In 1992, Madonna starred in A League of Their Own as Mae Mordabito, a baseball player on an all-women's team.It reached number one on the box-office and became the tenth-highest-grossing film of the year in the US.She recorded the film's theme song, "This Used to Be My Playground", which became her tenth number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, the most by any female artist at the time. In April, Madonna founded her own entertainment company, Maverick, consisting of a record company (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), and associated music publishing, television broadcasting, book publishing and merchandising divisions.The deal was a joint venture with Time Warner and paid Madonna an advance of $60 million. It gave her 20% royalties from the music proceedings, the highest rate in the industry at the time, equaled only by Michael Jackson's royalty rate established a year earlier with Sony.Her company later went on to become one of the most successful artist-run labels in history, producing multi-platinum artists such as Alanis Morissette and Michelle Branch.Later that year, Madonna co-sponsored the first museum retrospective for her former boyfriend artist Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
In October 1992, Madonna simultaneously released her fifth studio album, Erotica, and her coffee table book, Sex. Consisting of sexually provocative and explicit images, photographed by Steven Meisel, the book received strong negative reaction from the media and the general public, but sold 1.5 million copies at $50 each in a matter of days.The widespread backlash overshadowed Erotica, which ended up as her lowest selling album at the time.Despite positive reviews, it became her first studio album since her debut album not to score any chart-topper in the US. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number two and yielded the Hot 100 top-ten hits "Erotica" and "Deeper and Deeper".At the time Madonna had been dating rapper Vanilla Ice and she at one point proposed to him; they broke up following the release of Sex, with Ice claiming that he was included in the book without his consent.Madonna continued her provocative imagery in the 1993 erotic thriller, Body of Evidence, a film which contained scenes of sadomasochism and bondage. It was poorly received by critics.She also starred in the film Dangerous Game, which was released straight to video in North America. The New York Times described the film as "angry and painful, and the pain feels real."
In September 1993, Madonna embarked on The Girlie Show, in which she dressed as a whip-cracking dominatrix surrounded by topless dancers. In Puerto Rico she rubbed the island's flag between her legs on stage, resulting in outrage among the audience.[85] In March 1994, she appeared as a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, using profanity that required censorship on television, and handing Letterman a pair of her panties and asking him to smell it.[139] The releases of her sexually explicit book, album, and film, and the aggressive appearance on Letterman all made critics question Madonna as a sexual renegade. Critics and fans reacted negatively, who commented that "she had gone too far" and that her career was over.Around this time, Madonna briefly dated rapper Tupac Shakur and basketball player Dennis Rodman.
Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli described her ballad "I'll Remember" (1994) as an attempt to tone down her provocative image. The song was recorded for Alek Keshishian's 1994 film With Honors. She made a subdued appearance with Letterman at an awards show and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after realizing that she needed to change her musical direction in order to sustain her popularity.[ With her sixth studio album, Bedtime Stories (1994), Madonna employed a softer image to try to improve the public perception. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and generated two US top-five hits, "Secret" and "Take a Bow", the latter topping the Hot 100 for seven weeks, the longest period of any Madonna single.Something to Remember, a collection of ballads, was released in November 1995. The album featured three new songs: "You'll See", "One More Chance", and a cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Want You".An enthusiastic collector of modern art, Madonna sponsored the first major retrospective of Tina Modotti's work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1995. The following year, she sponsored an exhibition of Basquiat's paintings at the Serpentine Gallery in London.The following year, she sponsored artist Cindy Sherman's retrospective at the MoMA in New York.
In February 1996, Madonna began filming the musical Evita in Argentina.For a long time, Madonna had desired to play Argentine political leader Eva Perón and wrote to director Alan Parker to explain why she would be perfect for the part. After securing the title role, she received vocal coaching and learned about the history of Argentina and Perón. During filming Madonna became ill several times, after finding out that she was pregnant, and from the intense emotional effort required with the scenes.Upon Evita's release in December 1996, Madonna's performance received praise from film critics. Zach Conner of Time magazine remarked, "It's a relief to say that Evita is pretty damn fine, well cast and handsomely visualized. Madonna once again confounds our expectations." For the role, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
The Evita soundtrack, containing songs mostly performed by Madonna, was released as a double album.It included "You Must Love Me" and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"; the latter reached number one in countries across Europe. Madonna was presented with the Artist Achievement Award by Tony Bennett at the 1996 Billboard Music Awards.On October 14, 1996, she gave birth to Lourdes "Lola" Maria Ciccone Leon, her daughter with fitness trainer Carlos Leon. Biographer Mary Cross writes that although Madonna often worried that her pregnancy would harm Evita, she reached some important personal goals: "Now 38 years old, Madonna had at last triumphed on screen and achieved her dream of having a child, both in the same year. She had reached another turning point in her career, reinventing herself and her image with the public." Her relationship with Carlos Leon ended in May 1997 and she declared that they were "better off as best friends"
In February 2012, Madonna headlined the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her performance was visualized by Cirque Du Soleil and Jamie King, and featured special guests LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. and CeeLo Green. It became the then most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history with 114 million viewers, higher than the game itself.During the event, she performed "Give Me All Your Luvin'", the lead single from her twelfth studio album, MDNA. It became her record-extending 38th top-ten single on the Billboard Hot 100.
MDNA was released in March 2012 and saw collaboration with various producers, including William Orbit and Martin Solveig. It was her first release under her three-album deal with Interscope Records, which she signed as a part of her 360 deal with Live Nation.She was signed to the record label since Live Nation was unable to distribute music recordings.MDNA became Madonna's fifth consecutive studio record to debut at the top of the Billboard 200.The album was mostly promoted by the MDNA Tour, which lasted from May to December 2012.The tour featured controversial subjects such as violence, firearms, human rights, nudity and politics. With a gross of $305.2 million from 88 sold-out shows, it became the highest-grossing tour of 2012 and then-tenth highest-grossing tour of all time.Madonna was named the top-earning celebrity of the year by Forbes, earning an estimated $125 million.
Madonna collaborated with Steven Klein and directed a 17-minute film, secretprojectrevolution, which was released on BitTorrent in September 2013.With the film she launched the Art for Freedom initiative, which helped to promote "art and free speech as a means to address persecution and injustice across the globe". The website for the project included over 3,000 art related submissions since its inception, with Madonna regularly monitoring and enlisting other artists like David Blaine and Katy Perry as guest curators.
By 2013, Madonna's Raising Malawi had built ten schools to educate 4,000 children in Malawi at a value of $400,000.[283] When Madonna visited the schools in April 2013, President of Malawi Joyce Banda accused her of exaggerating the charity's contribution.Madonna was saddened by Banda's statement, but clarified that she had "no intention of being distracted by these ridiculous allegations". It was later confirmed that Banda had not approved the statement released by her press team.Madonna also visited her hometown Detroit during May 2014, and donated funds to help with the city's bankruptcy.The same year, her business ventures extended to skin care products with the launch of MDNA Skin in Tokyo, Japan.
Madonna's thirteenth studio album, Rebel Heart, was released in March 2015, three months after its thirteen demos leaked onto the internet.[288] Unlike her previous efforts, which involved only a few people, Madonna worked with a large number of collaborators, including Avicii, Diplo and Kanye West. Introspection was listed as one of the foundational themes prevalent on the record, along with "genuine statements of personal and careerist reflection". Madonna explained to Jon Pareles of The New York Times that, although she has never looked back at her past endeavors, reminiscing about it felt right for Rebel Heart.Music critics responded positively towards the album, calling it her best effort in a decade
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Monroe had become one of 20th Century-Fox's biggest stars, but her contract had not changed since 1950, so that she was paid far less than other stars of her stature and could not choose her projects.[146] Her attempts to appear in films that would not focus on her as a pin-up had been thwarted by the studio head executive, Darryl F. Zanuck, who had a strong personal dislike of her and did not think she would earn the studio as much revenue in other types of roles.[147] Under pressure from the studio's owner, Spyros Skouras, Zanuck had also decided that Fox should focus exclusively on entertainment to maximize profits and canceled the production of any "serious films".[148] In January 1954, he suspended Monroe when she refused to begin shooting yet another musical comedy, The Girl in Pink Tights.[149]
This was front-page news, and Monroe immediately took action to counter negative publicity. On January 14, she and Joe DiMaggio were married at the San Francisco City Hall.[150] They then traveled by car[151] first to Paso Robles,[152] then south to nearby San Luis Obispo the day after,[153] before spending their honeymoon[154] outside Idyllwild, California,[155][156][157] in the mountain lodge of Monroe's lawyer Lloyd Wright.[158][159] On January 29, 1954, fifteen days later,[160] they flew to Japan,[161] combining a "honeymoon" with his commitment to his former San Francisco Seals coach Lefty O'Doul,[162] to help train[163] Japanese baseball teams.[164][165] From Tokyo, she traveled with Jean O'Doul,[164] Lefty's wife, to Korea,[166][167] where she participated in a USO show,[168] singing songs from her films for over 60,000 U.S. Marines over a four-day period.[169][170][171] After returning to the U.S., she was awarded Photoplay's "Most Popular Female Star" prize.[172] Monroe settled with Fox in March, with the promise of a new contract, a bonus of $100,000, and a starring role in the film adaptation of the Broadway success The Seven Year Itch.[173]
In April 1954, Otto Preminger's western River of No Return, the last film that Monroe had filmed prior to the suspension, was released. She called it a "Z-grade cowboy movie in which the acting finished second to the scenery and the CinemaScope process", but it was popular with audiences.[174] The first film she made after the suspension was the musical There's No Business Like Show Business, which she strongly disliked but the studio required her to do for dropping The Girl in Pink Tights.[173] It was unsuccessful upon its release in late 1954, with Monroe's performance considered vulgar by many critics.[175]
In September 1954, Monroe began filming Billy Wilder's comedy The Seven Year Itch, starring opposite Tom Ewell as a woman who becomes the object of her married neighbor's sexual fantasies. Although the film was shot in Hollywood, the studio decided to generate advance publicity by staging the filming of a scene in which Monroe is standing on a subway grate with the air blowing up the skirt of her white dress on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.[176] The shoot lasted for several hours and attracted nearly 2,000 spectators.[176] The "subway grate scene" became one of Monroe's most famous, and The Seven Year Itch became one of the biggest commercial successes of the year after its release in June 1955.[177]
The publicity stunt placed Monroe on international front pages, and it also marked the end of her marriage to DiMaggio, who was infuriated by it.[178] The union had been troubled from the start by his jealousy and controlling attitude; he was also physically abusive.[179] After returning from NYC to Hollywood in October 1954, Monroe filed for divorce, after only nine months of marriage.[180]
After filming for The Seven Year Itch wrapped up in November 1954, Monroe left Hollywood for the East Coast, where she and photographer Milton Greene founded their own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP)—an action that has later been called "instrumental" in the collapse of the studio system.[181][h] Monroe stated that she was "tired of the same old sex roles" and asserted that she was no longer under contract to Fox, as it had not fulfilled its duties, such as paying her the promised bonus.[183] This began a year-long legal battle between her and Fox in January 1955.[184] The press largely ridiculed Monroe, and she was parodied in the Broadway play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955), in which her lookalike Jayne Mansfield played a dumb actress who starts her own production company.[185]
After founding MMP, Monroe moved to Manhattan and spent 1955 studying acting. She took classes with Constance Collier and attended workshops on method acting at the Actors Studio, run by Lee Strasberg.[186] She grew close to Strasberg and his wife Paula, receiving private lessons at their home due to her shyness, and soon became a family member.[187] She replaced her old acting coach, Natasha Lytess, with Paula; the Strasbergs remained an important influence for the rest of her career.[188] Monroe also started undergoing psychoanalysis, as Strasberg believed that an actor must confront their emotional traumas and use them in their performances.[189][i]
Monroe continued her relationship with DiMaggio despite the ongoing divorce process; she also dated actor Marlon Brando and playwright Arthur Miller.[191] She had first been introduced to Miller by Elia Kazan in the early 1950s.[191] The affair between Monroe and Miller became increasingly serious after October 1955, when her divorce was finalized and he separated from his wife.[192] The studio urged her to end it, as Miller was being investigated by the FBI for allegations of communism and had been subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, but Monroe refused.[193] The relationship led to the FBI opening a file on her.[192]
By the end of the year, Monroe and Fox signed a new seven-year contract, as MMP would not be able to finance films alone, and the studio was eager to have Monroe working for them again.[184] Fox would pay her $400,000 to make four films, and granted her the right to choose her own projects, directors and cinematographers.[194] She would also be free to make one film with MMP per each completed film for Fox.[194]
Monroe began 1956 by announcing her win over 20th Century-Fox.[195] She legally changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.[196] The press wrote favorably about her decision to fight the studio; Time called her a "shrewd businesswoman"[197] and Look predicted that the win would be "an example of the individual against the herd for years to come".[195] In contrast, Monroe's relationship with Miller prompted some negative comments, such as Walter Winchell's statement that "America's best-known blonde moving picture star is now the darling of the left-wing intelligentsia."[198]
In March, Monroe began filming the drama Bus Stop, her first film under the new contract.[199] She played Chérie, a saloon singer whose dreams of stardom are complicated by a naïve cowboy who falls in love with her. For the role, she learned an Ozark accent, chose costumes and makeup that lacked the glamor of her earlier films, and provided deliberately mediocre singing and dancing.[200] Broadway director Joshua Logan agreed to direct, despite initially doubting Monroe's acting abilities and knowing of her difficult reputation.[201] The filming took place in Idaho and Arizona, with Monroe "technically in charge" as the head of MMP, occasionally making decisions on cinematography and with Logan adapting to her chronic lateness and perfectionism.[202] The experience changed Logan's opinion of Monroe, and he later compared her to Charlie Chaplin in her ability to blend comedy and tragedy.[203]
On June 29, 1956, Monroe and Miller were married at the Westchester County Court in White Plains, New York; two days later they had a Jewish ceremony at the home of Kay Brown, Miller's literary agent, in Waccabuc, New York.[204][205] With the marriage, Monroe converted to Judaism, which led Egypt to ban all of her films.[206][j] Due to Monroe's status as a sex symbol and Miller's image as an intellectual, the media saw the union as a mismatch, as evidenced by Variety's headline, "Egghead Weds Hourglass".[208]
Bus Stop was released in August 1956 and became a critical and commercial success.[209] The Saturday Review of Literature wrote that Monroe's performance "effectively dispels once and for all the notion that she is merely a glamour personality" and Crowther proclaimed: "Hold on to your chairs, everybody, and get set for a rattling surprise. Marilyn Monroe has finally proved herself an actress."[210] She also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her performance.[96]
In August, Monroe also began filming MMP's first independent production, The Prince and the Showgirl, at Pinewood Studios in England.[211] Based on a 1953 stage play by Terence Rattigan, it was to be directed and co-produced by, and to co-star, Laurence Olivier.[197] The production was complicated by conflicts between him and Monroe.[212] Olivier, who had also directed and starred in the stage play, angered her with the patronizing statement "All you have to do is be sexy", and with his demand she replicate Vivien Leigh's stage interpretation of the character.[213] He also disliked the constant presence of Paula Strasberg, Monroe's acting coach, on set.[214] In retaliation, Monroe became uncooperative and began to deliberately arrive late, later saying, "if you don't respect your artists, they can't work well."[212]
Monroe also experienced other problems during the production. Her dependence on pharmaceuticals escalated and, according to Spoto, she had a miscarriage.[215] She and Greene also argued over how MMP should be run.[215] Despite the difficulties, filming was completed on schedule by the end of 1956.[216] The Prince and the Showgirl was released to mixed reviews in June 1957 and proved unpopular with American audiences.[217] It was better received in Europe, where she was awarded the Italian David di Donatello and the French Crystal Star awards and nominated for a BAFTA.[218]
After returning from England, Monroe took an 18-month hiatus to concentrate on family life. She and Miller split their time between NYC, Connecticut and Long Island.[219] She had an ectopic pregnancy in mid-1957, and a miscarriage a year later;[220] these problems were most likely linked to her endometriosis.[221][k] Monroe was also briefly hospitalized due to a barbiturate overdose.[224] As she and Greene could not settle their disagreements over MMP, Monroe bought his share of the company.[225]
Monroe returned to Hollywood in July 1958 to act opposite Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Billy Wilder's comedy on gender roles, Some Like It Hot.[226] She considered the role of Sugar Kane another "dumb blonde", but accepted it due to Miller's encouragement and the offer of 10% of the film's profits on top of her standard pay.[227] The film's difficult production has since become "legendary".[228] Monroe demanded dozens of retakes, and did not remember her lines or act as directed—Curtis famously said that kissing her was "like kissing Hitler" due to the number of retakes.[229] Monroe privately likened the production to a sinking ship and commented on her co-stars and director saying "[but] why should I worry, I have no phallic symbol to lose."[230] Many of the problems stemmed from her and Wilder—who also had a reputation for being difficult—disagreeing on how she should play the role.[231] She angered him by asking to alter many of her scenes, which in turn made her stage fright worse, and it is suggested that she deliberately ruined several scenes to act them her way.[231]
In the end, Wilder was happy with Monroe's performance, saying: "Anyone can remember lines, but it takes a real artist to come on the set and not know her lines and yet give the performance she did!"[232] Some Like It Hot was a critical and commercial success when it was released in March 1959.[233] Monroe's performance earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and prompted Variety to call her "a comedienne with that combination of sex appeal and timing that just can't be beat".[218][234] It has been voted one of the best films ever made in polls by the BBC,[235] the American Film Institute,[236] and Sight & Sound.[237]
After Some Like It Hot, Monroe took another hiatus until late 1959, when she starred in the musical comedy Let's Make Love.[238] She chose George Cukor to direct and Miller rewrote some of the script, which she considered weak. She accepted the part solely because she was behind on her contract with Fox.[239] The film's production was delayed by her frequent absences from the set.[238] During the shoot, Monroe had an affair with co-star Yves Montand that was widely reported by the press and used in the film's publicity campaign.[240] Let's Make Love was unsuccessful upon its release in September 1960.[241] Crowther described Monroe as appearing "rather untidy" and "lacking ... the old Monroe dynamism",[242] and Hedda Hopper called the film "the most vulgar picture she's ever done".[243] Truman Capote lobbied for Monroe to play Holly Golightly in a film adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's, but the role went to Audrey Hepburn as its producers feared that Monroe would complicate the production.[244]
The last film Monroe completed was John Huston's The Misfits, which Miller had written to provide her with a dramatic role.[245] She played a recently divorced woman who becomes friends with her Reno landlady, and three aging cowboys, played by Clark Gable, Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift. The filming in Reno, and in the Nevada desert east of Carson City between July and November 1960 was again difficult.[246] Monroe's and Miller's marriage was effectively over, and he began a new relationship with Magnum movie photographer Inge Morath.[245]
Monroe disliked that he had based her role partly on her life, and thought it inferior to the male roles. She also struggled with Miller's habit of rewriting scenes the night before filming.[247] Her health was also failing: she was in pain from gallstones, and her drug addiction was so severe that her makeup usually had to be applied while she was still asleep under the influence of barbiturates.[248] In August, filming was halted for her to spend a week in a hospital detox.[248] Despite her problems, Huston said that when Monroe was acting, she "was not pretending to an emotion. It was the real thing. She would go deep down within herself and find it and bring it up into consciousness."[249]
Monroe and Miller separated after filming wrapped, and she obtained a Mexican divorce in January 1961.[250] The Misfits was released the following month, failing at the box office.[251] Its reviews were mixed,[251] with Variety complaining of frequently "choppy" character development,[252] and Bosley Crowther calling Monroe "completely blank and unfathomable" and writing that "unfortunately for the film's structure, everything turns upon her".[253] It has received more favorable reviews in the 21st century. Geoff Andrew of the British Film Institute has called it a classic,[254] Huston scholar Tony Tracy called Monroe's performance the "most mature interpretation of her career",[255] and Geoffrey McNab of The Independent praised her "extraordinary" portrayal of the character's "power of empathy".[256]
Monroe was next to star in a television adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" for NBC, but the project fell through as the network did not want to hire her choice of director, Lee Strasberg.[257] Instead of working, she spent the first six months of 1961 preoccupied by health problems. She underwent a cholecystectomy and surgery for her endometriosis, and spent four weeks hospitalized for depression.[258][l] She was helped by DiMaggio, with whom she rekindled a friendship, and dated his friend Frank Sinatra for several months.[260] Monroe also moved permanently back to California in 1961, purchasing a house at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in early 1962.[261]
Monroe returned to the public eye in the spring of 1962. She received a "World Film Favorite" Golden Globe Award and began to shoot a film for Fox, Something's Got to Give, a remake of My Favorite Wife (1940).[262] It was to be co-produced by MMP, directed by George Cukor and to co-star Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse.[263] Days before filming began, Monroe caught sinusitis. Despite medical advice to postpone the production, Fox began it as planned in late April.[264]
Monroe was too sick to work for most of the next six weeks, but despite confirmations by multiple doctors, the studio pressured her by alleging publicly that she was faking it.[264] On May 19, she took a break to sing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" on stage at President John F. Kennedy's early birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York.[265] She drew attention with her costume: a beige, skintight dress covered in rhinestones, which made her appear as if she were nude.[265][m] Monroe's trip to New York caused even more irritation for Fox executives, who had wanted her to cancel it.[267]
Monroe next filmed a scene for Something's Got to Give in which she swam naked in a swimming pool.[268] To generate advance publicity, the press was invited to take photographs; these were later published in Life. This was the first time that a major star had posed nude at the height of their career.[269] When she was again on sick leave for several days, Fox decided that it could not afford to have another film running behind schedule when it was already struggling with the rising costs of Cleopatra (1963).[270] On June 7, Fox fired Monroe and sued her for $750,000 in damages.[271] She was replaced by Lee Remick, but after Martin refused to make the film with anyone other than Monroe, Fox sued him as well and shut down the production.[272] The studio blamed Monroe for the film's demise and began spreading negative publicity about her, even alleging that she was mentally disturbed.[271]
Fox soon regretted its decision and reopened negotiations with Monroe later in June; a settlement about a new contract, including recommencing Something's Got to Give and a starring role in the black comedy What a Way to Go! (1964), was reached later that summer.[273] She was also planning on starring in a biopic of Jean Harlow.[274] To repair her public image, Monroe engaged in several publicity ventures, including interviews for Life and Cosmopolitan and her first photo shoot for Vogue.[275] For Vogue, she and photographer Bert Stern collaborated for two series of photographs over three days, one a standard fashion editorial and another of her posing nude, which were published posthumously with the title The Last Sitting.[276]
During her final months, Monroe lived at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her housekeeper Eunice Murray was staying overnight at the home on the evening of August 4, 1962.[278] Murray woke at 3:00 a.m. on August 5 and sensed that something was wrong. She saw light from under Monroe's bedroom door but was unable to get a response and found the door locked. Murray then called Monroe's psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, who arrived at the house shortly after and broke into the bedroom through a window to find Monroe dead in her bed.[278] Monroe's physician, Hyman Engelberg, arrived at around 3:50 a.m.[278] and pronounced her dead. At 4:25 a.m., the Los Angeles Police Department was notified.[278]
Monroe died between 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on August 4;[279] the toxicology report showed that the cause of death was acute barbiturate poisoning. She had 8 mg% (milligrams per 100 milliliters of solution) chloral hydrate and 4.5 mg% of pentobarbital (Nembutal) in her blood, and 13 mg% of pentobarbital in her liver.[280] Empty medicine bottles were found next to her bed.[281] The possibility that Monroe had accidentally overdosed was ruled out because the dosages found in her body were several times the lethal limit.[282]
The Los Angeles County Coroners Office was assisted in their investigation by the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Team, who had expert knowledge on suicide.[281] Monroe's doctors stated that she had been "prone to severe fears and frequent depressions" with "abrupt and unpredictable mood changes", and had overdosed several times in the past, possibly intentionally.[282][283] Due to these facts and the lack of any indication of foul play, deputy coroner Thomas Noguchi classified her death as a probable suicide.[284]
Monroe's sudden death was front-page news in the United States and Europe.[285] According to Lois Banner, "it's said that the suicide rate in Los Angeles doubled the month after she died; the circulation rate of most newspapers expanded that month",[285] and the Chicago Tribune reported that they had received hundreds of phone calls from members of the public requesting information about her death.[286] French artist Jean Cocteau commented that her death "should serve as a terrible lesson to all those whose chief occupation consists of spying on and tormenting film stars", her former co-star Laurence Olivier deemed her "the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensation", and Bus Stop director Joshua Logan said that she was "one of the most unappreciated people in the world".[287]
Her funeral, held at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery on August 8, was private and attended by only her closest associates.[288] The service was arranged by Joe DiMaggio, Monroe's half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle, and Monroe's business manager Inez Melson.[288] Hundreds of spectators crowded the streets around the cemetery.[288] Monroe was later entombed at Crypt No. 24 at the Corridor of Memories.[289]
In the following decades, several conspiracy theories, including murder and accidental overdose, have been introduced to contradict suicide as the cause of Monroe's death.[290] The speculation that Monroe had been murdered first gained mainstream attention with the publication of Norman Mailer's Marilyn: A Biography in 1973, and in the following years became widespread enough for the Los Angeles County District Attorney John Van de Kamp to conduct a "threshold investigation" in 1982 to see whether a criminal investigation should be opened.[291] No evidence of foul play was found.[292]
The 1940s had been the heyday for actresses who were perceived as tough and smart—such as Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck—who had appealed to women-dominated audiences during the war years. 20th Century-Fox wanted Monroe to be a star of the new decade who would draw men to movie theaters, and saw her as a replacement for the aging Betty Grable, their most popular "blonde bombshell" of the 1940s.[293] According to film scholar Richard Dyer, Monroe's star image was crafted mostly for the male gaze.[294]
From the beginning, Monroe played a significant part in the creation of her public image, and towards the end of her career exerted almost full control over it.[295][296] She devised many of her publicity strategies, cultivated friendships with gossip columnists such as Sidney Skolsky and Louella Parsons, and controlled the use of her images.[297] In addition to Grable, she was often compared to another well-known blonde, 1930s film star Jean Harlow.[298] The comparison was prompted partly by Monroe, who named Harlow as her childhood idol, wanted to play her in a biopic, and even employed Harlow's hair stylist to color her hair.[299]
Monroe's screen persona focused on her blonde hair and the stereotypes that were associated with it, especially dumbness, naïveté, sexual availability and artificiality.[300] She often used a breathy, childish voice in her films, and in interviews gave the impression that everything she said was "utterly innocent and uncalculated", parodying herself with double entendres that came to be known as "Monroeisms".[301] For example, when she was asked what she had on in the 1949 nude photo shoot, she replied, "I had the radio on".[302]
In her films, Monroe usually played "the girl", who is defined solely by her gender.[294] Her roles were almost always chorus girls, secretaries, or models: occupations where "the woman is on show, there for the pleasure of men."[294] Monroe began her career as a pin-up model, and was noted for her hourglass figure.[303] She was often positioned in film scenes so that her curvy silhouette was on display, and frequently posed like a pin-up in publicity photos.[303] Her distinctive, hip-swinging walk also drew attention to her body and earned her the nickname "the girl with the horizontal walk".[113]
Monroe often wore white to emphasize her blondness and drew attention by wearing revealing outfits that showed off her figure.[304] Her publicity stunts often revolved around her clothing either being shockingly revealing or even malfunctioning,[305] such as when a shoulder strap of her dress snapped during a press conference.[305] In press stories, Monroe was portrayed as the embodiment of the American Dream, a girl who had risen from a miserable childhood to Hollywood stardom.[306] Stories of her time spent in foster families and an orphanage were exaggerated and even partly fabricated.[307] Film scholar Thomas Harris wrote that her working-class roots and lack of family made her appear more sexually available, "the ideal playmate", in contrast to her contemporary, Grace Kelly, who was also marketed as an attractive blonde, but due to her upper-class background was seen as a sophisticated actress, unattainable for the majority of male viewers.[308]
Although Monroe's screen persona as a dim-witted but sexually attractive blonde was a carefully crafted act, audiences and film critics believed it to be her real personality. This became a hindrance when she wanted to pursue other kinds of roles, or to be respected as a businesswoman.[309] The academic Sarah Churchwell studied narratives about Monroe and wrote:
Biographer Lois Banner writes that Monroe often subtly parodied her sex symbol status in her films and public appearances,[311] and that "the 'Marilyn Monroe' character she created was a brilliant archetype, who stands between Mae West and Madonna in the tradition of twentieth-century gender tricksters."[312] Monroe herself stated that she was influenced by West, learning "a few tricks from her—that impression of laughing at, or mocking, her own sexuality".[313] She studied comedy in classes by mime and dancer Lotte Goslar, famous for her comic stage performances, and Goslar also instructed her on film sets.[314] In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, one of the films in which she played an archetypal dumb blonde, Monroe had the sentence "I can be smart when it's important, but most men don't like it" added to her character's lines.[315]
Emily Reed travels to New York City to interview with a law firm, which offers her a job if she flies to Rio de Janeiro the following ...
