Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles. Norma Jean Mortensen was her actual given name. Monroe bounced between foster homes and guardians until she married 21-year-old Jim Dougherty at the age of 16.
Her mother suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, financial struggle, and her father’s absence. When she was 18, a photographer noticed her working in a weapons factory, and that’s when her modeling career started.
In the midst of her rising fame, her marriage failed. Before receiving her big break as the lead in several iconic movies including How to Marry a Millionaire, she acted in tiny roles as femme fatales and mistresses.
Her roles in Love Nest (1951), Monkey Business (1952) and Niagara (1953) launched her acting career in the early 1950s. She gained international recognition for her sex-symbol appearances in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and more, where she was praised for her full figure and utterly captivating feminine eyes.
Her comedy abilities were on display in The Seven-Year Itch (1955), which includes the iconic moment in which she is standing over a subway grating with her white skirt billowed up by the wind from a passing train.
Following the recent release of Netflix’s Blonde, a fictionalized account of Marilyn’s life, it appears that everyone is curious about the famous actress, especially how she passed away.
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, a Netflix documentary that explores the specifics of her death, was released in April and features Ana de Armas in addition to the new movie. She was a highly prominent figure, yet her life was generally private.
Everyone was left scratching their heads, wondering what in the world happened to Marilyn when the mega-sensation and sex icon of the 1950s passed away unexpectedly at the age of 36. Monroe, who was born in 1926 as Norma Jeane Mortenson, rose to stardom in 1953 and quickly established herself as the humorous “blonde bombshell.”
Marilyn Monroe, undoubtedly, was the first and biggest world’s sex symbol. The icon had the sexual revolution for that time between the 1950s and 1960s to her name.
In the early hours of August 5, 1962, Marilyn was discovered dead, the result of a suspected overdose of sleeping pills. Her autopsy revealed a lethal dose of “barbiturates” in her system. Monroe’s housekeeper, Eunice Murray, had spent the night at Monroe’s Brentwood, Los Angeles residence on the evening of her passing.
The housekeeper sensed something was unusual and, upon observing a light on in Monroe’s bedroom, attempted to enter. However, the bedroom door appeared to be blocked or locked.
Murray reached out to Monroe’s Los Angeles psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, who entered Monroe’s bedroom through a window and discovered the star unresponsive in her bed. Monroe’s doctor arrived at 3:50 am, declaring her deceased at the scene.
Marilyn Monroe’s death was officially ruled as an overdose, but it gave rise to various conspiracy theories suggesting foul play. Questions arose concerning Monroe’s rumored affairs with both President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who some believe visited her on the night of her demise.
There were even allegations of CIA involvement in her death. The intensity of the controversy prompted the Los Angeles Police Department to reopen her case two decades after her passing. However, her death remained attributed to a drug overdose.
The official explanation is that Marilyn succumbed to an overdose. The autopsy revealed that her death resulted from acute combined drug toxicity, involving chloral hydrate (a calming medication typically used before surgeries) and Nembutal (a sedative and anticonvulsant).
Remarkably, no water glass was discovered in her room, which she would have required to ingest such a large quantity of pills, and there was no pill residue in her stomach. Some experts have suggested that this implies a possible injection of the drugs. Notably, samples taken from Monroe’s stomach and small intestines for further tests were never conducted.
At the time of her demise, Monroe’s career had encountered some setbacks. Her two most recent films, “Let’s Make Love” and “The Misfits,” reportedly underperformed at the box office. Nevertheless, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, her career was still on an upward trajectory, with an invitation for a lead role in a new musical from the creator of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” found on her table at home.
