Original subtitles

(tape noise)

(camera flashes) (crowd noise)

She became one of the most luminous figures the world has ever known.

A century later, and Marilyn Monroe is still here.

Her face is instantly recognizable.

Smiling from cinema screens, magazine covers, murals, and memories.

Her image has traveled further than she ever

could, crossing borders, decades, and cultures.

She is quoted, imitated, celebrated, and reimagined endlessly.

Few people in history have left such an indelible mark on popular culture.

But Marilyn Monroe is not simply an image.

She was a life, lived intensely, creatively, and against extraordinary odds.

(dramatic music)

Before the lights of Hollywood enveloped her, Norma

Jean Mortensen, later baptized as Norma Jean Baker,

arrived during a time of rapid industrial change

and rigid social expectation, particularly for women.

She was born on June 1st, 1926 in Los Angeles.

Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, worked in the

film industry as a negative cutter at RKO.

Yet Hollywood offered Gladys no glamour.

Only instability, long hours, and untreated mental illness.

One morning, I referred to the woman as Mama.

And she said, I'm not your mother.

Don't call me mother anymore.

Call me Aunt so-and-so.

But the one I was concerned with was her husband.

I said, but he's my daddy.

She said, no.

Norma Jean's father was absent.

His identity uncertain, leaving her childhood defined not

by belonging, but by displacement.

We only had the home for about, oh, I don't even think it was three months.

Because she was taken away, my mother.

Norma Jean spent her earliest years moving between

foster homes, relatives, and institutions.

A pattern that would instill in her both

a deep fear of abandonment and an acute

sensitivity to the moods and needs of others.

These were survival skills.

I could read as 10.

I saw an orphan, and I put my feet down a sidewalk, and they had to drag me in.

I said, I'm not an orphan.

I used to sit up in the window and cry because I'd look over at the

RKO, and I knew my mother had worked there.

She'd been a cutter there.

She learned early how to read a room.

How to soften herself to be accepted, and how to adapt.

When her mother was institutionalized in 1934 following

a severe mental breakdown, diagnosed at the time as paranoid schizophrenia.

A characterization of schizophrenia is the absence of

social interest and apathy.

The physical symptoms of catatonics, however, vary.

Norma became a ward of the state.

The security of a traditional family life was no longer a possibility.

Instead, she learned endurance.

At the Los Angeles Orphan's Home, Norma Jean

felt the weight of invisibility.

She later spoke of the loneliness she experienced there.

A loneliness that would echo throughout her adult life.

Even when placed under the guardianship of Grace

McKee Goddard, stability remained temporary.

Moves were frequent, homes were conditional, and affection was fragile.

She was a youngster who looked at those she wasn't well cared for.

Her clothes separated her a little bit from the rest of the girls.

She was like a little girl, not well

developed as some of the youngsters were.

She just seemed like a nice child, but

not very outgoing and not very vibrant.

Childhood for Norma Jean was not a protected space.

It was something to survive.

In 1942, at just 16 years old, Norma

faced the prospect of being returned to the

orphanage when her guardians relocated.

She had to make a decision which would shape her future.

She married James Daughtry, the son of her neighbors.

Well, Doc and Grace were moving to Huntington,

West Virginia, where Doc was being transferred.

And Norma Jean was going to have to go back to an orphanage.

Grace told it to my mother.

She was a little big for an orphanage,

so my mother and Grace decided it might be a

good idea for Norma Jean and I got married.

And I guess the next day or the same day, I don't know, Mom asked me

if I would like to marry Norma Jean.

And a thought runs through my mind, this is a very young child.

At 21, you feel like you're a pretty grown-up man.

So I agreed to it anyhow, with the thought

that I would be going into the service soon.

And she would have a home with my mother while I was gone.

It was not a romantic choice, but a pragmatic one.

Marriage offered shelter, legality, and permanence in a

world that had given her very little of those things.

She left school and became a housewife.

Playing a role expected of a young woman at the time.

She went along with the idea very well for a 16-year-old.

I guess she thought this would be very enchanting.

I thought I would be pretty enchanting myself.

She was a good cook.

I recall she always liked to mix carrots with peas because of the color.

Not because she liked to eat them, but she just liked the color of them.

They looked good on a plate.

You know, I never knew Marilyn Monroe.

I knew Norma Jean, Norma Jean Doherty, Norma Jean Baker.

But Marilyn Monroe and Norma Jean were two different people.

Norma Jean was my wife.

Marilyn Monroe was a glamorous movie star.

I don't know anything about her life.

I never talked to her.

When Daltrey was deployed to the Merchant Marines

during World War II, Norma Jean entered the

workforce, taking a job at the radio playing

company manufacturing drones for the war effort.

It was there, amid factory floors and machinery,

that she was photographed for a series of

morale-boosting images of female workers.

Those photographs revealed something extraordinary.

A woman with presence, warmth, and an unmistakable connection to the camera.

(camera flashes)

For the first time, Norma Jean was seen,

not as a burden, not as a ward,

not as someone passing through, but as someone worth looking at.

And she noticed.

This moment did not rescue her, but it awakened her.

She began to imagine a future shaped not

by survival alone, but by self-definition.

(film reel whirs)

(upbeat music)

Norma Jean signed with the Blue Book Modeling Agency in 1945,

entering an industry that prized

youth, beauty, and compliance above all else.

Norma Jean looked like the girl next door,

and I thought I could make her into

something quite marketable in a short length of time.

She was very beautiful in a clean-cut, American, wholesome way.

We taught her photographic modeling, how to pose,

how to handle your body, smile.

She was always trying to lower her smile,

because she smiled too high, and that made her nose a little long.

She had a different kind of knees than other girls.

She couldn't just relax her knees and walk smoothly.

Every time she'd take a step, her knees would

go all the way back and make her bounce.

She learned quickly.

She straightened her hair, studied posture, practiced expressions in the mirror.

When the agency suggested she dye her hair

blonde to increase her appeal, she agreed.

Not a submission, but a strategy.

Reinvention was something she understood instinctively.

By 1946, she had caught the attention of

20th Century Fox, and signed a short-term contract.

It was here that Norma Jean became Marilyn Monroe.

I didn't have an opportunity to do anything,

actually, during the year that I was there

at 20th Century Fox the first time, except

one part in Scotty Who's Got a Hay, and I was cut out of it.

And then they dropped me.

She was thought of as a joke by many people.

And I think this hurt her very deeply, because she was very serious.

I told Marilyn that Fox had dropped her

option, and her immediate reaction was the world

had crashed around her ears, and unhappiness and tears.

And then typical of Marilyn, she shook her

head, set her jaw, and said, well, it really doesn't matter.

After all, it's the case of supply and demand.

The name was carefully chosen, Marilyn, after Broadway

star Marilyn Miller, and Monroe, from her mother's family name.

It was a performance, but it was also an armor.

(film reel flickers and whirs)

Hollywood in the 1940s was rigidly male-dominated.

Studio executives controlled contracts, appearances, salaries, and public personas.

Women were commodities, marketed and discarded with little regard for autonomy.

You men own the world and all that's in it.

Woman is at best a prize, a property valued much the same as a horse or

a dog, on length of hair and sheen of skin and soundness of teeth and limb.

Well, if I must be chattel, then the

term shall be mine, and the price, according to my own values, dear.

Marilyn was acutely aware of this system, and

she was determined not to disappear inside it.

Her early years at Fox were marked by

small roles, long hours of observation, and relentless self-improvement.

(film reel whirs)

(gentle music)

♪ Anyone can see I love you ♪

♪ Anyone can see I care ♪

♪ The way I hold your hand and smile in your direction ♪

♪ Tells the world my heart is filled with nothing but affection ♪

♪ Lock me in your arms forever ♪

♪ That's the place I want to be ♪

♪ So anyone can see ♪

♪ That I belong to you and you belong to me ♪

She took acting classes, dance lessons, and voice coaching.

When her contract was not renewed in 1947,

she did not collapse.

She returned to modeling, sustaining herself financially while

continuing to build visibility.

In 1949, facing mounting financial pressure, Marilyn posed

nude for a calendar shoot.

At the time, it was a practical decision, not a scandalous one.

She needed the money.

When I first asked her to do it, she turned me down.

But after thinking it over for a few days, when she came back and

said, I would like to do it.

I think it was partially a favor.

I had done her a favor once before.

And she really did need the money.

This is a negative of a calendar of Marilyn that sold 8 million copies.

It just happened to be a darn good shot.

But I give all the credit to her.

When those images resurfaced later, most famously in

the first issue of Playboy, they would be

used to both elevate and shame her.

Marilyn met the controversy with rare honesty, refusing

to apologize for surviving.

Her perseverance paid off.

With the support of talent agent Johnny Hyde,

Marilyn returned to Fox on a seven-year contract.

By this time, she was no longer merely hopeful.

She was prepared.

I used to take jobs on the edges of show business.

This is the first car I ever owned.

I call her Cynthia.

She's going to have the best care a car ever had.

Put Royal Triton in Cynthia's little tummy.

Right, lady.

Cynthia will just love that Royal Triton.

(film reel whirs) (beeps)

Hi, Evie.

Hi, small change.

Wait, I got money tonight.

Am I going to see you later?

If I'm not too tired.

But, Evie, I thought we had a date.

Look, this tray weighs a ton.

Come on, Jean, let's not keep Danny waiting.

Let's go.

Marilyn's breakout role came in the asphalt jungle.

It was the springboard of her career.

I thought you might like to take a trip.

Where to?

Oh, I don't know, the coast, Florida, anywhere you like.

Could I, Uncle Lon?

Anywhere?

No fooling?

Yes, I think a change of scenery might be good for you.

Wait. You wait right here.

I've got the most terrific idea.

Sounds sweet, kid.

The same year, All About Eve provided Marilyn

with massive industry recognition.

Between 1951 and 1953, Marilyn Monroe became one

of the most recognizable faces in America.

Films like As Young As You Feel, Monkey Business,

and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes cemented her image as the dumb blonde.

♪ Diamonds are a girl’s best... ♪

♪ Best friend ♪

And it's with honor and pride and pleasure I present this citation to you.

Thank you.

I'd like to present to you the Look Achievement Award

as the most outstanding film in newcomer of 1952.

Thank you, Lon.

And as best young box office personality, Miss Marilyn Monroe.

Thank you, Mr. Nichols.

Marilyn Monroe, the moviegoers of America, voted you

the most popular actress of the year.

My congratulations.

Thank you, Mr. Simmons.

Yet behind the breathy voice and comic timing

was a woman studying scripts obsessively, challenging directors,

and questioning the limitations placed upon her.

Marilyn understood the contradiction of her image.

She knew that her sexuality was both her

greatest currency and her greatest constraint.

Rather than reject it outright, she used it

deliberately, exaggerating it, parodying it, controlling it.

The performance of foolishness became a mask that

allowed her to speak truths others could not.

The greatest irony of Marilyn Monroe may be

that she was surrounded by attention, yet starved

for intellectual recognition.

Away from Hollywood, Marilyn immersed herself not only

in acting, but in stories and ideas.

She read constantly.

Novels, poetry, philosophy, psychology, Freud, Dostoevsky, Joyce, Steinbeck.

Her books were underlined, annotated, worn from use.

(gentle music)

(dramatic music)

In Niagara, she subverted expectations by playing a

calculating femme fatale.

(gentle music)

(upbeat music)

Plain Coke, or did you spike them?

No, just plain.

Would you like one?

That's all right.

You've been very kind, but thanks.

I'd rather walk.

(bell tolls)

Marilyn, see, it’s so nice of you to come here.

You know they say that beauty is a thing of...

That a thing of beauty is a joy forever.

I want to tell you, someday you’re gonna make a man a wonderful (indistinct).

Come on over here, a little closer.

Demonstrating depth and danger beneath the glamour.

Critics took notice.

So did audiences.

Marilyn was no longer simply a starlet.

She was a phenomenon.

(dramatic boom) (gentle music)

This is your telvision premiere, isn’t it Marilyn?

They tried. It feels almost like an ancient picture.

Ah, yeah, listen, I want to tell you something.

After this time, television has been a medium, but now I’d say it’s well done.

(laughter)

I want to ask you one thing. I wonder if after...

You know, I know, Marilyn, when’s the first time we met?

Tell us, tell the folks.

Well, once you almost gave me a job.

That’s right, do you remember?

(gentle music) (film reel whirs)

State champion, Mrs. Valentoria.

(applause)

Marilyn's marriage to baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in

1954 symbolized a collision of American ideals, Hollywood

glamour, and sporting masculinity.

But the marriage was strained by jealousy, media

scrutiny, and incompatible expectations.

The marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio

attracts a record crowd to the San Francisco

court where the ceremony is performed.

Two top-like performers living up to long-established reputations

as outstanding drawing cards.

Congratulations in which all movie lovers and baseball fans join.

And now the pair are off for their happy honeymoon.

The girl who starred in How to Marry

a Millionaire giving another starring performance in How

to Marry a Baseball Hero.

Nice work, Marilyn.

And the same to you, Joe.

(gentle music)

(film reel whirs)

(upbeat music)

Marilyn Monroe arrives in Korea to tour the front lines for four days.

Hubby Joe DiMaggio is in Japan coaching Japanese baseball teams.

Marilyn wears drab GI clothing as she meets the boys.

No GI ever got such attention.

In 1954, Marilyn traveled to Korea to perform

for American troops stationed far from home.

In freezing temperatures, she sang and joked before

tens of thousands of soldiers, often outdoors, often ill.

She caught pneumonia, but never cut the performances short.

Years later, many of those men said it was one of the most human moments of the war.

In Korea, Marilyn was not an icon.

She was a symbol of comfort.

The hills are alive with troops as Marilyn puts on her act.

Officers estimate that she plays to about 60,000 men in her first two days in Korea.

There's agreement among soldiers and Marines, privates and

commanding officers.

Marilyn is tops, says she.

Gosh, I've never seen so many men in my life.

(crowd cheers)

The highlight of my life was singing for the soldiers.

I stood out on an open stage and it was cold, but I swear I didn't

feel a thing except good.

(crowd noise)

♪ Quite continental ♪

♪ But diamonds are a girl’s best friend ♪

♪ A kiss may be grand ♪

♪ And it won’t pay the rental ♪

♪ On your humble flat ♪

♪ Or help you at the automat ♪

♪ Men grow cold ♪

♪ As girls grow old ♪

♪ And we all lose our charms in the end ♪

♪ But square-cut or pear-shaped ♪

♪ These rocks don't lose their shape ♪

♪ Diamonds are a girl's best friend ♪

(crowd cheers)

(gentle music)

Publicity stunts and press attention followed relentlessly.

She wore daring gowns, defied conservative norms, and

became a lighting rod for cultural anxiety about female sexuality.

Yet she remained painfully aware of the cost.

Her salary lagged behind her male co-stars.

Her roles were constrained.

Her intelligence was routinely underestimated.

During the filming of The Seven-Year Itch

in 1954, Marilyn was asked to perform the now iconic subway grade scene.

The shoot was staged publicly, late at night,

deliberately drawing crowds and press.

Oh, do you feel the breeze from the subway?

Isn't it delicious?

Sort of cools the ankles, doesn't it?

Well, what do you think would be fun to do now?

I don't know, it's getting pretty late.

It's not that late.

The thing is, I have this big day tomorrow.

I really have to get to sleep.

What's the big day tomorrow?

Tomorrow I'm on television.

You remember I told you about it?

That dad's been down?

Oh, here comes another one.

Joe watched as thousands of men shouted and laughed.

Cameras flashed up her dress.

Her body became public spectacle.

To Marilyn, this was work.

To Jo, it felt like humiliation.

Accounts from those close to Marilyn describe a

marriage marked by jealousy, anger, and episodes of intimidation.

While the full extent of the violence was never formally documented,

Marilyn herself cited mental cruelty

when she ended the marriage, a decision that spoke clearly enough.

He had a very difficult time building.

He was a wonderful athlete.

And he could hit a baseball.

Anything wrong with his direction, he could hit.

So he understood some things about me,

and I understood some things about Jim, and we based our marriage on it.

We understood some things about each other.

He had a very sensitive nature.

You know, one thinks of an athlete as being, I don't know,

not having that, butthey do.

A marriage wasn't a happy one.

It ended in nine months, unfortunately.

Ms. Monroe will have nothing to say this morning.

All I can say as her attorney is that this is what we would say was

a conflict of careers.

And as incredible as it may be,

it will have to be presented in the proper place at the proper time.

Marilyn Monroe, aided by director George Cooker on

right, throws a Hollywood studio press party to

introduce the male stars of her new film comedy, Let's Make Love.

And second from left is Frankie Vaughn, England's most popular singer.

Now for press records, marvelous Marilyn poses with

another of her male luminaries, Yves Montand, that

most sensational of international stars.

Let's Make Love producer Jerry Wald congratulates his

beautiful leading lady who now sees the press

headed by the famed Dorothy Kilgallen meet another

of her supports, Wilfred Hyde-White, London's greatest dramatic actor.

As Marilyn with 20th Century Fox production chief

Buddy Adler hears that film executive declare Let's

Make Love will be her finest film to date.

The collapse of her marriage coincided with a

turning point in Marilyn's career.

Tired of being infantilized by the studio system,

she took a radical step.

Alongside photographer Milton Green, she founded Marilyn Monroe Productions in 1954.

It was an unprecedented move for a female star.

She relocated to New York and immersed herself

in serious study at the actor's studio under Lee Strasberg.

She was determined to be taken seriously, not

as a novelty, but as an artist.

Her return to Hollywood under a renegotiated contract

marked a significant victory.

She gained greater creative control, higher pay, and

the right to choose her roles.

What audiences never saw was the work behind the illusion.

With Marilyn.

I hate a careless man.

Marilyn always dreamt of being an actress.

She didn't, by the way, dream of being a star.

She dreamt of being an actress.

And she had always lived somehow with that dream.

And that is why, despite the fact that

she became one of the unusual and outstanding

stars of all time, she herself was never satisfied.

When she came to New York, she began

to perceive the possibilities of really accomplishing her

dream of being an actress.

When Marilyn was here at the studio, she

always sat in the same place, which was way at the end there in the last row.

Marilyn prepared obsessively.

She rewrote dialogue in the margins of her

scripts, rehearsed comic timing late into the night,

and watched other actors with the focus of a student, not a star.

Happy time for you all.

It's a very happy time.

I'm happy to be back.

I'm very proud of my hometown.

You're wearing a high-heeled dress, Tom.

The last time I saw you, is this the real Marilyn of exile?

No, I'm the same person, but it's a different suit.

Comedy, she believed, was not instinct alone.

It was precision.

(film reel whirs)

In 1956, Marilyn delivered a performance that silenced

many critics in Bus Stop.

She was vulnerable, raw, and emotionally complex.

It revealed a depth long denied to her.

For Marilyn, it was proof that she could

expand beyond the image imposed upon her.

That same year, she married playwright Arthur Miller.

Their relationship was rooted in intellectual connection and

mutual admiration, though it was not without strain.

Actress Marilyn Monroe and playwright Arthur Miller are

married, climaxing days of worldwide speculation.

The happy couple poses for a battery of

feverish photographers at their honeymoon retreat, the Miller

Farm in Roxbury, Connecticut.

Married suddenly and secretly, it's the second time

for the 40-year-old playwright and the

third for the glamorous 30-year-old actress.

Next comes a film in England for Mrs.

Marilyn Miller.

That's Monroe.

Could you tell us what kind of a wedding you're going to have?

Very quiet, I hope.

Good. Do you feel certain at this time that you won't be able to get away?

I feel certain I'm going to try, of course.

In the event that you are not able to go, will Miss Monroe still go?

Oh, sure. She's got to go.

She's got a contract to fill.

That means you may not have a honeymoon together then.

I think we will.

I hope so.

(upbeat music)

Europe pandemonium rains in Tokyo as Joe DiMaggio, the

once great Yankee clipper, extends the field of

the Monroe doctrine by bringing his beautiful star

bride to the land of the cherry blossoms.

Having demonstrated how to marry a millionaire in

a comedy masterpiece of film, Marilyn shows she

knows how to manage millions by taking her

multitudinous reception in stride.

There hasn't been anything like Marilyn and Joe

in all of Japan's history, and the photogs

make the most of it, proving curves that

can get a great batter have also diplomatic

twists in the field on international goodwill.

A triumph worthy of how to marry a millionaire.

Marilyn hoped marriage would provide stability, perhaps even

motherhood, something she longed for deeply, far deeper than any stardom.

Marilyn longed to be taken seriously not only by men, but by women.

She valued the opinions of female friends, assistants,

teachers, and collaborators.

Relationships built on trust rather than desire.

She had average grades, with a stout back, she couldn't even ship.

She wanted to be a wife, she wanted to have children.

She wanted to be wanted.

That was the main thing.

And I guess she thought if she were a movie star, she'd be loved.

Most people want something from you, and she

was always suspicious that people wanted something from her.

With younger actresses, she was often gentle, encouraging,

acutely aware of how easily the industry could break them.

She knew competition was expected of women in Hollywood.

Solidarity, she learned, had to be chosen deliberately.

Author Miller offered Marilyn intellectual

companionship and moments of genuine tenderness.

If she could have settled to just be sort of a blonde movie star, if she

was dumber, she would have been happier.

Marilyn Monroe's career reveals the heavy cost of

conformity for women, and a moment when traditional

femininity was both being rigidly enforced and quietly questioned.

In the 1950s, idealized femininity, soft, compliant, domestic,

and sexually appealing to men, was heavily promoted

in post-war culture, even as early feminist

ideas were beginning to surface beneath the mainstream.

Monroe was pressured to embody this narrow version

of femininity at all times.

Studio contracts controlled her appearance, behavior, and relationships,

while the media reduced her intelligence and emotional struggles to spectacle.

Men in positions of power often infantilized her,

treating her vulnerability as weakness rather than as

a response to relentless objectification and control.

As women increasingly felt the strain of these

expectations, Monroe's suffering exposed the emotional and psychological

damage caused by enforced femininity.

Her life came to embody many of the

pressures that would soon be challenged by second-wave feminism.

(film reel whirs)

Fame, however, exacts a price.

Marilyn's struggles with anxiety, insomnia, and dependency on

prescription medication intensified.

Sleeping pills, uppers, and downers.

Her body became both her instrument and her battleground.

Health complications, miscarriages, and public scrutiny eroded her

sense of control.

Despite these challenges, she delivered one of the

most celebrated performances of her career in Some

Like It Hot in 1959, earning a Golden Globe and reaffirming her brilliance.

(upbeat music)

Look, if you're interested in whether I am married or not...

Oh, I'm not interested at all.

Well, I'm not.

That's very interesting.

Yet, behind the scenes, productions were increasingly disrupted

by illness and exhaustion.

Marilyn was not only fragile or afraid.

She loved to laugh.

On set, when she felt safe, she could

be mischievous, playful, delighted by the smallest moments.

Comedy was where she felt most alive, where

her intelligence, timing, and warmth met effortlessly.

Those who worked closely with her remembered not

just the struggle, but the joy.

Why are you killing him?

Just stand aside, honey.

Okay, you won!

All right, you’ve won!

- You won! Let go! - Let go of that rope!

Get out of here!

- Let go! - Come here!

The Misfits, in 1961, written by Miller, would be her final completed film.

The production was grueling, emotionally and physically.

Murderers!

You liars!

All of you liars!

You're only happy when you can see something die!

Why don't you kill yourselves and be happy?

You and your god country!

Marilyn had discovered notes written by Arthur, which

planted doubts in her mind of their longevity.

It seemed the trust had slowly decayed.

Arthur's withdrawal was quiet, and for Marilyn, devastating.

She and Miller separated in January, just following

the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.

Their marriage was unable to withstand the pressures of fame and fragility.

(film reel whirs)

The press, once adoring, grew cruel.

Headlines focused on delays, hospitalizations, and rumors.

Marilyn, once praised for her vulnerability, was now punished for it.

The publicity was relentless.

(crowd noise)

(shouting)

As her fame grew, so did speculation about

her private life, linking her to presidents, politicians, and actors.

There were persistent reports that her conversations were monitored,

and her sense of privacy was non-existent.

It was as though every action she'd take,

every affiliation she had, even in the privacy

of her own home, could be weaponized and used as political leverage.

The risk was made even worse due to the ever-present Cold War.

These stories endured, not because they were common,

but because the world struggled to accept Marilyn

Monroe as powerful on her own.

She deserved privacy, respect, a way out of

the web she'd unintentionally become caught in.

Marilyn Monroe was standing at a crossroads, professionally,

emotionally, and physically.

After years of conflict with studios, illness, and

public scrutiny, she was attempting to rebuild.

She had signed on to Something's Gotta Give,

a film intended to mark her return to Hollywood on her own terms.

Production was trunced, and Marilyn's health remained fragile,

leading her to be fired from the film and the project being shut out.

Despite her health, she was not retreating.

She was still planning, still imagining a future.

Friends recalled that she spoke about new projects,

travel, and the possibility of independence beyond the studio system.

There were moments of optimism alongside exhaustion, a

familiar rhythm of life.

Marilyn lived in cycles of hope and collapse.

Aspiration and disappointment helped she continue to move forward.

In the weeks leading up to her death,

Marilyn was under immense pressure.

She was managing chronic insomnia, anxiety, and dependence

on prescribed medications, substances widely dispensed

in mid-century Hollywood, with little understanding of the cumulative danger.

Her emotional state was complicated by isolation, professional

uncertainty, and the resurfacing of lifelong fears of abandonment.

Marilyn attempted a return.

She sang Happy Birthday to her close friend, President John F.

Kennedy, before a global audience.

She was radiant.

It was one of her favorite Hollywood appearances.

(gentle music)

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday, Mr. President ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

(applause)

♪ Thanks, Mr. President for all the things you've done ♪

♪ The battles that you’ve won ♪

♪ The way you deal with U.S. Steel and our problems by the ton ♪

♪ We thank you so much ♪

Everybody, happy birthday.

(gentle music)

I can now retire from politics after having had Happy Birthday sung to

me in such a sweet, open way.

On August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found

dead in her Los Angeles home by her housekeeper.

She was 36 years old.

(gentle music)

Marilyn Monroe was found dead in bed under

circumstances that were in tragic contrast to her

glamorous career as a comic talent.

On the surface, she seemed to have such a zest for life.

Her international appeal took her from command appearances

to the other side of the world and entertainment for Korean GIs.

The star led a far from normal childhood

and had 12 sets of foster parents, leading

her to say in her last interview that she was never used to being happy, so

it wasn't something she ever took for granted.

She never let her personal feelings interfere with

her job, and she was the idol of the G.I.s, the animation of foxhole dreams.

Her death was officially ruled a probable suicide

by an overdose of barbiturates, though debate continues.

Theories spread like wildfire regarding political intervention.

What remained undisputed was the magnitude of her loss.

There was a telephone call from Marilyn's attorney.

He asked if Marilyn was all right, and I said, as far as I know she is.

The light was on in her room, and the telephone cord was under the door, and

these were indications that she was still awake.

About two in the morning, when I saw that the light was still on in her

room, this was my first concern, that there might be something wrong.

So I tried the door, and it was locked.

I knocked at the door and called Marilyn's

name several times, and there was no answer.

Marilyn Monroe was more than an image.

She was a woman who fought for autonomy

in an industry designed to strip it away.

She was an intellect who challenged wage inequity,

defied sexual double standards, and insisted on her

right to be taken seriously.

(gentle music)

Monroe has suffered from psychiatric disturbance for a long time.

She had often expressed wishes to give up, to withdraw, and even to die.

On more than one occasion in the past,

when disappointed and depressed, she had made a

suicide attempt using sedative drugs.

On these occasions, she had called for help and had been rescued.

From the information collected about the events of

the evening of August 4th, it is our

opinion that the same pattern was repeated except for the rescue.

On the basis of all the information obtained,

it is our opinion that the case is a problem of suicide.

A century after her birth, Marilyn's legacy endures

not as a cautionary tale, but as a testament to resilience.

We, in our fan club, we have people that are my age, we have people older

than me, and lots of people that are

teenagers that were born far after her death

and yet they are captured by her beauty and her talent also.

I really think Marilyn's going to survive onward.

She seems to be getting actually bigger every year, rather than less.

I think she's so incredible as a woman and as an actress that she will be

remembered probably forever.

I think it's really important because so many

people know who she is, but they don't get a chance to see who she actually was.

She's done so many historical things.

I mean, obviously I love her roles that

she's played, but also I love when she

sang Happy Birthday to the President because it's

become so historical for so many reasons.

She knew how to create moments, from the

skirt blowing up, to the Happy Birthday, to

being Sugar Cane in Summer Like It Hot.

There's so many.

She's just so inspiring.

She achieved so much, going from a broken

home to being the most famous woman in the world.

She transformed vulnerability into power, visibility into influence.

In a male-dominated world, she became a force of nature.

Miss Monroe's dramatic coach delivered the eulogy, saying

he had no words to describe the myth and the legends that grew up about her.

The film star's coffin is then moved to

a crypt as Mr. DiMaggio and his Marine

Corps son walk with other mourners in the cortege.

A century after her birth, Marilyn's legacy endures

not as a cautionary tale, but as a testament to resilience.

By chance, I directed Marilyn Monroe's first major

film, as well as her last.

Marilyn had a strange, startling impact on the world.

Even today, across the headlines of far greater

events, her gentle, haunted image continues to appear.

At her death, the world had looked for villains.

It found only the troubling truths that life

can be unfair and cruel, that we see

human despair too late, that courage is not always enough.

If bravery is measured by the fear it

must overcome, then Marilyn's courage was great indeed.

(gentle music)

She transformed vulnerability into power, visibility into influence.

In a male-dominated world, she became a force of nature.

Marilyn Monroe did not simply belong to Hollywood.

She changed the landscape of the world.

(gentle music)