Marilyn Monroe spent much of her career trying to shrug off the label "comic actress" - despite which, she was one of the most instinctive comediennes ever to light up the screen. Her two finest comedies, The Seven Year Itch (1955) and
Some Like It Hot (1959), were directed by
Billy Wilder. The daughter of a mentally ill mother who left her to abusive foster homes and an orphanage, Monroe grew up very insecure. Drug addiction and uterine disorders made things worse. She could be hell to work with - showing up hours late, incapable of learning the simplest lines. After Itch, Wilder swore never to work with her again: "But whenever I saw her, I always forgave her."
John Huston gave Monroe her first worthwhile role as a childlike mistress in
The Asphalt Jungle (1950). A decade later, he cast her again in her last completed movie,
The Misfits (1961), as a lonely divorcee who links up with a trio of down-on-their-luck cowboys. She was battling addiction and her marriage to the film's screenwriter, Arthur Miller, was falling apart. In between, she had become perhaps the most famous movie star and greatest sex symbol in the world. The blonde hair, little-girl voice, and air of wide-eyed innocence gave her global appeal. Fans raved over her voluptuous curves, enhanced by the famous Monroe wiggle. Ironically, Monroe loathed what gave her stardom - the sex appeal, the naive but sensual image - deployed so well in the Wilder comedies, and in such films as
Howard Hawks's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Even greater public attention was focused on the sexy star in 1954 during her short-lived marriage to baseball star Joe DiMaggio. Yearning to be taken seriously as an actress, she starred with Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). They disliked each other and the film flopped.
Although she was an icon, Monroe's insecurities deepened; and her unreliability on set worsened. Affairs with both Jack and Robert Kennedy ended in rejection. There had been earlier suicide attempts, and the overdose that killed her may have been the final one - although dark rumors of murder have dogged her memory. She was thirty-six years old.
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