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Marilyn Monroe Profile
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(Norma Jean Mortensen) |
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1 June 26 | is born in Los Angeles, California, to Gladys Monroe, a film cutter, and an unknown father, allegedly Martin Edward Mortensen |
Mid-June 26 | is placed with a foster family, Albert and Ida Bolender |
September 32 | begins attending Washington Street School in Hawthorne, California |
June 33 | moves from the Bolenders back to her mother |
August 33 | moves with her mother to 6812 Arbol Drive |
September 33 | attends Selma Avenue Elementary School |
January 35 | when her mother is committed to the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California, because of mental instability, she is placed with new foster parents |
August 35 | moves in with newlyweds Grace McKee and Ervin Goddard in a bungalow on Odessa Street in Van Nuys. Ervin's real daughter, Nona Jeannette, will become Columbia actress Jody Lawrence. Later Jody will describe Marilyn as a neurotic child who clammed up and was very sensitive toward her surroundings. |
13 September 35 | is placed in the Los Angeles Orphans Home |
? | begins attending Vine Street Elementary School |
June 37 | returns to the Goddards. Grace McKee Goddard is now her guardian. |
November 37 | is sent to live with Ida Martin, the mother of her aunt, in Compton, California |
Fall 39 | starts dating regularly |
40 | allegedly her son is born. She gives him up for adoption. |
September 41 | starts attending Van Nuys High School |
Fall 41 | meets Jim Dougherty, a worker at Lockheed Aircraft. He’s 5 years her senior. |
January 42 | transfers to University High School |
19 June 42 | marries Dougherty in the home of friends. Dougherty thinks she’s a virgin. The Doughertys move into a one-room bungalow at 4524 Vista Del Monte, Sherman Oaks. |
January 43 | moves with Dougherty into his parents home |
Mid-43 | moves with Dougherty to a house on Bessemer Street, Van Nuys |
Fall 43 | joins her husband on Catalina Island, where he becomes supervisor at a boat camp |
April 44 | works at a Radioplane company in Burbank for $20 a week |
Fall 44 | poses for Army photographer David Conover |
February 45 | quits her job to begin a modeling career |
Summer 45 | has an affair with 26-year-old Conover |
2 August 45 | is signed to a modeling contract by Blue Book Model Agency |
45 | attends charm school at night |
Fall 45 | moves out on Dougherty |
December 45 | has her first screen test |
Christmas 45 | is on location in Nevada and Washington with 32-year-old photographer Andre de Dienes. They have an affair. |
February 46 | has an affair with photographer William Burnside |
February 46 | poses for pinup painter Earl Moran |
May 46 | files for divorce from Dougherty |
June 46 | allegedly meets 19-year-old reporter Robert Slatzer for the first time at 20th Century-Fox studio |
Summer 46 | is a frequent cover girl |
June 46 | screen-tests for 20th Century-Fox. Darryl F. Zanuck is unenthusiastic but agrees to sign her to a 6-month contract. |
Howard Hughes allegedly offers her a screen test. Later there will be rumors that the two had an affair. |
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August 46 | changes her name to Marilyn Monroe |
January 47 | is on stage in Portrait of a Madonna by Tennessee Williams |
June 47 | moves into an apartment in Hollywood |
September 47 | dropped by 20th Century-Fox, she offers quick sex to men in cars on side streets near Hollywood and Santa Monica Boulevards |
Fall 47 | has an affair with 22-year-old Charlie Chaplin, Jr., and his younger brother, 21-year-old Sid |
Winter 47 | has an abortion |
January 48 | starts an affair with 41-year-old actor John Carroll even though he’s married to MGM talent scout Lucille Ryman |
January 48 | playboy Pat DiCicco escorts her to a poker party at the house of movie mogul Joseph M. Schenck |
February 48 | starts an affair with 69-year-old Schenck |
9 March 48 | is signed to a contract with Columbia Pictures |
9 June 48 | moves into the Studio Club, 1215 North Lodi Place, Hollywood |
July 48 | starts an affair with 32-year-old Columbia music director Fred Karger. He will marry actress Jane Wyman in 1952. |
Summer 48 | has an affair with 40-year-old comedian Milton Berle and with producer-director Orson Welles |
31 December 48 | meets Johnny Hyde, executive vice-president of the William Morris Agency, during a party of producer Sam Spiegel / of Joseph Schenck at the Palm Springs Racquet Club Hotel. He’s 53, married with four children, and suffers from a serious heart problem. The 30-years-elder Hyde falls head over heels for her, and they begin an affair. |
Early 49 | has an affair with columnist Jim Bacon |
Spring 49 | undergoes cosmetic surgery and has her nose and jaw altered |
27 June 49 | poses nude for photographer Tom Kelly |
September 49 | meets 27-year-old photographer Milton H. Green. They start an affair. |
December 50 | signs a 3-year contract with the William Morris Agency |
Hyde arranges a screen test at 20th Century-Fox, and she is signed to a 7-month contract |
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18 December 50 | Johnny Hyde dies of a heart attack, and his family denies her attendance at his funeral. She attempts suicide a few days later. |
January 51 | has an affair with 41-year-old director Elia Kazan |
May 51 | signs a 7-year contract with 20th Century-Fox |
Early 52 | moves into an apartment on Hillside Avenue, West Los Angeles, California |
February 52 | meets baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. He’s 38; she’s 25. |
April 52 | her appendix is removed at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital |
Fall 52 | moves to 2393 Castilian Drive |
4 October 52 | allegedly marries her longtime friend Robert Slatzer in Tijuana, Mexico. In his 1974 book, The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe, Slatzer claims that the marriage certificate was destroyed 3 days after the ceremony. |
November 52 | wants a baby from 22-year-old actor Nico Minardos even though he is married |
Early 53 | has an affair with 19-year-old Edward G. Robinson, Jr., son of the actor, and his friend, Andrew James |
has an affair with 33-year-old costume designer William Travilla |
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26/28 June 53 | she and Jane Russell, her co-star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, put their handprints in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood |
August 53 | is off to the Canadian Rocky Mountains for the filming of River of No Return. DiMaggio’s with her. During the filming she falls into the Athabasca River and is slightly injured. |
November 53 | agrees to marry DiMaggio |
December 53 | her nude shots go public when the first Playboy magazine hits the newsstands |
January 54 | refuses to do Pink Tights and is suspended by 20th Century-Fox |
14 January 54 | marries DiMaggio in San Francisco |
29 January 54 | travels with DiMaggio to Tokyo, Japan, for their honeymoon |
February 54 | flies from Tokyo to Korea to entertain the troops |
24 February 54 | returns to San Francisco |
May 54 | the DiMaggios rent a house at 508 North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills |
starts an affair with her vocal coach from There’s No Business Like Show Business. He will try to commit suicide because of this affair in July. |
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August 54 | meets Paula Strasberg, wife of Lee Strasberg of Actors Studio fame |
15 September 54 | films the famous skirt scene for The Seven Year Itch outside the Trans-Lux Theater on Lexington Avenue at 52nd Street, New York City. DiMaggio is among 2,000 bystanders and watches angrily. The following night they have a big argument. |
October 54 | hires Hollywood lawyer Jerry Giesler for her divorce from DiMaggio |
5 October 54 | files for divorce from DiMaggio |
October 54 | rents an apartment at 8336 De Longpre Avenue |
meets Frank Sinatra at a party at Romanoff’s Restaurant |
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November 54 | moves into an apartment near the Sunset Strip |
7 November 54 | due to a gynecological problem, she is in the hospital for 5 days, escorted there by DiMaggio |
December 54 | celebrates Christmas with the Milton Greenes at their home in Connecticut |
7 January 55 | announces the formation of MM Productions with Milton Greene |
January 55 | moves into a suite at the Gladstone Hotel in New York City |
February 55 | spends five days with DiMaggio |
May 55 | remeets playwright Arthur Miller at a party in New York City |
Summer 55 | has an affair with actor Marlon Brando |
31 October 55 | her divorce from DiMaggio becomes final |
Fall 55 | moves into an apartment at 2 Sutton Place in New York City |
December 55 | Brando escorts her to the New York premiere of his The Rose Tattoo. Afterwards they dine at the Sheraton Astor Hotel at 44th Street. |
31 December 55 | signs a new contract with 20th Century-Fox for 4 films, to be made during the next 7 years |
February 56 | announces she will produce The Sleeping Prince with Sir Laurence Olivier |
returns to Los Angeles for the filming of Bus Stop. She rents a house at 595 North Beverly Glen Boulevard in Westwood. |
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Spring 56 | talks the studio into hiring Paula Strasberg to coach her for Bus Stop |
March 56 | films Bus Stop on location in Phoenix, Arizona |
1 June 56 | meets the president of Indonesia and movie fan, Ahmed Sukarno, during his stay in Los Angeles at her 30th birthday party |
21 June 56 | announces she will marry Miller. A few days later she visits his parents in Roxbury, Connecticut. |
29 June 56 | marries Miller in a Jewish ceremony. He's 40; she's 30. |
13 July 56 | is off to England for the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl. Miller’s with her. |
is deeply upset when she finds and reads Miller’s diary, in which he claims to be in doubt about his marriage |
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August 56 | gets pregnant |
September 56 | suffers a miscarriage |
29 October 56 | attends the Command Performance of The Pursuit of the Graf Spee at the Empire Theater at Leicester Square, London, and is introduced to Queen Elizabeth II. Joan Crawford, Brigitte Bardot, Victor Mature, and Anita Ekberg are among the guests. |
November 56 | returns to the States with Miller |
December 56 | the Millers vacation in Jamaica |
January 57 | rents an apartment at 44 East 57th Street in New York City |
March 57 | develops an alcohol problem |
16 April 57 | fires her partner Milton Greene over business differences |
June 57 | gets pregnant again |
August 57 | suffers a miscarriage |
January 58 | starts drinking heavily. Within some months her weight goes up to 133 lbs. |
Spring 58 | turns down roles in Some Came Running, The Sound and the Fury, and Can-Can |
July 58 | returns to Los Angeles for the filming of Some Like It Hot |
12 September 58 | accidentally takes an overdose of sleeping pills. She’s rushed to the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. |
October 58 | learns that she is pregnant |
16 September 58 | miscarries again |
May 59 | turns down a part in The Story on Page One |
19 September 59 | attends a luncheon at 20th Century-Fox for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev |
September 59 | attends French Yves Montand’s show on Broadway |
January 60 | the Millers become close friends with Montand and his wife, French actress Simone Signoret. Marilyn and Montand are to film Let’s Make Love together. |
March 60 | receives the Golden Globe Award for her role in Some Like It Hot |
Spring 60 | briefly resumes her affair with Nico Minardos |
April 60 | with his wife back in Europe, she starts an affair with 38-year-old Montand |
July 60 | attends actor Peter Lawford’s party for John F. Kennedy following his acceptance of the Democrat nomination. She first met Kennedy in the mid-fifties when he was a senator from Massachusetts. He’s 43; she’s 34. Lawford’s married to Pat Kennedy, sister of John F. and Robert F. Kennedy. |
travels to Nevada for location filming for The Misfits |
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5 August 60 | has an argument with Miller about her dates with Montand |
26 August 60 | takes an overdose of sleeping pills, but is rescued |
October 60 | returns from Nevada to Los Angeles. Miller moves out on her. |
11 November 60 | announces the end of her marriage to Miller |
December 60 | celebrates Christmas with the Strasberg family in New York City |
January 61 | shortly before Kennedy’s inauguration, she confides to a friend that she had sex with the upcoming president |
20 January 61 | divorces Miller in Juarez, Mexico |
24 January 61 | her divorce from Miller becomes final |
30 March 61 | vacations with DiMaggio in Redington Beach, Florida |
April 61 | returns to Los Angeles and stays with Frank Sinatra. Soon afterwards she rents an apartment at 882 North Doheny Drive. |
meets 35-year-old Robert F. Kennedy, attorney general and younger brother of the president, at a dinner party at the Peter Lawfords. He’s married with six children. She and Bobby spend the evening deep in conversation. |
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June 61 | her gall bladder is removed |
August 61 | thinks about marrying Frank Sinatra. Together they spend a weekend on his yacht. |
September 61 | Sinatra presents her with emerald earrings |
October 61 | attends a dinner party for John F. Kennedy at the Lawfords’ Santa Monica beach house. Among the guests are actresses Kim Novak, Angie Dickinson, and Janet Leigh. |
November 61 | is unenthusiastic about her upcoming Something’s Got to Give |
employs Eunice Murray as housekeeper |
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December 61 | spends the Christmas holidays and New Year’s Eve with DiMaggio |
January 62 | buys a house at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, her last residence |
1 February 62 | attends a dinner party for Robert F. Kennedy and his wife. Kim Novak is among the guests. |
February 62 | meets John F. Kennedy at a dinner party in New York City |
tours Mexico, where she starts an affair with 26-year-old scriptwriter Jose Bolanos and brings him to Los Angeles. He’s ten years her junior. |
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5 March 62 | receives the Golden Globe Award as the "world’s favorite female star." At her acceptance speech she appears to be drunk. |
May 62 | there are rumors that she took a small dose of LSD with Dr. Timothy Leary |
17 May 62 | leaves the studio by helicopter to attend John F. Kennedy’s 45th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden, New York City. 20th Century-Fox files a breach of contract notice against her. |
19 May 62 | sings "Happy Birthday" to the President at Madison Square Garden. Afterwards she attends a private party for Kennedy given by producer Arthur Krim. Later that night, she meets the president at the Hotel Carlisle. |
20 May 62 | returns to Los Angeles |
23 May 62 | films the famous swimming scene for Something’s Got to Give. First she wears a flesh-colored bikini, and then she does it in the nude. |
25 May 62 | after taking four sick days from filming, she reports to the set again |
1 June 62 | celebrates her 36th birthday at the studio. She will never be on the set again. |
2 June 62 | celebrates her birthday with Frank Sinatra at Trader Vic’s and gets quite drunk |
7 June 62 | 20th Century-Fox files suit against her for $500,000, claiming breach of contract. Two days later, Lee Remick is signed for Monroe’s part when Kim Novak refuses. Dean Martin refuses to continue without Marilyn. |
13 June 62 | refuses an invitation of the Robert F. Kennedys for a party honoring the Lawfords |
23 June 62 | is photographed by Bert Stern for Vogue, the first of five sessions |
25 June 62 | invites Robert F. Kennedy to Los Angeles to visit her at her house on June 27th |
27 June 62 | spends the evening with Robert F. Kennedy and the Lawfords at their beach house |
2 July 62 | calls Robert F. Kennedy’s office in Washington twice but gets stuck with his secretary |
4 July 62 | attends a 4th of July party at the Lawfords. The president is among the guests. |
15 July 62 | discusses portraying Jean Harlow in a film produced by Sidney Skolsky |
25 July 62 | is visited by Peter Levathes of 20th Century-Fox, who promises to drop the law suit and to reinstate her |
27 July 62 | attends Sinatra’s performance at his casino-hotel Cal-Neva Lodge at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The Lawfords are with her; DiMaggio joins them too. Later there will be rumors that Sinatra’s business partner and mobster Sam Giancana attended and that Marilyn had forced sex with him that weekend. The 58-year-old Giancana is Chicago syndicate leader and archenemy of the Kennedys. |
30 July 62 | calls Robert F. Kennedy for the last time |
31 July 62 | makes arrangements with an emporium on San Vincente Boulevard to cater her wedding reception |
1 August 62 | talks with the studio about returning to the filming of Something’s Got to Give |
DiMaggio tells a friend that Marilyn will re-marry him |
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2 August 62 | shops around Beverly Hills, driven by Eunice Murray, and has dinner at Lawford’s beach house |
3 August 62 | has a prescription for Nembutal filled |
has dinner with 32-year-old Patricia Newcomb, her publicist, and Peter Lawford at the Frascati Restaurant in Beverly Hills. Later there will be rumors that Newcomb was also in love with Bobby Kennedy. |
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calls Lawford and tells him that she has to reach Robert F. Kennedy, who’s with his family in San Francisco. She attempts to reach him, but her calls are not returned. |
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orders food from La Scala Restaurant |
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Pat Newcomb spends the night at her house |
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4 August 62 | at 5:30 a.m., she phones her neighbor, actress Jeanne Carmen, and asks her for sleeping pills |
calls Gene Kelly’s representatives regarding his upcoming project I Love Louisa and agrees to a meeting Monday afternoon |
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has a hamburger lunch with Pat Newcomb |
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in the afternoon she visits the Lawfords |
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at 5:00 p.m., Lawford invites her to a small dinner party. She promises to think about it. |
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at 7:10 p.m., she is phoned by her former stepson, Joe DiMaggio, Jr., and they talk about his love problems |
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at 7:45 p.m., Lawford calls her and notes some depression and slurred speech. Suddenly the phone goes dead, and afterwards he gets the busy signal. |
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at 8:00 p.m., Murray, her housekeeper, discovers her either dead or dying, as the result of an accidental overdose of barbiturates, and phones Dr. Ralph Greenson, Marilyn’s Los Angeles psychiatrist |
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between 8:40 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., Greenson calls Dr. Engelberg, and they call for an ambulance from Schaefer Ambulance. Before the car arrives, Engelberg determines she is dead, and the ambulance is sent away. |
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at 10:00 p.m., her public relations representative, Arthur Jacobs, receives news that she’s dead. He immediately leaves the concert he is attending and hurries to her home. |
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at 11:00 p.m., Lawford still worries about her fate. Jacobs shows up at the scene at Fifth Helena Drive and finds a "horrendous scene, too dreadful to discuss." |
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5 August 62 | at 1:00 a.m., Lawford calls director William Asher and asks him to go and check on her |
at 1:30 a.m., Lawford learns about her death |
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at 4:25 a.m., Dr. Engelberg finally calls the police, who arrive ten minutes later to find her in her bedroom, nude and dead. Mrs. Murray is operating the washing machine. |
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at 5:30 a.m., her body is delivered to the Westwood Village Mortuary |
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at 10:30 a.m., Deputy Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi completes her autopsy |
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6 August 62 | DiMaggio claims her body and starts making funeral arrangements. In the afternoon, her body is taken from the Los Angeles County morgue to the Westwood Village Mortuary. |
7 August 62 | her embalmed body is prepared by make-up man Allan Snyder and Marjorie Plecher, her longtime wardrobe assistant. Her hair is covered with a wig and her breasts are replaced by plastic bags filled with cushion stuffing. She is dressed with a green Pucci dress, with a green scarf around her neck. DiMaggio sits with the body throughout the night. |
8 August 62 | at 1:00 p.m., her funeral service is held at the Westwood Village Mortuary Chapel, with only 24/31 people invited by DiMaggio. Lee Strasberg delivers the eulogy. After the service, where she lies in an open casket, DiMaggio places pink roses in her hands and kisses her. Then the casket is closed. |
in the afternoon her bronze casket is interred in wall crypt 24 at the Corridor of Memories, Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles |
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later there will be rumors that Marilyn was killed by the Mafia or the CIA, with or without the involvement of the Kennedys, and that Jacobs and his former employee Newcomb helped to cover up her death on request of the Kennedys |
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Giancana’s brother Chuck will later claim that Marilyn was killed by Mafia hit men "Needles" and "Mugsy" shortly after a dispute with Robert F. Kennedy, in order to blame the attorney general with her death and to get him out of Giancana’s way |
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63 | John F. Kennedy is assassinated |
66 | big-league freelance eavesdropper and wiretapper Bernard Spindel claims that he bugged her apartment on order of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa to get information about her Kennedy connections |
68 | Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated |
75 | Arthur Jacobs dies |
Sam Giancana is murdered at his home |
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79 | Dr. Ralph Greenson dies |
84 | Gladys Pearl Baker, her mother, dies |
Peter Lawford dies |
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85 | Milton H. Greene dies |
99 | Joe DiMaggio dies |
Sources: "The Marilyn Chronicles" by Milburn Smith a.o. for Starlog, The Marilyn Encyclopedia by Adam Victor, Modern Screen, Movieland, Silver Screen, Picturegoer, Photoplay, Linda Pound | |
Recommended Books: Fifties Blondes by Richard Koper | |
Links: Filmography Official Site The Marilyn Pages Silver Screen Sirens: Marilyn Monroe Dedicated to Marilyn Monroe Tribute to Marilyn Marilyn Monroe - Tribute to a Legend Find A Grave |