58 Fun Facts About Marilyn Monroe

What was Marilyn Monroe's birth name?

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (and baptised Norma Jeane Baker), she adopted the stage name in 1946 and made Marilyn Monroe her legal name only in 1956.

Which pop artist made the silkscreen Marilyn Diptych in the weeks after Monroe's death in 1962?

Andy Warhol: he began it within weeks of her death, repeating one publicity photo fifty times, in bright colour on one panel and fading black and white on the other.

Where did Marilyn Monroe's stage surname, Monroe, come from?

Her mother's maiden name: Gladys was born a Monroe, and Fox executive Ben Lyon paired it with 'Marilyn' because she reminded him of the Broadway star Marilyn Miller.

Monroe wed James Dougherty at 16 to avoid being sent where?

An orphanage: her guardians could no longer keep her, so she left high school to marry weeks after turning 16, and divorced him four years later when he opposed her career.

Monroe was discovered while working in a factory making what during World War II?

Munitions and drones: at Radioplane's Van Nuys plant, army photographer David Conover, sent to shoot morale-boosting pictures of women war workers, picked her out and she was soon modelling.

Which Elton John song, first released in 1973, was written as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe?

Candle in the Wind: Bernie Taupin rewrote the lyrics in 1997 for Princess Diana's funeral, and that version became one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Why did Monroe say she had posed for her 1949 nude calendar?

For money: out of work when she posed, she signed as 'Mona Monroe', then owned up three years later, saying she had been broke.

When asked what she had on during the 1949 nude photo shoot, what did Monroe famously reply?

'I had the radio on': when the calendar story broke in 1952 she owned up to posing instead of denying it, and met reporters' questions with jokes like this one.

Monroe's 1949 nude photograph became the centrefold of the first issue of which magazine in 1953?

Playboy: its founder ran the calendar picture in the launch issue without asking or paying her, and the promise of the famous nude sold the issue out within weeks.

In which 1950 classic did Monroe have an early bit part as a character named Claudia?

All About Eve: Monroe was on screen only briefly there and in The Asphalt Jungle that year, yet audiences noticed and she won a new contract from Fox.

Johnny Hyde, the agent and lover who won Monroe her 1950 Fox contract, was vice-president of which agency?

William Morris: Hyde got her the bit parts that made critics notice and a seven-year Fox contract in December 1950, then died of a heart attack only days later.

In which 1953 Technicolor noir did Monroe play a wife plotting to murder her husband, played by Joseph Cotten?

Niagara: Monroe's Rose Loomis has her lover try to kill her husband at the Falls, but the husband kills him instead and comes after her.

Who co-starred with Monroe as fellow showgirl Dorothy Shaw in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?

Jane Russell played Dorothy to Monroe's Lorelei Lee; the pair pressed their hand and footprints into wet concrete outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in June 1953 to promote the film.

Which pop star recreated Monroe's pink-gown 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend' number in a 1980s music video?

Madonna: her 'Material Girl' video copies the pink gown and the chorus of men in tuxedos, and she insisted on the idea because it was her favourite scene from Monroe's films.

How to Marry a Millionaire teamed Monroe with Betty Grable and which other star?

Lauren Bacall: her character claims to like older men and praises 'that old fellow what's-his-name in The African Queen', a wink at Bacall's real husband, Humphrey Bogart.

Fox suspended Monroe in January 1954 for refusing to shoot which musical?

She refused The Girl in Pink Tights, a musical she found inferior, and Fox suspended her in January 1954; to have it dropped she agreed to make There's No Business Like Show Business.

Which flowers did ex-husband Joe DiMaggio have delivered to Monroe's crypt three times a week for 20 years?

Roses: their marriage had lasted only nine months, yet he never remarried and kept the standing order at her crypt going for two decades after her death.

From her 1954 honeymoon in Japan, Monroe flew to which country to entertain US troops?

South Korea: asked to perform during the honeymoon, she left her new husband behind in Japan, an early strain on a marriage that lasted nine months.

The famous subway grate scene, with Monroe's white dress blowing up, was staged for which film?

The Seven Year Itch: the street shoot drew a cheering crowd and the world's press, husband Joe DiMaggio looked on furious, and she filed for divorce within weeks.

On which Manhattan avenue did Monroe film her famous subway-grate scene in September 1954?

Lexington Avenue, at 52nd Street: the late-night shoot drew such a crowd of fans and photographers that the scene was filmed again on a Hollywood sound stage.

With which photographer did Monroe found Marilyn Monroe Productions in 1954?

Milton Greene: she walked out on Fox, moved in with his family in Connecticut and set up the company with him, and a year later Fox offered a contract giving her approval over directors.

Under whom did Monroe study method acting at the Actors Studio in 1955?

Lee Strasberg: she grew so close to him and his wife Paula, who became her on-set coach, that her will left him the largest share of her estate.

Which Broadway comedy cast Jayne Mansfield as Rita Marlowe, a blonde film star written as a send-up of Monroe?

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? gave Rita her own production company, a dig at Monroe's new one; Fox then bought the screen rights on condition that Mansfield repeat the role.

Monroe's husband Arthur Miller was convicted of what for refusing to name suspected communists?

Contempt of Congress: he refused to give the House Un-American Activities Committee any names the year he married Monroe, and the conviction was overturned on appeal in 1958.

Which country banned all of Monroe's films after she converted to Judaism on marrying Arthur Miller?

Egypt: its ban on all her films came soon after she converted to Judaism, a step she took to show loyalty to Arthur Miller and draw closer to his parents.

For Bus Stop (1956), Monroe learned which regional accent to play Chérie, a hill-country saloon singer?

Ozark: Chérie comes from the Ozarks and dreams of Hollywood; it was Monroe's first film after a year at the Actors Studio, and reviewers said her acting had greatly improved.

Who directed, produced and starred opposite Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)?

Laurence Olivier: as her director he told her simply to be sexy, an instruction that offended her so much that she took to arriving late on set.

Who earned an Oscar nomination for playing Monroe in the 2011 film My Week with Marilyn?

Michelle Williams: the film draws on the diaries of Colin Clark, a young assistant on The Prince and the Showgirl, who wrote about the troubled shoot and his time with its star.

What was the name of Monroe's character in Some Like It Hot?

Sugar Kane: Monroe thought the band singer was one more dumb blonde and agreed to play her only after she was offered ten percent of the film's gross.

Which Some Like It Hot co-star was famously quoted as saying that kissing Monroe was 'like kissing Hitler'?

Tony Curtis: the line was pinned on him after their love scene took take after take, though he told an interviewer decades later that he had never said it.

In Some Like It Hot, two musicians flee after witnessing a version of which real Chicago gangland killing?

St. Valentine's Day Massacre: to escape the gangsters, the pair dress as women and join an all-girl band bound for Florida, where Monroe is the singer they both fall for.

With which French co-star did Monroe have a widely reported affair during Let's Make Love (1960)?

Yves Montand: Monroe took the film mainly because she still owed Fox pictures under her contract, and the studio used the much-reported affair in its publicity.

Which author wanted Monroe, not Audrey Hepburn, to play Holly Golightly in the film of his novella?

Truman Capote: he thought Monroe best fitted the heroine of Breakfast at Tiffany's and complained that the studio had double-crossed him by casting Hepburn.

Who directed The Misfits (1961), Monroe's last completed film?

John Huston: on a desert shoot remembered for Monroe's lateness, the director was often late himself after spending the whole night gambling.

Which star died within two weeks of finishing The Misfits opposite Monroe?

Clark Gable: growing up without a father, Monroe had imagined that he was hers; he suffered a heart attack within days of the final take.

Which magazine publisher paid $75,000 in 1992 for the burial crypt beside Monroe's?

Hugh Hefner: he never once met her, yet he bought the neighbouring crypt thirty years after her death and was laid to rest there in 2017.

Which singer did Monroe help by promising to sit in the Mocambo's front row every night?

Ella Fitzgerald recalled that Monroe phoned the Mocambo's owner in 1955, promising to take a front table every night if he booked her; he did, and Fitzgerald said she never had to play a small jazz club again.

At which venue did Monroe sing 'Happy Birthday' to President Kennedy in May 1962?

Madison Square Garden: playing on her reputation for lateness, host Peter Lawford introduced her as 'the late Marilyn Monroe'; she died less than three months later.

Fox fired Monroe in June 1962 from which unfinished film?

Something's Got to Give: Fox fired her in June 1962 over her absences, then agreed to take her back, but she died before filming could resume.

Which co-star refused to carry on without Monroe when Fox fired her from her final film in 1962?

Dean Martin: his contract gave him approval of his leading lady, and when he would not film with her replacement, Lee Remick, the studio shut the picture down.

What is the title of Bert Stern's posthumously published Vogue photographs of Monroe?

The Last Sitting: Stern shot more than 2,500 pictures of her for Vogue weeks before she died, and the book prints even the contact sheets where she crossed out the frames she disliked.

How did the Los Angeles coroner classify Monroe's death?

Probable suicide: investigators pointed to the empty pill bottles by her bed and her earlier overdoses; she was 36, and the ruling has never stopped the conspiracy theories.

In which Los Angeles neighbourhood was the house where Monroe died in August 1962?

Brentwood: it was the only home she ever owned on her own; in 2024 Los Angeles declared the house a historic landmark to stop its new owners demolishing it.

Who wore the gown from Monroe's 1962 'Happy Birthday' serenade of President Kennedy to the 2022 Met Gala?

Kim Kardashian: she borrowed the gown from Ripley's Believe It or Not, lost 16 pounds in three weeks to fit it, and wore the original for only a few minutes before changing into a replica.

In which Los Angeles cemetery was Monroe interred after her August 1962 funeral?

Westwood Village Memorial Park: Joe DiMaggio ran the small funeral and shut out the studio bosses, saying that if it weren't for them she would still be here.

Whose 1973 biography first brought the theory that Monroe was murdered into the mainstream?

Norman Mailer's 1973 Marilyn: A Biography speculated that she was murdered over her Kennedy ties, bringing the idea mainstream; a 1982 'threshold investigation' by the LA district attorney found no evidence of foul play.

Which 1930s blonde star did Monroe name as her childhood idol and hope to play in a biopic?

Jean Harlow: Hollywood's original 'Blonde Bombshell' was the template for Monroe's look, right down to her hiring Harlow's old hair stylist to colour her hair.

Which award did Monroe win for her performance in Some Like It Hot?

A Golden Globe: she was named best actress in a comedy for a shoot notorious for her retakes, on which a single short line took her dozens of takes.

From which actress's costume collection was Monroe's white subway-grate dress auctioned in 2011?

Debbie Reynolds: she spent four decades collecting Hollywood costumes for a museum, and when her museum plans collapsed in debt the dress went under the hammer for $4.6 million.

In which city, where Joe DiMaggio grew up, did he and Monroe marry at City Hall in January 1954?

San Francisco: the couple wanted a quiet civil ceremony, but the plan leaked from her studio and reporters and fans mobbed City Hall.

Which instrument does Monroe's character play in the all-girl band in Some Like It Hot?

Ukulele: her character confides that she joined the band to get away from saxophone players, not knowing the new 'girl' she is telling is one in disguise.

In Some Like It Hot, one hero poses as an oil heir to woo Monroe's character, borrowing which star's voice?

Cary Grant: the mimicry was the actor's own idea, and when Grant was shown the film he protested, 'I don't talk like that!'

Which California resort stood in for the Florida beach setting in Some Like It Hot?

Hotel del Coronado: the seaside hotel near San Diego played Florida's 'Seminole Ritz'; the story sends the band from Chicago to Miami, but the shoot never left California.

Which Academy Award did Some Like It Hot win from its six nominations?

Best Costume Design: Orry-Kelly's win was the film's only Oscar from six nominations, in the year Ben-Hur swept a record eleven, including Best Director and Best Actor.

Which closing line of a Monroe comedy did its director say stayed in only because no funnier one turned up?

'Well, nobody's perfect' ends Some Like It Hot: co-writer I.A.L. Diamond came up with it, and the director, who meant to replace it, later had a version of it carved on his own gravestone.

Which future West Side Story Oscar winner danced uncredited behind Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?

George Chakiris was a chorus dancer then; he went on to play Riff, leader of the Jets, on the London stage before the film recast him as Bernardo, leader of the rival Sharks.

Who co-starred with Monroe in The Seven Year Itch, reprising his Broadway role as Richard Sherman?

Tom Ewell had won a Tony in the role on Broadway, where Sherman really does have the affair; the Hays Code kept it in his imagination on screen, and the film's director later called it 'a nothing picture'.

Whose Second Piano Concerto soundtracks Sherman's seduction fantasy in The Seven Year Itch?

Rachmaninoff: in Sherman's daydream the concerto makes The Girl swoon, but when she really comes downstairs the pair end up playing 'Chopsticks' at the piano instead.