Virginia.[41] California child protection laws prevented the Goddards
from taking Monroe out of state, and she faced having to return to the orphanage. [42] As a solution,
she married their neighbors' 21-year-old son, factory worker James Dougherty, on June 19, 1942,
just after her 16th birthday.[43] Monroe subsequently dropped out of high school and became a
housewife. She found herself and Dougherty mismatched and later stated that she was "dying of
boredom" during the marriage.[44] In 1943, Dougherty enlisted in the Merchant Marine and was
stationed on Santa Catalina Island, where Monroe moved with him.[45]

1944–1949: Modeling and first film roles

Photo by Conover of Monroe at the Radioplane Company in mid-1944

In April 1944, Dougherty was shipped out to the Pacific, and he would remain there for most of the
next two years.[45] Monroe moved in with Dougherty's parents and began a job at the Radioplane
Company, a munitions factory in Van Nuys.[45] In late 1944, she met photographer David Conover,
who had been sent by the U.S. Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit to the factory to shoot
morale-boosting pictures of female workers.[46] Although none of her pictures were used, she quit
working at the factory in January 1945 and began modeling for Conover and his friends. [47][48] Defying
her deployed husband, she moved on her own and signed a contract with the Blue Book Model
Agency in August 1945.[49]
As a model, Monroe occasionally used the name Jean Norman. [50] She straightened her curly
brunette hair and dyed it blonde to make herself more employable. [50] Her figure was deemed more
suitable for pin-up than fashion modeling, and she was featured mostly in advertisements and men's
magazines.[51] According to Emmeline Snively, the agency's owner, Monroe was one of its most
ambitious and hard-working models; by early 1946, she had appeared on 33 magazine covers for
publications such as Pageant, U.S. Camera, Laff, and Peek.[52]
Through Snively, Monroe signed a contract with an acting agency in June 1946. [53] After an
unsuccessful interview at Paramount Pictures, she was given a screen-test by Ben Lyon, a 20th
Century-Fox executive. Head executive Darryl F. Zanuck was unenthusiastic about it,[54] but he gave
her a standard six-month contract to avoid her being signed by rival studio RKO Pictures.[c] Monroe's
contract began in August 1946, and she and Lyon selected the stage name "Marilyn Monroe".[56] The
first name was picked by Lyon, who was reminded of Broadway star Marilyn Miller; the last was
Monroe's mother's maiden name.[57] In September 1946, she divorced Dougherty, who was against
her having a career.[58]

Monroe posing for a photo during her modeling career

Monroe as a 20th Century-Fox contract player in 1947. She had two small film roles while under contract and
was let go after a year.

Monroe had no film roles during the first six months and instead dedicated her days to acting,
singing and dancing classes.[59] Eager to learn more about the film industry, she also spent time at
the studio lot to observe others working and to promote herself. [60] Her contract was renewed in
February 1947, and she was given her first film roles, bit parts in Dangerous Years (1947)
and Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948).[61][d] The studio also enrolled her in the Actors' Laboratory
Theatre, an acting school teaching the techniques of the Group Theatre; she later stated that it was
"my first taste of what real acting in a real drama could be, and I was hooked". [63] Despite her
enthusiasm, her teachers thought her too shy and insecure to have a future in acting, and Fox did
not renew Monroe's contract in August 1947.[64] She returned to modeling while also doing occasional
odd jobs at film studios, such as working as a dancing "pacer" behind the scenes at musical sets. [64]
Monroe was determined to make it as an actress, and continued studying at the Actors' Lab. In
October 1947, she appeared as a blonde vamp in the play Glamour Preferred at the Bliss-Hayden
Theater, but it ended after only a few performances.[65] To promote herself, she frequented producers'
offices, befriended gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky, and entertained influential male guests at
studio functions, a practice she had begun at Fox.[66] She also became a friend and occasional sex
partner of Fox executive Joseph M. Schenck, who persuaded his friend Harry Cohn, the head
executive of Columbia Pictures, to sign her in March 1948.[67]
While at Fox, Monroe was given "girl next door" roles; at Columbia, she was modeled after Rita
Hayworth.[68] Her hairline was raised and her hair was bleached platinum blonde. [69] She also began
working with the studio's head drama coach, Natasha Lytess, who would remain her mentor until
1955.[69] Her only film at the studio was the low-budget musical Ladies of the Chorus (1948), in which
she had her first starring role as a chorus girl who is courted by a wealthy man. [62] She also screen-
tested for the lead role in Born Yesterday (1950), but her contract was not renewed in September
1948.[70] Ladies of the Chorus was released the following month but was not a success.[71]
Monroe then became the protégée of Johnny Hyde, the vice president of the William Morris Agency.
Their relationship soon became sexual and he proposed marriage, but Monroe refused. [72] He paid
for Monroe to have plastic surgery on her jaw and possibly a rhinoplasty, and arranged a bit part in
the Marx Brothers film Love Happy (1950), the New York promotional tour of which she also joined
in 1949.[73] Meanwhile, Monroe continued modeling. She appeared in advertisements for Pabst beer
and posed in artistic nudes for John Baumgarth calendars (using the name 'Mona Monroe'); both
sessions were shot by Tom Kelley.[74] Monroe had previously posed semi-nude or clad in a bikini for
other artists such as Earl Moran, and felt comfortable with nudity.[75] Baumgarth was initially not
happy with the photos, but published one of them in 1950; Monroe was not publicly identified as the
model until 1952. Although she then contained the resulting scandal by claiming she had reluctantly
posed nude due to an urgent need for cash, biographers Spoto and Banner have stated that she
was not pressured (although according to Banner, she was initially hesitant due to her aspirations of
movie stardom) and regarded the shoot as simply another work assignment. [75]

1950–1952: Breakthrough years

Monroe as gangster's moll Angela in John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), one of her first performances to
be noted by the critics

In 1950, Monroe had bit parts in Love Happy, A Ticket to Tomahawk, Right Cross and The Fireball,
but also appeared in minor supporting roles in two critically acclaimed films: Joseph Mankiewicz's
drama All About Eve and John Huston's crime film The Asphalt Jungle.[76] Despite her screen time
being only a few minutes in the latter, she gained a mention in Photoplay and according to
biographer Donald Spoto "moved effectively from movie model to serious actress". [77] In December
1950, Hyde was able to negotiate a seven-year contract for Monroe with 20th Century-Fox. [78] He
died of a heart attack only days later, which left her devastated. [79]
The Fox contract brought Monroe more publicity, and she had supporting roles in four low-budget
films in 1951: in the MGM drama Home Town Story, and in three moderately successful comedies
for Fox, As Young as You Feel, Love Nest, and Let's Make It Legal.[80] According to Spoto all four
films featured her "essentially [as] a sexy ornament", but she received some praise from
critics: Bosley Crowther of The New York Times described her as "superb" in As Young As You
Feel and Ezra Goodman of the Los Angeles Daily News called her "one of the brightest up-and-
coming [actresses]" for Love Nest.[81] Her popularity with audiences was also growing: she received
several thousand fan letters a week, and was declared "Miss Cheesecake of 1951" by the army
newspaper Stars and Stripes, reflecting the preferences of soldiers in the Korean War.[82] In February
1952, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association named Monroe the "best young box office
personality".[83] In her private life, Monroe had a short relationship with director Elia Kazan and also
briefly dated several other men, including director Nicholas Ray and actors Yul Brynner and Peter
Lawford.[84] In early 1952, she began a highly publicized romance with retired New York
Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio, one of the most famous sports personalities of the era. [85]

Monroe as a mentally disturbed babysitter in the thriller Don't Bother to Knock (1952)

Monroe found herself at the center of a scandal in March 1952, when she revealed that she had
posed for nude pictures in 1949, which were now featured in a calendar. [86] The studio had learned
about the photos and that she was publicly rumored to be the model some weeks prior, and together
with Monroe decided that to avoid damaging her career it was best to admit to them while stressing
that she had been broke at the time. [87] The strategy gained her public sympathy and increased
interest in her films, for which she was now receiving top-billing. In the wake of the scandal, Monroe
was featured on the cover of Life as the "Talk of Hollywood" and gossip columnist Hedda
Hopper declared her the "cheesecake queen" turned "box office smash". [88] Fox released three of
Monroe's films —Clash by Night, Don't Bother to Knock and We're Not Married!— soon after to
capitalize on the public interest. [89]

Keith Andes and Monroe in Clash by Night (1952). The film allowed Monroe to display more of her acting range
in a dramatic role.

Despite her newfound popularity as a sex symbol, Monroe also wished to show more of her acting
range. She had begun taking acting classes with Michael Chekhov and mime Lotte Goslar soon after
beginning the Fox contract,[90] and Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock showed her in more
nuanced roles.[91] In the former, a drama starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Fritz Lang, she
played a fish cannery worker; to prepare, she spent time in a fish cannery in Monterey.[92] She
received positive reviews for her performance: The Hollywood Reporter stated that "she deserves
starring status with her excellent interpretation", and Variety wrote that she "has an ease of delivery
which makes her a cinch for popularity".[93][94] The latter was a thriller in which Monroe starred as a
mentally disturbed babysitter and which Zanuck used to test her abilities in a heavier dramatic role.
[95]
 It received mixed reviews from critics, with Crowther deeming her too inexperienced for the
difficult role,[96] and Variety blaming the script for the film's problems.[97][98]
Monroe's three other films in 1952 continued with her typecasting in comic roles that focused on her
sex appeal. In We're Not Married!, her role as a beauty pageant contestant was created solely to
"present Marilyn in two bathing suits", according to its writer Nunnally Johnson.[99] In Howard
Hawks' Monkey Business, in which she acted opposite Cary Grant, she played a secretary who is a
"dumb, childish blonde, innocently unaware of the havoc her sexiness causes around her". [100] In O.
Henry's Full House, she had a minor role as a sex worker.[100] Monroe added to her reputation as a
new sex symbol with publicity stunts that year: she wore a revealing dress when acting as Grand
Marshal at the Miss America Pageant parade, and told gossip columnist Earl Wilson that she usually
wore no underwear.[101] By the end of the year, gossip columnist Florabel Muir named Monroe the "it
girl" of 1952.[102]
During this period, Monroe gained a reputation for being difficult to work with, which would worsen
as her career progressed. She was often late or did not show up at all, did not remember her lines,
and would demand several re-takes before she was satisfied with her performance. [103] Her
dependence on her acting coaches—Natasha Lytess and then Paula Strasberg—also irritated
directors.[104] Monroe's problems have been attributed to a combination of perfectionism, low self-
esteem, and stage fright.[105] She disliked her lack of control on film sets and never experienced
similar problems during photo shoots, in which she had more say over her performance and could
be more spontaneous instead of following a script. [105][106] To alleviate her anxiety and
chronic insomnia, she began to use barbiturates, amphetamines, and alcohol, which also
exacerbated her problems, although she did not become severely addicted until 1956. [107] According
to Sarah Churchwell, some of Monroe's behavior, especially later in her career, was also in response
to the condescension and sexism of her male co-stars and directors. [108] Similarly, biographer Lois
Banner has stated that she was bullied by many of her directors. [109]