We’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn’t know that Marilyn Monroe was born in Los Angeles, California as Norma Jeane Mortenson (later baptized Norma Jean Baker), or about the famous men she married—James Dougherty, Joe DiMaggio, and playwright Arthur Miller.
Most people know that the American sweetheart solidified her sex-symbol status with her femme fatale role in Niagara. In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, with co-star Jane Russell, she flaunted her triple-threat versatility with an unforgettable performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” And, with features like How to Marry a Millionaire, The Seven Year Itch, The Prince and The Showgirl, and Some Like It Hot, she popularized the “dumb blonde” stereotype—for better or for worse.
But there was much more to the bombshell than her well-known stage name, relationships, and the radical reinvention she underwent to become one of Hollywood’s most iconic (and marketable) stars.
For instance, Monroe had a challenging childhood, spent in 10 foster homes and two orphanages; her mother, Gladys, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was admitted to a mental health facility for most of her adolescence. To escape her reality, the screen siren often sought solace at the cinema, harboring dreams of one day becoming an actor.
In honor of the legendary star, here, find six things you likely didn’t know about Marilyn Monroe.
1. Monroe’s signature breathy speaking voice was actually a tactic the actress used to overcome a childhood stutter.
A speech therapist reportedly trained her to adopt the throaty style, and it ended up becoming one of her standout traits as an actress and singer. While Monroe was filming her final movie, Something’s Got to Give, her stutter returned, making it very difficult for the actress to deliver her lines. 20th Century Fox later fired her from the film.
2. Monroe was supposed to play Holly Golightly in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
“She was Truman Capote’s first choice,” Sam Wasson, author of Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman, told ABC News. “Another thing you may not know: Marilyn didn’t take the part in part because Paula Strasberg, her advisor and acting coach, said she should not be playing a lady of the evening.” Capote, author of the 1958 novella, was reportedly very disappointed that the studio went with Hepburn, saying, “Paramount double-crossed me in every way and cast Audrey.”
3. The nude, crystal-covered gown Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to John F. Kennedy in 1962 was so tight, she had to be sewn into the dress.
“It was skin-colored, and it was skintight. It was sewn on, covered with brilliant crystals,” Life photographer Bill Ray said in 2014. “There was this long, long pause . . . and finally, she comes out with this unbelievably breathy, ‘Happy biiiiirthday to youuuu,’ and everybody just went into a swoon.” Monroe’s dress sold at auction in 1999 for $1.26 million, setting a record price for a single item of clothing.
4. Speaking of auctions, a number of celebrities have purchased Monroe mementos.
Mariah Carey bought the actress’s white baby grand piano, which originally belonged to Monroe’s mother, for $662,500 in 1999. Tommy Hilfiger purchased the blue jeans Monroe wore in 1954’s River of No Return for $37,000. “They had a great fit, a great patina, a great fabric, a great hand feel—and she wore them while filming a great movie,” Hilfiger said. The designer also bought a pair of square-toe cowgirl boots for $75,000 that Monroe wore in The Misfits and gifted them to Demi Moore. “Demi [wanted] me to buy the boots so she can wear them,” Hilfiger said. The shoes were a little big for Moore, but the actress was committed to wearing them: “I’d make them work—stuff the toes or something.” Then, of course, there was Kim Kardashian wearing Monroe’s infamous “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” gown to the 2022 Met Gala—even if the piece was actually on loan from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum.
5. Though Monroe appeared on the very first edition of Playboy, in 1953, the magazine’s silk robe–wearing founder never met the starlet.
“She was actually in my brother’s acting class in New York. But the reality is that I never met her,” Hugh Hefner once said. “I talked to her once on the phone, but I never met her. She was gone, sadly, before I came out here.” In 1992, Hefner purchased the crypt next to Monroe’s for $75,000. “I will be laid to rest in a vault next to hers,” Hefner has said. “It has a completion notion to it. I will be spending the rest of my eternity with Marilyn.”
6. Monroe passed away en route to the hospital, not in her Brentwood home
Those who watched Emma Cooper’s The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes won’t be surprised by this revelation. Monroe's death was officially ruled a “probable suicide” due to her dependency on barbiturates and struggles with her mental health. But after a three-year investigation, Pulitzer Prize finalist Anthony Summers introduced a new timeline of events on that fateful night. According to his interview with ambulance company owner Walter Schaefer, Monroe was still alive on the ambulance’s arrival, but died in transit, leading them to bring her back home…? The finding only raises more more questions about Monroe’s purported drug overdose, but, as they say, there’s no business like show business…