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Filmography

Main article: Marilyn Monroe performances and awards
Monroe in Some Like It Hot (1959)

1954–1955: Conflicts with 20th Century-Fox and marriage to Joe DiMaggio

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]

Close-up of Monroe and DiMaggio kissing; she is wearing a dark suit with a white fur-collar and he a dark suit.
Monroe and Joe DiMaggio after getting married at San Francisco City Hall in January 1954

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]

Monroe is posing for photographers, wearing a white halterneck dress, which hem is blown up by air from a subway grate on which she is standing.
Monroe posing for photographers in The Seven Year Itch (1955)

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]

Monroe, who is wearing a skirt, blouse and jacket, standing below a sign for the Actors Studio looking up towards it
Monroe at the Actors Studio, c. 1955

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]

1956–1959: Critical acclaim and marriage to Arthur Miller

Cropped photo of Monroe and Miller cutting the cake at their wedding. Her veil is lifted from her face and he is wearing a white shirt with a dark tie.
Monroe and Arthur Miller at their wedding in June 1956

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]

Monroe and Don Murray in Bus Stop. She is wearing a ragged coat and a small hat tied with ribbons and is having an argument with Murray, who is wearing jeans, a denim jacket and a cowboy hat.
Monroe's dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) marked a departure from her earlier comedies.

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 with Laurence Olivier in a publicity photo for The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)

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]

A ukulele-playing Monroe with a cross-dressing Lemmon in the bass and Curtis in the saxophone. There are also three other women playing different instruments.
Monroe with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot (1959), for which she won a Golden Globe
The Some Like It Hot trailer

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]

1960–1962: Career decline and personal difficulties

Monroe and Montand standing next to a piano in a studio-type setting and looking at sheet music.
Monroe with Yves Montand in Let's Make Love (1960), which she agreed to make only to fulfill her contract with Fox

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 holding a hat and standing in the middle of a crowd of people, facing the camera. On her right is Gable and on her left, Winwood. There is a sign that says 'BAR' in the background.
Monroe, Estelle Winwood, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift, and Clark Gable in The Misfits (1961). The Misfits was the final completed film for Monroe and Gable, who both died within two years.

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 wearing a form-fitting white dress with flowers and an open back. She is standing and smiling over her shoulder at the camera.
Monroe on the set of Something's Got to Give in May 1962. She was absent for most of the production due to illness and was fired by Fox in June 1962, two months before her death.

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]

Death and funeral

Main article: Death of Marilyn Monroe
Monroe (third from left) with actors on the filming set of The Exterminating Angel during her visit to Mexico in February 1962, one of her last media appearances[277][n]

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]

Front page of New York Daily Mirror on August 6, 1962. The headline is "Marilyn Monroe Kills Self" and underneath it is written: "Found nude in bed... Hand on phone... Took 40 Pills"
Front page of the New York Mirror on August 6, 1962

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]

Photo of Monroe's crypt, taken in 2005. "Marilyn Monroe, 1926–1962" is written on a plaque. The crypt has some lipstick prints left by visitors and flowers are placed in a vase attached to it.
Monroe's crypt at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood Village

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]

Screen persona and reception

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]

Actress Jean Harlow in 1934; Monroe took inspiration from her to develop her image in stardom.

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]

As seen in this publicity photo for The Seven Year Itch (1955), Monroe wore figure-hugging outfits that enhanced her sexual attractiveness.

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:

The biggest myth is that she was dumb. The second is that she was fragile. The third is that she couldn't act. She was far from dumb, although she was not formally educated, and she was very sensitive about that. But she was very smart indeed—and very tough. She had to be both to beat the Hollywood studio system in the 1950s. [...] The dumb blonde was a role—she was an actress, for heaven's sake! Such a good actress that no one now believes she was anything but what she portrayed on screen.[310]

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]


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