The Prince and The Show Girl - The Legend of Marilyn Monroe

The Prince and The Show Girl - The Legend of Marilyn Monroe

                                                                   

Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 - August 5, 1962) is a cultural icon after 53 years of her death.  When I write this Blog on this day, June 1, 2015 had she lived, Marilyn Monroe would have turned 89.  The American actress, model and singer ruled Hollywood as one of the most beautiful actress and sex symbol.

Born as Norma Jean she accepted the screen name of Marilyn Monroe while making her debut in films.  

Marilyn Monroe had relationship with many influential as well as politically powerful men in her life like John and Robert  Kennedy.    Her colorful life and mysterious death was a matter of great significance for her biographer.  The star and a muse Marilyn was a photographer’s delight.  The heavenly beauty was the ultimate dream girl.

Madhubala,  the  yester year Bollywood  actress  was  India’s answer to the beauty of Marilyn Monroe and was her contemporary.

There were many Bollywood and regional film actresses who met with the end of their life in mysterious circumstances and suspected suicide like Marilyn Monroe.  

Parveen Babi,  the Bollywood actress had relationship with many influential people such as  Film Director, Bollywood Actors and Spiritual Philosopher  and had a long time depression before meeting with the end of  her life in mysterious circumstances like Marilyn Monroe.  She was using liberal doses of Marijuana and LSD during her last days. Parveen Babi, the bollywood siren  was found dead in her cozy apartment in Juhu, Mumbai  on January, 20, 2005 after her residential society secretary complained to the police that she had not collected milk and newspapers from her doorstep for two days.  Parveen Babi was a frontline Bollywood actress and acted in many blockbuster Hindi films.

The mallu film actresses Vijayashree and Shobha and the Tamil film actress Silk Smitha also met with somewhat similar fate.

The classic scene of Marilyn Monroe, the blonde bomb shell’s skirt getting billowed out in the wind by a passing train is famous.  Many other film makers copied that scene like the scene picturised  on Kelly LeBrock  in 1984 release “The Women in Red”.

A brief biography  -

Marilyn Monroe was born in Los Angeles County Hospital, the third child of Gladys Baker on June 1, 1926. Her mother was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jean aka Marilyn Monroe was reared by a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage. At the age of 16, she married a fellow worker in an aircraft factory, but they divorced a few years later. She took up modeling in 1944 and in 1946 signed a short-term contract with 20th Century Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe. She had a few bit parts and then returned to modeling, famously posing nude for a calendar in 1949.

She began to attract attention as an actress in 1950 after appearing in minor roles in the The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. Although she was onscreen only briefly playing a mistress in both films, audiences took note of the blonde bombshell, and she won a new contract from Fox. Her acting career took off in the early 1950s with performances in Love Nest (1951), Monkey Business (1952), and Niagara (1953).

Celebrated for her voluptuousness and wide-eyed charm, the Goddess of beauty, she won international fame for her sex-symbol roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954). The Seven-Year Itch (1955) showcased her comedic talents.  In 1954, she married baseball great Joe DiMaggio, attracting further publicity, but they divorced eight months later.

         

In 1955, she studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City and subsequently gave a strong performance as a hapless entertainer in Bus Stop (1956). In 1956, she married playwright Arthur Miller. She made The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier in 1957 which was a box office thud but in 1959 gave an acclaimed performance in the hit comedy Some Like It Hot. Her last role, in The Misfits (1961), was directed by John Huston and written by Miller, whom she divorced just one week before the film’s opening.  The unknown details of her final performance only add to her mystique.

    

          

On August 5, 1962, movie actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los Angeles. She was discovered lying nude on her bed, face down, with a telephone in one hand. Empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around the room. After a brief investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was “caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide.”

Marilyn Monroe’s film Some Like it Hot became a resounding success, and was nominated for six Academy Awards. Monroe was acclaimed for her performance and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Wilder commented that the film was the biggest success he had ever been associated with.

                                 

Bus Stop was followed by The Prince and the Showgirl directed by Laurence Olivier, who also co-starred. Prior to filming, Olivier praised Monroe as "a brilliant comedienne, which to me means she is also an extremely skilled actress". During filming in England he resented Monroe's dependence on her drama coach, Paula Strasberg, regarding Strasberg as a fraud whose only talent was the ability to "butter Marilyn up". He recalled his attempts at explaining a scene to Monroe, only to hear Strasberg interject, "Honey—just think of Coca-Cola and Frank Sinatra. Olivier later commented that in the film "Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all. Monroe's performance was hailed by critics, especially in Europe, where she won the David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent of an Academy Award, as well as the French Crystal Star Award. She was also nominated for a BAFTA. It was more than a year before Monroe began her next film. During her hiatus, she summered with Miller in Amagansett, New York. In 1956, she was pictured in Life magazine with Victor Mature greeting the Queen of the United Kingdom.

Marilyn Monroe was voted 'Sexiest Woman of the Century' by People Magazine.

There is no business like show business.  The beauty queen Marilyn was the dream girl during her life and times and conquered billions of hearts across the world.  Now more than a half century later, the world is still fascinated by her beauty and talent.

A fond adieu, Marilyn the Venus of Beauty!