English
Generally, one doesn´t begin reviewing the life of someone with their death, but when it´s the 50th anniversary of the death of someone, we want to do it like this. Marilyn Monroe died on the 5th of August 1962. There´s no doubt about the fact that she was one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, an icon that became a legend, one of the figures that has created the most merchandising. However, behind this figure there´s a person of whom little is known about, eclipsed behind her role as a star. After a difficult childhood, from family to family, with various sexual abuses before she turned 12, the future wasn´t smiling at Norma Jeane Mortensen (later Baker after her mother´s surname).
She got married for the first time at the age of 16 and began to work occasionally as a model at the age of 19. At that time, Norma decided to dye her hair blonde.
After her first divorce, she began to participate in auditions for films and TV series, finally being hired by 20th Century Fox. It was Ben Lyon, one of the cast executives, who suggested she changed her name: Marilyn as a tribute to the actress Marilyn Miller and Monroe because it was her mother´s maiden name.
In the 1950s Marilyn was already a big star, America´s blonde bride. In 1954 she married what was perhaps her only true love but also the most brief one, the baseball player Joe DiMaggio, a marriage that lasted only a few months. In 1956 she married the playwright Arthur Miller, who also wrote scripts for films that she was in, such as ´The Misfits´. At that time, Marilyn had already began attending psychoanalytic therapy and she had emotionally unstable periods, although perhaps those traits were always present in her mood and lifestyle.
Perhaps she was never ready to face the price of fame. She always felt misunderstood and alone, as various of her writings tell. Desired by everyone (even John F. Kennedy, the United States president, of whom she was a lover), but probably never given true love by anyone. Her beauty overshadowed her acting skills, something that was difficult for her to take.
Her flirting with alcohol and barbiturates brought her to her death in 1962, just as she´d turned 32. There has always been a lot of speculation on Marilyn´s death, and it´s always been presented as a suicide despite that other hypothesis have been mentioned, such as homicide by interests or a conspiracy.
In 2011, various books about her were published as well as some unreleased photographs. In November 2011, the film ´My Week With Marilyn´, directed by Simon Curtis, was premiered in the United States, with Michelle Williams playing the role of the diva. It premiered in Europe soon after.
2012 will be the year of the unforgettable platinum blonde who left us memorable performances such as ´Gentlemen Prefer Blondes´, River of No Return´, ´Some Like it Hot´ and ´The Misfits´.
If 2011 was full of Marilyn, 2012 will be even more so, because there are stars that will never fade. New York is a city that will always remind us of the great actress so follow her footsteps and rent apartments in New york
