Norma Jean became Marilyn Monroe, a blonde sex symbol and U.S. comedienne who starred in commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s. Publicized during her career as a beautiful but rather dumb blonde, she later acquired the tragic public image of a sensitive and insecure woman destroyed by the pressures of Hollywood.
She spent her childhood in orphanages and foster homes and became a photographer's model. Her photograph in the nude on a calendar led to her film debut in Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay! (1948), which was followed by other minor roles until she won recognition for bit parts in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and All About Eve (1950). Her starring roles were as a sex symbol in the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Anxious to earn recognition for her acting ability as well as her personal charm, she studied at the Actors Studio in New York under Lee Strasberg and then returned to Hollywood to star in more serious films: Bus Stop (1956), The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) with Laurence Olivier, Some Like It Hot (1959), and finally The Misfits (1961).
Monroe's widely publicized private life included marriages to the baseball star Joe DiMaggio (nine months during 1954) and to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller (1956-61). Her early death from an overdose of sleeping pills caused worldwide shock and its true nature is still being debated today.