Marilyn Monroe
The Hollywood actress whose tragic blonde-bombshell image became the 20th century's template for sex symbol — and for the wreckage that role causes.
Origin
Norma Jeane Mortenson (1926–1962) was raised in foster care, modeled during the war, and became 20th Century Fox's biggest star by the early 1950s with films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot. The platinum blonde, the white halter dress over the subway grate (The Seven Year Itch, 1955), 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President' to JFK in 1962 — these images became more famous than any of her actual performances. She was found dead of a barbiturate overdose at thirty-six. The official ruling was probable suicide; the conspiracy theories around her relationships with the Kennedys have never died.
Modern usage
Her name is synonymous with the blonde-bombshell archetype — Madonna, Anna Nicole Smith, Margot Robbie's Barbie all explicitly invoke her. The subway-dress pose is the universal shorthand for old-Hollywood glamour. 'A Marilyn moment' increasingly means the dark version: media-built sex symbol crushed by what the role required.
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