Born as Norma Jeane Mortenson on 1 June 1926 in Los Angeles General Hospital, her mother, Gladys, listed the father's address as unknown. Marilyn never knew the true identity of her father.

Due to her mother's mental instability and the fact that she was unmarried at the time, Norma Jeane was placed in the foster home of Albert and Ida Bolender. It was here she lived the first 7 years of her life.

In 1933, Norma Jeane lived briefly with her mother. Gladys begin to show signs of mental depression and in 1934 was admitted to a rest home in Santa Monica. Grace McKee, a close friend of her mother took over the care of Norma Jeane. "Grace loved and adored her", recalled one of her co-workers. Grace, telling her: "Don't worry, Norma Jeane. You're going to be a beautiful girl when you get big... an important woman, a movie star". Grace was captivated by Jean Harlow, a superstar of the twenties, and Marilyn would later say:"and so Jean Harlow was my idol".

Grace was to marry in 1935 and due to financial difficulties, Norma Jeane was placed in an orphanage from September 1935 to June 1937. Grace frequently visited her, taking her to the movies (cinema), buying clothes and teaching her how to apply makeup at her young age. Norma Jeane was to later live with several of Grace's relatives.

In September 1941 Norma Jeane was again living with Grace when she met Jim Dougherty, five years her senior. Grace encouraged the relationship and on learning that she and her husband would be moving to the East Coast, set in motion plans for Norma Jeane to marry Dougherty on 19 June 1942.

Dougherty joined the Merchant Marines in 1943 and in 1944 was sent overseas. Norma Jeane, while working in a factory inspecting parachutes in 1944, was photographed by the Army as a promotion to show women on the assembly line contributing to the war effort. One of the photographers, David Conover, asked to take further pictures of her. By spring of 1945, she was quickly becoming known as a 'photographers dream' and had appeared on 33 covers of national magazines.

In the fall of 1946 she was granted a divorce, later saying: "My marriage didn't make me sad, but it didn't make me happy either. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn't because we were angry. We had nothing to say. I was dying of boredom".

On 23 July 1946 she signed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox Studios. She selected her mother's family name of Monroe. From this point on she would be known as Marilyn Monroe to all her fans. She had a minor part in the movie 'Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!' and was dismissed as a contract player in August. Rehired in 1948, Marilyn sang her first song in the movie 'Ladies of the Chorus'.

Johnny Hyde, of the William Morris Agency, became her mentor and lover in 1949. Also in 1949, Marilyn agreed to pose nude for a calendar, a fact that was to stir controversy later in her career when she had emerged as a superstar.

Her first serious acting job came in 1950 when she had a small but crucial role in 'The Asphalt Jungle' and received favourable reviews. 'Clash By Night' in 1952 earned her several favourable notices. Alton Cook of the New York World-Telegram and Sun wrote:"a forceful actress, a gifted new star, worthy of all that fantastic press agentry. Her role here is not very big, but she makes it dominant". Monroe's first leading part in a serious feature was to be in 'Don't Bother to Knock', also filmed in 1952.

Marilyn met Joe DiMaggio in early 1952, she was 25 and he was 37. DiMaggio, recently retired from baseball, had expressed a desire to meet this famous star. By February the romance was in full bloom.

In 1952 Marilyn began filming 'Niagara' with Joseph Cotten, a film that was to establish her stardom. After her next big film, 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', she and Jane Russell signed their names and placed their hands and feet in the wet cement in front of the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard - the same place she had visited with Gladys and Grace years earlier as a child.

Twentieth Century-Fox Studios suspended Marilyn in 1954 for failure to appear on the set of 'Pink Tights'. The studio had refused to let her look at the script prior to accepting the part. She felt that due to her star status, she should have the right to script approval.

On 14 January 1954 Joe and Marilyn were married. The wedding captured the headlines worldwide. Joe was an extremely jealous man and resented her popularity among other men. He desired a housewife, not a star of such magnitude; the marriage was in trouble from the beginning.

She was asked to go on a USO tour of Korea to entertain the troops, beginning on the 16 February for four days. She entertained over 60,000 soldiers, many who had never seen a Monroe film, having been in the service during her rise to stardom, although most would have seen still photos of her in the many magazines and newspapers which were distributed to them. She was a huge success. Joe did not accompany her on this trip, Marilyn explaining: "Joe hates crowds and glamour".

On 29 May, Marilyn began filming 'There's No Business Like Show Business'. Throughout the summer she was ill with bronchitis and anaemia. For the first time, Marilyn began showing serious side-effects of the many sleeping pills she had been taking for the last few years, often groggy, lethargic and crying on the set.

The famous 'skirt blowing' scene from the 'Seven Year Itch' , filmed in 1954, was to be a hit with both amateur and professional photographers. Several hundred of them, along with 2,000 spectators, gathered outside the Trans-Lux Theater in New York City in the early morning hours of 15 September to see and record her as she posed for over two hours for her adoring fans. (Due to the crowd noise which couldn't be effectively reduced on the recording, the scene actually shown in the film was a later studio re-recording.)

In the autumn of 1954 Marilyn and Joe separated, later to divorce. On 6 October, Marilyn's attorney Jerry Giesler made a press announcement stating: "...I am speaking for her and can only say that the conflict of careers has brought about this regrettable necessity". With the press hounding her, Marilyn spoke briefly, in a choked voice: "I can't say anything today. I'm sorry. I'm sorry".

In early 1955 Marilyn again returned to New York and joined the Actors Studio, in pursuit of becoming a serious actress. There she met Lee Strasberg, head of the studio and drama coach. Mr. Strasberg and his family would play an important role in her life.

She was to renew her acquaintance with Arthur Miller and have an affair with him. To Marilyn, Miller represented the serious theatre and an intellect that she found attractive. Years later, Miller was to recall: "It was wonderful to be around her, she was simply overwhelming. She had so much promise. It seemed to me that she could really be a great kind of phenomenon, a terrific artist. She was endlessly fascinating, full of original observations, there wasn't a conventional bone in her body".

Marilyn returned to Hollywood in February 1956, after over a year's absence, to film 'Bus Stop'. After completing the film she returned to New York in June. Miller also returned to New York after obtaining a divorce from his then-current wife in Reno, Nevada. Marilyn and Miller were married on 29 June in White Plains, NY.

The Millers departed for London soon after their marriage so that Marilyn could start production on 'The Prince and the Showgirl' with Lawrence Olivier. As early as July, Arthur began to have doubts about the marriage. Sidney Skolsky remarked that: "Miller looked on Marilyn strictly as an ideal and was shocked to discover that she is a human being, a person, even as you and I and maybe Miller".

'Bus Stop' opened in London in October 1956. A Times review said: "Miss Monroe is a talented comedienne, and her sense of timing never forsake her. She gives a complete portrait, sensitively and sometimes even brilliantly conceived. There is about her a waif-life quality, an underlying note of pathos which can be strangely moving".

Marilyn Monroe did not return to Hollywood until 1958 to make 'Some Like It Hot' with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Her health continued to deteriorate due to increased dependency on drugs and involvement in an unhappy marriage. She often came to the set late and was unable to remember her lines. The film's director, Billy Wilder, later said: "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". Her next film, 'Let's Make Love' proved to be an unremarkable film, perhaps most memorable for the publicity generated by her brief affair with co-star Yves Montand.

Early in 1960 Marilyn was consulting with Dr. Ralph Greenson, a prominent psychoanalyst to Hollywood stars. As was common during this period, he relied heavily on drug therapy, routinely prescribing barbiturates and tranquilisers in addition to his psychotherapy.

July 1960 marked the start of filming 'The Misfits', a short story by Arthur Miller adapted for film. While on location the Millers lived in separate quarters and were barely speaking. Meanwhile, pills for Marilyn were regularly flown in from her Los Angeles doctors, including Dr. Greenson. Make-up artist Allan Snyder recalled: "It took so long to get her going in the morning that usually I had to make her up while she lay in her bed". But once again, she managed to give an exceptional performance.

On 5 November, the day after 'The Misfits' was completed, co-star Clark Gable suffered a serious heart attack and died on 16 November 1960. Marilyn felt a great deal of guilt, commenting: "I kept him waiting, kept him waiting for hours and hours on that picture".

On the other hand, production assistant Evelyn Moriarty remembered: "Marilyn was being blamed for everything. All of her problems were exaggerated to cover up for (the director) Huston's gambling and the terrible waste of money on that production. It was easy for her to be made the scapegoat".

'The Misfits' was released in January 1961. Also in that month Marilyn divorced Arthur Miller. Another unhappy marriage ended.

In 1961 Marilyn purchased a house in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. At the urging of her psychoanalyst, Dr Greenson, she hired Eunice Murray as her housekeeper. Murray, calling herself a nurse, had neither the training nor credentials. It is suspected that she was a 'spy' for Dr. Greenson, who continued to have more and more control over Marilyn's life, seeing her almost daily when she was in Los Angeles.

A reported affair with the President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy, began in late 1961. At the President's gala birthday celebration in Madison Square Garden on 19 May 1962, Marilyn sang her now famous, breathless, 'Happy Birthday' tribute to JFK. The President's brother, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, was also reported to have had an affair with Marilyn shortly before her death.

Marilyn began production on 'Something's Got to Give' in April 1962. Much has been said about her inability to show up on the set and her trip to New York for the President's birthday celebration, but her illnesses had been well documented by physicians and she had obtained permission from the Studio well in advance of the trip to New York.

Fox was deeply in debt over their production of 'Cleopatra' starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton - the filming was a long way behind schedule and the costings were millions over budget. With the benefit of hindsight, it is theorised that, if Fox scrapped the Marilyn Monroe film with far fewer expensive sets and actors, they possibly could be reimbursed by the insurance company for losses due to a star's illness, and recoup monies spent to date. Fox fired Marilyn and filed suit against Marilyn Monroe Productions on 7 June (the suit was later dropped).

Marilyn had been seeing Joe DiMaggio frequently during this time and had finally agreed to remarry him. The wedding date was set for 8 August 1962. Fox rehired Marilyn on 1 August to complete 'Something's Got to Give' with a salary of $250,000 - two and a half times the original contract fee. Of course the film would never be completed; as production progressed Marilyn met her untimely death on 5 August 1962.

Marilyn Monroe's career as an actress had spanned 16 years. She made 29 films, 24 in the first eight years of her career.

Much has been speculated about the events surrounding her death and the possible involvement of others in it. But whatever the cause it is highly unlikely that it was suicide. That her death was due to a drug overdose is beyond doubt; whether the overdose was accidental, or perhaps administered by another person, remains at the heart of the debate of the enigma that is Marilyn.

A saddened Joe DiMaggio made arrangements for the funeral, inviting no- one from the Hollywood scene or press, but only close friends and relatives. As he said: "they had only hurt Marilyn". For over 20 years flowers from Joe were delivered weekly to Marilyn's crypt, just as Joe had promised Marilyn when she told him of William Powell's pledge to the dying Jean Harlow.