This listing is for an 8x10 size picture of legendary actress Marilyn Monroe. 

We have many more rare pictures of Marilyn. 

CLICK HERE to see more Marilyn Monroe pictures on sale.

We are a proud Ebay confirmed Paypal member.  Buy with confidence.

CLICK HERE to see all celebrity pictures on sale.

Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortensen, June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) is possibly the twentieth-century's most famous movie star, sex symbol and pop icon. Monroe's rise to stardom began when she was recruited to do magazine modeling while her first husband was in the Merchant Marine. She did most of her films for 20th Century Fox, where she adopted the name with which she gained superstardom. After acting in bit roles for several years, she gradually became known for her comedic skills and remarkable screen presence. Later in her career, she worked toward serious roles with a measure of success. However, constant publicity and romantic disappointments excaberated longstanding personal problems. The circumstances surrounding her death have been the subject of much speculation, but have not tarnished her reputation as one of the most legendary public figures of all time.

Although she would eventually become one of the most celebrated actors in film history, Monroe's beginnings were humble. She was born in the charity ward of the Los Angeles County Hospital. Her registered name was Norma Jeane Mortensen (her grandmother, Della Monroe Grainger, later had her baptized Norma Jeane Baker). Most biographers believe her biological father was Charles Stanley Gifford, a salesman for the studio where Monroe's mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe Baker Eley, worked as a film-cutter. However, her birth certificate lists Norwegian Martin Edward Mortensen as her father, and in later years some biographers have leaned towards believing that is the case.

Gladys was unable to persuade Della to look after Norma Jeane, so she was placed with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender of Hawthorne, California, southwest of Los Angeles, where she lived until she was seven years old. In her autobiography My Story, Monroe states she thought Albert and Ida were her parents until one day, rather rudely, Ida corrected her.

Again according to My Story, Gladys visited Norma Jeane every Saturday, but never smiled, hugged or kissed her. At some point, Gladys announced that she had bought a house for herself and her daughter, but a few months after they moved in, she suffered a mental breakdown. Monroe recalled Gladys "screaming and laughing" as she was forcibly removed to the State Mental Hospital in Norwalk, California, the same hospital where Gladys' mother Della had died in August 1927. Gladys' father, Otis, had also died in a mental hospital (near San Bernardino, California) as a result of syphilis.

However, it should be noted that My Story is not to be considered a trustworthy source, as it was ghost-written by the journalist Ben Hecht and designed to colour Monroe's image as a long-suffering orphan. Its factual claims have been considered suspicious.

Norma Jeane was declared a ward of state and Gladys' best friend, Grace McKee (later Goddard) became her guardian. After McKee married in 1935, Norma Jeane was sent to the Los Angeles orphanage and then to a long succession of foster homes where it is alleged she was subjected to abuse and neglect. There is little evidence, however, that she lived in as many foster homes as claimed. Moreover, Monroe herself is known to have given exaggerated information about her childhood during interviews.

In September 1941, Norma Jeane was reunited with her mother. The Goddard family, however, were moving to the East Coast and felt it would be best if 15-year old Norma Jeane were to marry, as otherwise she would have had to return to the orphanage. She had been introduced to a neighbor's son, James Dougherty, who would become her first husband, in 1942, after she turned 16.

Early years

While her husband was away fighting in World War II, the young Mrs. Norma Jeane Dougherty began work in a factory spraying airplane parts with fire retardant. A young army photographer, David Conover, scouted local factories taking photos for a YANK magazine article about women contributing to the war effort. He immediately saw her potential as a model and she was soon signed by The Blue Book modelling agency. She became one of their most successful models, appearing on hundreds of magazine covers. In 1946 she came to the attention of talent scout Ben Lyon. He arranged a screen test for her with 20th Century Fox. She passed and was offered a standard six-month contract with a starting salary of $75 per week, the high end of industry standard. She was given the name Marilyn after the actress Marilyn Miller and suggested her mother's maiden name Monroe as her surname. Thus the twenty-year old Norma Jeane Baker became "Marilyn Monroe".

During her first six months at 20th Century Fox, Monroe was given no acting work. Instead, she learned about hair, make-up, costumes, acting and lighting. After six months Fox decided to renew her contract and in the following six months she was given very minor roles in two movies, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! and Dangerous Years, both released in 1947. Both films failed at the box office and Fox decided not to renew her contract again. Monroe returned to modelling and began to network and make contacts in Hollywood.

In 1948, a six-month stint at Columbia Pictures saw her star in one movie, Ladies of the Chorus, but the low-budget musical was not a success and Monroe was dropped yet again. She then met one of Hollywood's top agents, Johnny Hyde, who had Fox re-sign her after MGM had turned her down. Fox Vice-President Darryl F. Zanuck was not convinced of Monroe's star potential. However, due to Hyde's persistence, she gained supporting parts in All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle. Even though these two roles were minor, movie-goers took notice and Monroe began receiving more fan mail than some top-billed movie stars of the time.

Monroe played her first role as a leading lady (excluding Ladies of the Chorus) in 1952's Don't Bother To Knock, portraying a deranged babysitter who, in a rage, attacks the little girl in her care. Although it received mixed reviews, Monroe later claimed it to be one of her favorite performances. Her turn in the film has later been acknowledged as one of the strongest of her career by many critics.

Stardom

Although critics were, at first, unwilling to admit Monroe's abilities as a dramatic actress, they were left in no doubt about her sex appeal. Monroe was now carrying a big-budget thriller, Niagara, in 1953. Movie critics focused on Monroe's connection with the camera as much as the sinister plot. Niagara helped Monroe become an overnight sensation. Her turn as the unbalanced easy virtue, Rose Loomis, who is planning to murder her equally neurotic husband, led movie critics to claim Monroe would have been the perfect leading lady in an Alfred Hitchcock film.

It was around this time that nude photos of Monroe began to surface, taken by photographer Tom Kelley when she had been struggling for work. Prints were bought by Hugh Hefner and in December 1953 appeared in the first edition of his new magazine, Playboy. Even though Fox was worried that it might lead to a career-damaging controversy, Monroe decided to publicly admit it was indeed her posing in the pictures. To a journalist asking what she had on during the photoshoot, she replied: "The radio." When asked what she wore in bed, she said: "Chanel No. 5." Later on, both became iconic one-liners.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, both released in 1953, cemented Monroe's status as an A-list screen actress and she quickly became arguably the world's biggest movie star.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is regarded as one of the best comedies of all-time by many critics. Monroe's self-ironic turn as the gold-digging showgirl Lorelei Lee is generally considered to be one of her most alluring on-screen efforts. Her rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is among the best-known scenes in movie history.

In How to Marry a Millionaire, Monroe was teamed up with two other major sex symbols, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable. She played a short-sighted dumb blonde named Pola Debevoise and managed to shine even among her charismatic co-stars. Even though the role was in many ways a stereotype, Monroe garnered favorable reviews, and critics took note of her comedic timing. In Europe, she was already getting recognition for her acting skills, up to the extent that she was compared to Charles Chaplin.

Her next two films, the western River of No Return and the musical There's No Business Like Show Business, were not successful, partly due to the fact that Monroe wasn't given much to work with. Monroe, ambitious as ever and striving to face challenges, got tired of the roles that Zanuck assigned her. After completing work on The Seven Year Itch in early 1955, she broke her contract and fled Hollywood to study acting at The Actors Studio in New York. Fox would not accede on her new contract demands and insisted she return to start work on productions she considered inappropriate, such as The Girl In Pink Tights (which was never filmed), The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, and How To Be Very, Very Popular.

Monroe refused to appear in these films and stayed in New York. As The Seven Year Itch raced to the top of the box office in the summer of 1955, with other Fox starlets Jayne Mansfield and Sheree North failing to click with audience, Zanuck admitted defeat and Monroe triumphantly returned to Hollywood. A new contract was drawn up, giving Monroe complete directorial approval as well as the option to act in other studios' projects.

The first film to be made under the contract was Bus Stop, directed by Joshua Logan. Critics immediately took note of Monroe's profound approach on the character she played. Generally praised for her performance as Cherie, a saloon bar singer who falls in love with a cowboy, Monroe deliberately appeared badly made-up and non-glamorous. A lot of people believe she should have been nominated for an Academy Award. She did, however, get a Golden Globe nod.

Monroe formed her own production company with friend and photographer Milton H. Greene. Marilyn Monroe Productions released its first film The Prince and the Showgirl in 1957 to mixed reviews. Along with executive-producing the film, she starred opposite the acclaimed British actor Laurence Olivier, who directed it. Unfortunately, the chemistry between the two was lacking, not surprising given Olivier's fury at her "unprofessional" behavior and Monroe's reputation in the film industry for being difficult only grew. Monroe's performance as songstress Elsie Marina, however, was hailed as a first-rate characterization by the critics of the time, especially in Europe, where she was handed the David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent of the Academy Award, as well as the French Crystal Star Award. Furthermore, Monroe got nominated for the much valued BAFTA award.

Later years

In 1959 she scored the biggest hit of her career starring alongside Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot. Her difficult behavior on the set is now legendary, as well as her numerous retakes. However, when the shooting was over with, Wilder stated that he would have been willing to go through the hard times with Monroe any time again, hailing her a first-rate comedienne. Some Like It Hot is now consistently rated as one of the best comedy films ever made. Monroe's performance as the promiscuous, constantly drinking but compassionate singer Sugar Kane was awarded with a Golden Globe for best actress in musical or comedy.

After Some Like It Hot, Monroe did a musical named Let's Make Love directed by George Cukor and co-starring Yves Montand. Monroe, Montand and Cukor all considered the script subpar, yet Monroe was forced to make the film because of her obligations to Twentieth Century Fox. While the film was not a commercial or critical success, it included one of Monroe's legendary musical numbers, Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy".

By 1961, Monroe's third husband, the playwright Arthur Miller, had written and worked on what became her and her co-star Clark Gable's last completed film, The Misfits. It was a long and exhausting shoot in the middle of the hot Nevada desert. Monroe's tardiness became chronic and the shoot was troublesome all the way through. Despite all this, Monroe, Gable and Montgomery Clift were able to deliver performances that are now considered excellent, even iconic. Monroe became friends with Clift, with whom she felt a deep connection. Gable died of a heart attack soon after, and some blamed this on Monroe, claiming she had given him a hard time on the set. Gable had, however, insisted on doing his own stunts and was a heavy smoker and drinker, and the general consensus was that he simply got physically exhausted. Monroe did attend his funeral.

Monroe returned to Hollywood to resume filming on an already troubled picture, Something's Got to Give. In May 1962, Monroe made her last significant public appearance, singing Happy Birthday, Mr. President at a televised birthday party for President John F. Kennedy. After shooting what was claimed to have been the first ever nude scene by a major motion picture actress, Monroe's attendance became even more erratic due to illness.

Already in a financial strain due to production costs of Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Fox used Monroe's absences as an excuse to drop Monroe from the film, sue her, and then replace her with Lee Remick. However, a clause in co-star Dean Martin's contract gave him approval over the film's leading lady. As he was unwilling to work with anyone else, Monroe was rehired for double her original salary.

Monroe conducted a lengthy interview with Life Magazine, in which she expressed how bitter she was about Hollywood labeling her as a dumb blonde and how much she loved her audience. She also did a photo shoot for Vogue, and began discussing a future film project with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. She was also planning to star in a biopic as Jean Harlow. Other projects being considered for her were What a Way to Go! and The Stripper.

Before the shooting of Something's Got to Give resumed, however, Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home, on the morning of August 5, 1962. Her death, officially ruled to be a probable suicide by drug overdose, has since been found to contain instances of unprofessional handling of the investigation. It has become the subject of conspiracy theories, but these have done little to dent her iconic status as the archetypal sex symbol and movie star.

Marriages

James Dougherty

Age sixteen, Monroe married James Dougherty on June 19, 1942. In his books The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe and To Norma Jeane With Love, Jimmie, Dougherty claimed they were in love and would have lived happily ever after had dreams of stardom not lured her away. Monroe, however, always maintained theirs was a marriage of convenience. Marilyn divorced Dougherty on September 13, 1946.

In the 2004 documentary Marilyn's Man, Dougherty made three significant claims: he invented the "Marilyn Monroe" persona; Fox forced her to divorce him; and she always yearned to return to him. There is no evidence to support these claims, nor that they remained in touch (she was an unknown in 1946, so his claim Fox "forced" a divorce is unlikely.) She was reportedly furious when he gave an interview to Photoplay in 1953, claiming that she threatened to jump off the Santa Monica Pier if he ever left her. He later appeared as a contestant on To Tell the Truth as "Marilyn Monroe's real first husband".

Dougherty's own actions did not support his claims of being Monroe's Svengali or her true love. He remarried only a few months after their divorce. When informed of her death, the New York Times reported he simply said "I'm sorry" and continued his LAPD patrol; he did not attend her funeral. In an interview for the A&E Network, he admitted that his mother had been approached by Grace Goddard and asked him if he'd be willing to marry Norma Jeane to prevent her from being sent to an orphanage.

Dougherty remained married to his third wife until her death in 2003. He lived in Maine until his death from complications due to leukemia on August 15, 2005, having outlived Monroe and all her other husbands.

Joe DiMaggio

In 1951 baseball star Joe DiMaggio saw a picture of Monroe with two Chicago White Sox players, but waited until his retirement before asking the man who arranged the picture to set up a date. Monroe did not want to meet him, fearing a stereotypical jock, but after a two-year courtship they eloped and married at San Francisco's City Hall on January 14, 1954. During the honeymoon, she was asked to visit Korea to entertain the troops. She performed ten shows over four days in freezing temperatures. Her audience consisted of more than 100,000 soldiers and marines. Reportedly, Joe was not pleased with his wife's decision during what he wanted to be an intimate honeymoon. Monroe biographer Fred Guiles speculated that Joe, knowing first-hand the power and hollowness of fame, wanted desperately to head off what he was convinced was Marilyn's "collison-course with disaster."

DiMaggio biographer Maury Allen quoted New York Yankees PR man Arthur Richman that DiMaggio told him everything went wrong from the trip to Japan on. Although Marilyn said she wanted to settle down, she was intent on continuing her career. Friends claimed that DiMaggio became possessive and controlling as Monroe grew increasingly defiant of his wishes. After filming the notorious skirt-blowing scene in The Seven Year Itch, Billy Wilder recalled the "look of death" on DiMaggio's face as he watched with fans and extras. Co-star Tom Ewell told the Louisville Courier-Journal decades later that Wilder set the whole scenario up, and had a fan placed under the subway grate that would blow her dress over her head. DiMaggio biographer Richard Ben Cramer claims that Joe was so "disgusted" by Marilyn's "sloppiness" he began to abuse her. Her makeup man, Allan "Whitey" Snyder, recalled that Marilyn later appeared on set with bruises on her upper arms. On October 27, 274 days after the wedding, she filed for divorce on grounds of mental cruelty.

Monroe and DiMaggio resumed their relationship after her divorce from Arthur Miller. She was returning to her self-destructive ways, falling in with people DiMaggio felt detrimental to her (including Frank Sinatra and his "Rat Pack"). The state of her physical and mental health became widely speculated upon by gossip columnists. Monroe's psychiatrist arranged for her to be admitted to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. Unable to voluntarily check herself out, she called DiMaggio. On February 10, 1961, he secured her release (she was reportedly placed in the ward for the most seriously disturbed). She later joined him in Florida. Their "just good friends" claims did not stop rumors of remarriage. At the 1960 Academy Awards telecast, Bob Hope jokingly dedicated Best Song nominee The Second Time Around to them. According to Maury Allen, on August 1, 1962 DiMaggio quit his job with a military post exchange (PX) to return to California and ask her to remarry him.

For twenty years, DiMaggio had a dozen red roses delivered to Monroe's crypt three times a week. Unlike her other two husbands, or the men who claimed to have known her intimately, he never talked about her publicly or "cashed in" on the relationship. He never remarried. He died on March 8, 1999, of lung cancer.

On January 23, 2006 it was announced that DiMaggio's granddaughters will have his personal items auctioned in May, among them a photo Monroe inscribed to him: "I love you Joe."

Arthur Miller

On June 29, 1956, Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller, whom she had first met in 1951, in a civil ceremony. A Jewish wedding followed two days later (she had converted to Judaism.) After she finished shooting The Prince and the Showgirl, the couple returned to the States from England and discovered she was pregnant. However, she suffered from endometriosis and the pregnancy was found to be ectopic; it was aborted to save her life. A subsequent pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

By 1958, she was the couple's main breadwinner. Not only did she pay alimony to Miller's first wife but he reportedly charged her production company for buying and shipping a Jaguar to the United States. His screenplay for The Misfits was meant to be a Valentine gift for his wife, but by the time filming started in 1960 their marriage was broken beyond repair. A Mexican divorce was granted on January 24, 1961. On February 17, 1962, Miller married the Austrian-born Inge Morath, one of the Magnum photographers recording the making of The Misfits.

In January 1964, Miller's After the Fall opened, featuring a beautiful, child-like, yet devouring shrew named Maggie. The similarities between Maggie and Monroe did not go unnoticed by audiences and critics (including Helen Hayes), many of whom sympathized with the unfortunate fact that as she was no longer alive, she could not defend herself to such a portrayal. His last Broadway-bound work, Finishing the Picture, was based on the making of The Misfits and again painted a similar portrait. In interviews, he described her as "highly self-destructive." He told Vanity Fair what "killed" her was not some conspiracy, but the fact that she was Marilyn Monroe. In his 1987 autobiography Timebends, Miller elaborated on her and their marriage while defending his actions. He died on February 10, 2005, at the age of 89.

Death and aftermath

Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood, California home by her live-in housekeeper Mrs. Eunice Murray on August 5, 1962. She was only 36 years old. Her death was apparently caused by an overdose of sleeping pills, though several theories have sprung up around the circumstances.