Marilyn Monroe

When Norma Jeane Mortenson was born on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California, nobody could have guessed that she would go on to become one of, if not the biggest stars of the twentieth century.

She had a difficult childhood as she never knew her father and her mother couldn't look after her. She spent most of her early years in orphanages or with foster parents, until the age of 11, when she went to live with friends of the family. She was happy here, but in 1942 the family moved to the east coast of America and couldn't afford to take Norma Jeane with them. Therefore she had two choices: return to an orphanage or marry her boyfriend, Jimmy Dougherty. She decided to marry Jimmy. He was 21 and she was just 16. They were happy together but in 1944 he joined the Merchant Marines and went to the South Pacific - remember this was during the second World war.

Norma Jeane went to live with her mother-in-law and got a job in a factory. It was here that a photographer noticed her and took her picture. He thought she was fantastic and gave her some modelling jobs. Over the next two years she became very successful, but there was a problem. In 1946 Jimmy returned and she had to decide between her marriage and her career. She chose her career, and in June of that year she divorced Jimmy, and in August signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox, dyed her hair blonde and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.

Until 1953 she made a few films for different studios, but without much success. People said she was good but not great. Then, in 1953 she made the film Niagra, which showed her to be a very good actress but more importantly that she had enormous sex appeal. She then made such films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, and at the age of 27 she won the award for Best New Actress.

In January 1954 she married for the second time. Her new husband was American baseball player Joe DiMaggio. Unfortunately, only nine months later, they got divorced. People think this is because Joe was unhappy with millions of men being in love with his wife and the friends she had, especially Frank Sinatra and his 'RatPack'!

A few more films and another husband. This time she married Arthur Miller, a playwright, in June 1956. It was while she was married to him that she made probably her most famous film - Some Like It Hot, co-starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. She won a Golden Globe for Best Comedy Actress for this film.

Sadly her personal life, already difficult, was becoming more and more unhappy. She became very difficult to work with and quite unpredictable. Her third marriage officially ended after 5 years although the couple had split up before then.

Her last important public appearance was at a party to celebrate the 45th birthday of the American president, John F Kennedy. She famously wore an extremely tight dress and sang 'Happy Birthday' in a very provocative manner, adding to the speculation that at some time in the past they'd had an affair.

On the 5th August 1962 her housekeeper found her dead in her home in Brentwood b-r-e-n-t-w-o-o-d, two months after her 36th birthday. Officially she died after taking an overdose of sleeping pills but many people have different ideas as to how she died. At the time of her death she was without doubt the best loved and most famous actress in the world. Even today for many people this is so.

Incidentally, that dress she wore for the president's party was sold at an auction in 1999 for an amazing $1.26 million!