Like her art, Marilyn Monroe was rooted in paradox: She was a powerful star and a childlike waif; a joyful, irreverent party girl with a deeply spiritual side; a superb friend and a narcissist; a dumb blonde and an intellectual. No previous biographer has recognized-much less attempted to analyze-most of these aspects of her personality. Lois Banner has. With new details about Marilyn's childhood foster homes, her sexual abuse, her multiple marriages, her affairs, and her untimely death at the age of thirty-six, Marilyn is, at last, the nuanced biography Monroe fans have been waiting for.
Written at the height of her fame but not published until over a decade after her death, this autobiography of actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) poignantly recounts her childhood as an unwanted orphan, her early adolescence, her rise in the film industry from bit player to celebrity, and her marriage to Joe DiMaggio. In this intimate account of a very public life, she tells of her first (non-consensual) sexual experience, her romance with the Yankee Clipper, and her prescient vision of herself as "the kind of girl they found dead in the hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand." The Marilyn in these pages is a revelation: a gifted, intelligent, vulnerable woman who was far more complex than the unwitting sex siren she portrayed on screen. Lavishly illustrated with photos of Marilyn, this special book celebrates the life and career of an American icon—-from the unique perspective of the icon herself.
Offers insight into the actress's foster childhood, the previously undisclosed Laurence Olivier papers related to the filming of "The Prince and the Showgirl," and her lesser-known private life.
From New York Times bestselling author J. Randy Taraborrelli comes the definitive biography of the most enduring icon in popular American culture. When Marilyn Monroe became famous in the 1950s, the world was told that her mother was either dead or simply not a part of her life. However, that was not true. In fact, her mentally ill mother was very much present in Marilyn's world and the complex family dynamic that unfolded behind the scenes is a story that has never before been told...until now. In this groundbreaking book, Taraborrelli draws complex and sympathetic portraits of the women so influential in the actress' life, including her mother, her foster mother, and her legal guardian. He also reveals, for the first time, the shocking scope of Marilyn's own mental illness, the identity of Marilyn's father and the half-brother she never knew, and new information about her relationship with the Kennedy's-Bobby, Jack, and Pat Kennedy Lawford. Explosive, revelatory, and surprisingly moving, this is the final word on the life of one of the most fascinating and elusive icons of the 20th Century.
Fulfilling Marilyn Monroe's dream of putting together a picture book-autobiography, the author, a personal friend of Marilyn's, provides a fascinating glimpse into her life, in this stunning tribute to one of America's most beloved celebrities, who would have been seventy-five years old on June 1, 2001. Reprint.
The daughter of acting teachers Lee and Paula Strasberg discusses her relationship with Marilyn Monroe when the screen idol came to New York to study with her parents
In 1973, Norman Mailer published 'Marilyn', his celebrated in-depth account of the life of Marilyn Monroe, as a glossy, fully illustrated coffee-table tome. Now, it has been made available in an accessible mass-market paperback edition.
In July 1956, Marilyn Monroe arrived in London—on honeymoon with her husband Arthur Miller—to make The Prince and the Showgirl with Sir Laurence Olivier. It was meant to be a happy time . . . "I am dying to walk bare-headed in the rain. I think England sounds adorable.”—Marilyn Monroe Marilyn would work during the day at Pinewood Studios, in Iver Heath, while Arthur would write. Then, in the evening, the couple would be able to relax together in their private English country cottage. But the cottage was a mansion, in Englefield Green, and Marilyn, used to living in tiny hotel rooms and apartments, felt herself being watched. She was, by several of owner Lord Drogheda's servants, who were selling stories to the papers. And when filming began, all did not go as hoped. Over time, Marilyn grew to hate Olivier; the feeling was mutual. Marilyn found herself a curiosity for the frequently hostile British press. She took solace in bike rides in Windsor Great Park, in small acts of kindness from members of the public, and in a growing fascination with Queen Elizabeth, whom she longed to meet—and eventually did.
Traces the passionate and sometimes volatile relationship between Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, covering their sensational 1954 elopement and the troubles that led to their divorce nine months later.
An intimate memoir recalling a young photographer's relationship with Marilyn Monroe just months before her death, with extraordinary photographs, some of which have never been published. "With the precision of a surgeon, Schiller slices through the façade of Marilyn Monroe in his unflinching memoir. Revealing and readable, it’s a book I couldn’t put down." —Tina Brown When he pulled his station wagon into the 20th Century-Fox studios parking lot in Los Angeles in 1960, twenty-three-year-old Lawrence Schiller kept telling himself that this was just another assignment, just another pretty girl. But the assignment and the girl were anything but ordinary. Schiller was a photographer for Look magazine and his subject was Marilyn Monroe, America's sweetheart and sex symbol. In this intimate memoir, Schiller recalls the friendship that developed between him and Monroe while he photographed her in Hollywood in 1960 and 1962 on the sets of Let's Make Love and the unfinished feature Something's Got to Give, the last film she worked on. Schiller recalls Marilyn as tough and determined, enormously insecure as an actress but totally self-assured as a photographer’s model. Monroe knew how to use her looks and sexuality to generate publicity, and in 1962 she allowed Schiller to publish the first nude photographs of her in over ten years, which she then used as a weapon against a studio that wanted to have her fired—and ultimately succeeded. The Marilyn Schiller knew and writes about was adept at hiding deep psychological scars, but she was also warm and open, candid and disarming, a movie star who wished to be taken more seriously than she was. Accompanying the text are eighteen of the author’s own photographs, some never previously published. Many writers have tried to capture her essence on the page, but as someone who was in the room, a young man Marilyn could connect with and trust, Schiller gives us a unique look at the real woman offscreen. "In this short, splendid memoir, Lawrence Schiller offers us another cut on the scintillating diamond that is Marilyn Monroe. In clear honest straightforward prose, Schiller allows us to dwell in the heart of another time. He captures Marilyn, both in photographs and words, and in so doing he gives us intimate access into one of the great stories of the 20th century: the complicated cocktail of joy and sadness that goes along with both beauty and fame." —Colum McCann
