When Marilyn was just 16, she married her first husband, 21-year-old
LAPD policeman James Dougherty was Monroe's first husband. On June 19, 1942, Monroe married Dougherty, then 21, when she was 16 years old.
Her first husband, James Dougherty, as well as Arthur Miller, her second, chose not to attend. And Marilyn=s mother, confined to a sanitarium, never learned of her daughter=s death. In fact, she seemed after some time not even to be sure who Norma Jean had been.
Marilyn Monroe wed her high school sweetheart, James Dougherty, in 1942. Monroe, then known as Norma Jean Baker, met Dougherty while living with a family friend in Los Angeles, California. The couple married just after her 16th birthday, after dating for a few months.
Does Marilyn have any children? No. Although Marilyn was married three times (first to James Dougherty, followed by baseball star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller), she did not have any children before her death in 1962. However, she really wanted to have a family and did have multiple documented pregnancies.
Monroe filed for divorce in October 1954, after only nine months of marriage. Having returned to Los Angeles from filming The Seven Year Itch with its famous skirt-blowing scene in New York City, she cited “mental cruelty” as a reason for divorce from DiMaggio, according to WWD.
Here, LIFE.com presents pictures from October 6, 1954, when Marilyn stepped out of the house on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills to announce she was seeking a divorce from DiMaggio on the grounds of “mental cruelty.” DiMaggio had initially been drawn (like a few hundred million other men) to Marilyn's “sex goddess” ...
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, at the Los Angeles General Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker (née Monroe; 1902–1984), was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico to a poor Midwestern family who migrated to California at the turn of the century.
Because Gladys was mentally and financially unable to care for young Marilyn, Gladys placed her in the care of a foster family, The Bolenders. Although the Bolender family wanted to adopt Marilyn, Gladys was eventually able to stabilize her lifestyle and took Marilyn back in her care when Marilyn was 7 years old.
Monroe's natural eye color was most likely to be blue, as recorded in her sister's autobiography (48) – “but our eyes were different … Norma Jeane's were blue like our mother's” – and on her autopsy report (49), in addition to Capote's description of her “blue-grey eyes” while wearing glasses (46).
In her own words, "pillow case white" was the hair colour Marilyn favoured for her pale blonde locks. According to Vogue, the author Pamela Keogh noted that Monroe had her hair bleached every three weeks and swore by dry shampoo— baby powder on her roots.
For longtime Marilyn fans, we hate to break the illusion, but Marilyn was not a natural blonde. According to Yahoo! Entertainment, she was originally a curly-haired brunette (occasionally mistaken for a redhead) who was encouraged to dye her hair to be more "versatile" in the film industry.
On the night of August 4, 1962, her friend Peter Lawford spoke to Monroe for what would be the last time. According to police reports from 1962, released in 1985, Lawford sensed “something was wrong” when he spoke to the star on the phone that evening.
A breakdown of Marilyn Monroe's will:
Though Monroe was very young when she died, she still had a will in place. She left $10,000 to her long-time assistant and half-sister, Berniece Miracle.
Sprinkled between her marriages, Marilyn either dated—or was linked to—a bunch of notable men, from directors to other stars, whom she didn't marry. Those guys were: Elia Kazan. Charlie "Cass" Chaplin, Jr.
She put $5,000 in a trust fund for the education of her assistant's child, and she left a $100,000 trust fund for her mother. 75 percent of Monroe's intellectual property and estate were left to her acting coach, Lee Strasberg, and the remaining 25 percent was given to her New York psychiatrist Dr. Marianne Kris.
The Daily Mail also reported that several of Marilyn's friends recalled the star's numerous attempts to connect with Gifford, suggesting that she even spoke with him in person at one point in 1950 (she would have been around 24 years old at the time).
"Marilyn never met her father in person, though she attempted to contact him more than once," he told Distractify. Blonde is now available to stream on Netflix, while Marilyn, Her Final Secret is not yet available in the United States.
Marilyn Monroe (Actress)
She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: 'I don't need your Jesus'.
Monroe famously didn't wear clothes to bed, stating that pajamas and “creepy nightgowns” disturbed her sleep. What she did wear, however, was five drops of Chanel No. 5, a perfume that she is also said to have added into her ice baths.
Skincare has become increasingly popular in the last few years, but Marilyn knew the importance of moisturizer almost 80 years ago! She used Nivea Cream or Vaseline under her makeup to keep her skin soft, supple, and healthy.
Marilyn Monroe Miller on March 17, 1959, Dr. Laszlo's instructions were as follows: In the morning, Monroe was to thoroughly wash her face and neck in warm water with Active Phelityl Soap (now known as the Phelityl Cleansing Bar), followed by Erno Laszlo's Shake-It Tinted Skin Treatment in Neutral all over the face.
Marilyn may have had a milky complexion, but every skin tone can benefit from avoiding the sun's harmful rays. “I'm personally opposed to a deep tan because I like to feel blonde all over,” Monroe reportedly once said.