The Truth Behind Norma Jeane Name Change To Marilyn Monroe

The suggestion to change Norma Jeane’s name to Marilyn Monroe, the actress whose name came to be associated with the blonde bombshells she portrayed in movies, was made 72 years ago.

More people worldwide are familiar with Norma Jeane Mortenson as the glitzy actress and s*x icon.

She was a model, singer, and actor from America. She rose to prominence in the 1950s and the early 1960s as one of the most well-known symbols of the s*xual revolution, thanks to her humorous blonde bombshell roles. 

By the time of her death in 1962, her movies had made $200 million, and she had been a top-billed actress for a decade.

Overview Of Norma Jeane’s Life

On June 1, 1926, Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson at the Los Angeles County Hospital in Los Angeles, California. 

Later, she christened Norma Jeane Baker and gave her mother’s name. 

After a turbulent childhood in which her mother and maternal grandparents were sent to mental hospitals, she spent most of her youth in foster homes and an orphanage. 

Her turbulent personal life attracted a lot of media attention. Addiction and emotional disorders plagued her. 

Her well-publicized marriages with playwright Arthur Miller and retired baseball player Joe DiMaggio ended in divorce.

How Did Norma Jeane Become Marilyn Monroe?

When Norma Jeane was 16 years old, she wed James Dougherty, a member of her neighborhood. 

Later, he enlisted in the Merchant Marines, and during World War II, he was deployed to the South Pacific. 

While working in a California munitions plant, a photographer found Norma Jeane, and she soon began a lucrative modeling career. 

Norma Jeane changed her name to Marilyn Monroe at the start of her acting career and had her brown hair colored blonde. 

Monroe and Lyon decided on the stage name ‘Marilyn Monroe’ before her contract started in August 1946. 

Lyon chose the first name because it made him think of the Broadway actress Marilyn Miller; the last name was Monroe’s mother’s maiden name. 

She separated from her husband because he did not support her in September 1946. 

She gained notoriety in the same year for her performance in Bette Davis’ All About Eve. 

However, Niagara, a thriller in which Monroe portrayed an adulterous young woman who conspires with her lover to murder her husband, was her actual breakthrough performance.

Why did Norma Jeane Change Her Name?

According to one story by Monroe historian Donald Spoto, it was a team effort. 

Lyon believed there were too many ways to say, Dougherty, the last name of her soon-to-be ex-husband, at the time. 

Lyon came up with the name Marilyn because the 20-year-old model reminded him of Marilyn Miller, the Ziegfeld Follies Broadway musical star who co-starred with him and W.C. Fields in Her Majesty, Love. 

The model, who was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and later baptized Norma Jeane Baker, suggested Monroe, another surname on the mother’s side of the family. 

It was appropriate in more ways than one for the two performers to share the same name.

They were comparable not just because they were both blonde on the outside but also because they both had troubled inner histories that included unsuccessful marriages, as Spoto points out. 

Miller died at the age of 37, while Monroe died at the age of 36, making the name choice hauntingly prophetic.

How Did She Rose To Fame?

Norma Jeane rose to fame as an actor over the course of the following two years, appearing in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, as well as dramas like Clash by Night and Don’t Bother to Knock.

The revelation that she had posed for n*de photos before becoming famous caused a scandal for her, but it did not harm her career; instead, it led to more people watching her movies.

Monroe has remained a significant pop culture symbol for a very long time. 

She was named sixth on the American Film Institute’s list of the best female film legends from the Hollywood Golden Age in 1999. 

She was recognized as one of the top actors who had never been nominated for an Academy Award by The Guardian in 2009. 

Monroe was among the most commercially successful Hollywood performers by 1953.

She starred in the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which cemented her reputation as a “dumb blonde,” as well as the film noir Niagara, which explicitly relied on her s*x appeal. 

Her naked pictures were on the cover and centerfold of Playboy’s debut issue that same year. 

Throughout her career, she contributed significantly to developing and controlling her public image; thus, she was dissatisfied when the studio type cast her and underpaid her. 

She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for rejecting a film assignment but later returned to feature in one of her most financially successful films, The Seven Year Itch (1955).

In 1954, when the studio hesitated to alter Monroe’s contract, she established her motion picture production firm. 

She started studying method acting at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg in 1955, devoting her time to growing the business. 

Fox granted her a new deal later that year, giving her more authority and a higher income. 

Her later roles included her first independent production, The Prince and the Showgirl (1956), and a critically acclaimed performance in Bus Stop (1957). 

She received a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in 1959’s critically and commercially successful Some Like It Hot for her performance.

Norma Jeane Death

Norma Jeane, also called Marilyn Monroe, was discovered dead in her Los Angeles home on August 5, 1962. 

She was found face down, naked, holding a phone in one hand while resting on her bed. 

Empty medicine bottles to treat her depression were all over the place. She was 36 years old when she died. 

Los Angeles police determined after a brief investigation that a self-administered overdose of sedative narcotics caused her death and that the mode of death was a probable suicide.