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Marilyn Monroe is among the most beloved, iconic, and mythologized stars of the twenty first century. From getting her begin in All About Eve to stealing the present in Gentleman Prefer Blondes to having a somber, but mystifying swan tune in The Misfits, Marilyn lives on in our collective consciousness with indelible sparkle.
Due to our cultural obsession with the star, quite a few TV reveals, films, made-for-tv films, and extra have been created in her honor. Right here we breakdown among the numerous actresses who’ve portrayed the icon, from Susan Griffiths to Michelle Williams to now Ana de Armas, and extra.
Tracey Gold, Catherine Hicks
Tracey Gold was recognized for her function on the favored Nineteen Eighties sitcom Rising Pains, however earlier than she made her mark there, she performed a younger Norma Jean within the TV film Marilyn: The Untold Story. She was accompanied by actress Catherine Hicks who performed the grown up Marilyn for the 1980 biopic.
Madonna
Marilyn’s completely iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” quantity within the 1953 musical movie Gents Choose Blondes was completely impersonated by Madonna‘s 1984 music video for “Material Girl.” The video took all its cues from the unique routine, with Madonna decked out in the identical pink robe and matching pink gloves, working by a equally choreographed dance with males in tailor-made fits tending to the queen of pop. Though Madonna was solely giving an homage to the well-known actress, she did an epic job whereas doing so!
Paula Lane
Paula Lane starred within the 1989 flick Goodnight, Candy Marilyn, which was a follow-up movie to 1976’s Goodnight, Norma Jean. The film was directed by Larry Buchanan and in addition starred Misty Rowe, who portrayed before-she-was-famous Norma Jean within the 1976 film.
Susan Griffiths
Actress Susan Griffiths starred within the 1991 TV film Marilyn & Me, however her portrayal of the well-known icon went far past that one undertaking. Per the Daily Mail, Susan revamped $4 million from the quite a few events the place she impersonated Marilyn, additionally appearing in Quantum Leap (1994), Timecop (1994), Pulp Fiction (1997), Darkish Skies (1997), and extra.
“Folks at all times informed me I seemed like Marilyn,” Susan informed the Los Angeles Instances in an early ’90s interview. “At first it took a whole lot of follow to get Marilyn’s mannerisms proper, particularly her breathy voice, which was the toughest. I spent hours poring over her films and working towards. Now the whole lot is simply second nature.” Along with movies, the actress has additionally appeared as Marilyn in a number of advertisements, on journal covers, and extra.
Mira Sorvino, Ashley Judd
Princess of the ’90s Mira Sorvino portrayed Marilyn in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), a made-for-TV biographical movie. Based mostly on the 1989 guide Norma Jean: My Secret Life With Marilyn Monroe, Mira was additionally joined by actress Ashley Judd who performed Marilyn’s youthful self, Norma Jean. The TV film was nominated for 5 Emmys, together with two for each lead actresses.
Barbara Niven
Barbara Niven performed the display goddess in 1998’s Rat Pack, an HBO made-for-tv film. Barbara portrayed Marilyn inside the “Rat Pack” scene of the ’50s and ’60s, joined by Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy David Jr., and Angus Macfayden as Peter Lawford. Sinatra introduces Marilyn to John F. Kennedy within the film — a mystified and storied match in historical past — and the story reveals the actress seeing the politician behind the again of her then-husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio.
Uma Thurman, Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty
Three actresses, Uma Thurman, Katharine McPhee, and Megan Hilty, every took their flip because the legendary star in 2012’s TV collection Smash. The present, which lasted for 2 seasons, was in regards to the staging of the fictional Marilyn Monroe musical referred to as Bombshell.
Michelle Williams
Michelle Williams mastered the breathy, ethereal Marilyn within the 2011 movie My Week With Marilyn which informed the story of a really particular week in time when Marilyn was making the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl. The story additionally featured Eddie Redmayne because the naïve however formidable Colin Clarke, who labored as a manufacturing assistant on the Laurence Olivier-produced image. Clarke was tasked to help Marilyn on the London manufacturing whereas her husband on the time, playwright Arthur Miller, was again within the states. The 2 inevitably shared an intimate relationship.
Each Michelle and Kenneth Branagh (who performed Olivier) obtained Academy Awards nominations for his or her roles and the movie was critically acclaimed, additionally grossing $35 million worldwide.
Ana de Armas
Ana de Armas is the most recent actress set to tackle the function of Marilyn within the adaptation of writer Joyce Carol Oats‘ 2000 historic novel Blonde, which chronicles the imagined inner life of the epic star. The teaser trailer for Blonde was launched by Netflix in June 2022, forward of its September 23, 2022 launch date. The footage reveals Ana in character as Marilyn for the primary time. Blonde is directed by Andrew Dominik and in addition stars Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, and Julianne Nicholson.
“Andrew’s ambitions have been very clear from the beginning — to current a model of Marilyn Monroe’s life by her lens,” Ana informed Netflix. “He needed the world to expertise what it truly felt prefer to not solely be Marilyn, but in addition Norma Jeane. I discovered that to be probably the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist tackle her story that I had ever seen.” She added, “We labored on this movie for hours, each single day for nearly a 12 months. I learn Joyce’s novel, studied tons of of images, movies, audio recordings, movies — something I might get my arms on. Each scene is impressed by an current {photograph}. We’d pore over each element within the photograph and debate what was occurring in it. The primary query was at all times, ‘What was Norma Jeane feeling right here?’ We needed to inform the human aspect of her story. Fame is what made Marilyn probably the most seen particular person on the planet, nevertheless it additionally made Norma probably the most invisible.”
Ana beforehand informed Sunday Times in regards to the “laborious” work it took to step into the late actresses’ sneakers for the function, working to good her signature breathy voice. “I attempted!” the Knives Out actress informed the outlet. “It solely took me 9 months of dialect teaching, and working towards, and a few ADR classes. It was a giant torture, so exhausting. My mind was fried.”