How Marilyn Monroe Died in Real Life
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We remember celebrities both for their indelible impact in their relevant industries and, sometimes, for the drama in their personal lives. For model and actress Marilyn Monroe—the subject of a new fictionalized move on her life, Blonde—her personal life pervaded through her professional career. The romances she had behind the scenes often superseded her relationships on-screen. Her untimely death has also cemented her place in film star history.
But first, some background on her life and career.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, Marilyn Monroe was born in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her real given name was Norma Jean Mortensen. Monroe's mother suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and financial hardship and her father was out of the picture, so she shuffled between foster homes and guardians until she married a 21-year-old named Jim Dougherty at age 16.
Her modeling career began when she was 18, after a photographer spotted her working in a munitions factory. Her marriage fell apart in the midst of her budding stardom. In 1946, 20th Century-Fox offered her a screen test. She played small roles as femmes fatales and mistresses until she got her big break as the lead in various classic films like How to Marry a Millionaire and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which both premiered in 1953.
In 1954, she married baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, but the two divorced after eight months. She then married playwright Arthur Miller (best known for "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible"), but she divorced him in 1961. According to History, their divorce came a week before the premiere of her final film The Misfits, which Miller wrote the screenplay for.
Monroe's career was short-lived, but she still was an unforgettable screen presence. In 2000, Joyce Carol Oates published a fictionalized version of Monroe's life in Blonde, which Netflix adapted into a feature film of the same name starring Ana de Armas. The film has renewed public interest in Monroe's life, plus her untimely death.
How Did Marilyn Monroe Die?
On Sunday, August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills in her Brentwood home, according to the Los Angeles Times. The 36-year-old called her psychiatrist the day before, complaining she couldn't sleep.
Her housekeeper noticed the actress' bedroom light was on around 3 a.m. When Monroe didn't respond to knocks on her bedroom door, the housekeeper called Monroe's psychiatrist, who smashed a window and climbed in the room, where he found Monroe unresponsive. Her psychiatrist called the doctor who actually prescribed Monroe the sleeping pills, who then came and pronounced Monroe dead when he arrived.
The Los Angeles Times article interviews friends of Monroe, who were all shocked by her death and insistent her death was an accident, not suicide. Pat Newcomb, Monroe's close friend and press agent, said the two had plans to go to the movies the next day. Her attorney also said Monroe promised to see him on Monday.
At the time of her death, Monroe's career had stalled somewhat. Her two most recent films, Let's Make Love and The Misfits reportedly didn't do well at the box office. Still, as the Los Angeles Times reports, her career was on the upswing. Found on a table in her home was a letter from the creator of Gentleman Prefer Blondes, who wanted her for the lead in a new musical.
Despite her short career, Monroe starred in 23 films and even started her own production company to gain better control over her roles and salary at a time when women in Hollywood yielded to the demands of overwhelming number of men in charge of the film industry.
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