Featured on a 1.11 euro postage stamp issued by French Post Office on 8 November 2003

The ADR stage at Twentieth Century Fox is named after her.

Obtained order from the City Court of the State of New York to legally change her name from Norma Jeane Mortenson to Marilyn Monroe. [23 February 1956]

Suffered from endometriosis, a condition in which tissues of the uterus lining (endometrium) leave the uterus, attach themselves to other areas of the body, and grow, causing pain, irregular bleeding, and, in severe cases, infertility.

In 1999, a make-up kit that she had owned sold for $266,500.

Married Arthur Miller twice: the 1st time in a civil ceremony, then in a Jewish (to which she had converted) ceremony 2 days later.

Def Leppard's 1983 #1 hit single "Photograph" from their Pyromania album was written about her.

Died at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, California.

She took acting lessons from Michael Chekhov

Thought the right side of her face was her "best" side.

In 1949, she posed nude for Playboy Magazine for $50.

It was in her contract that she did not have to work when she was having her menstrual cycle.

Died with the phone in her hand.

The Emily Ann Faulkner/Rita Shawn character (played by Kim Stanley) in the John Cromwell film The Goddess (1958) was based on her.

Was named the Number One Sex Star of the 20th Century by Playboy magazine in 1999.

Was 1947's Miss California Artichoke Queen.

Interred at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Corridor of Memories, crypt #24.

Fearing blemishes, she washed her face fifteen times a day.

Voted 'Sexiest Woman of the Century' by People Magazine. [1999]

Went to Van Nuys High School (Los Angeles) in the early 1940s but never graduated.

Her real father was Charles Stanley Gifford. From his side, she was, ironically, descended from the celebrated Puritan preacher and pioneer and founder of Rhode Island and pioneer of The Bronx Anne Marbury-Hutchinson, from whom she is still related to First Lady Lucretia Rudolph and to Presidents Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and George W. Bush, as well as to Governor Robert Alphonso "Bob" Taft II, Senators Daniel Webster, Daniel Robert Graham and Stephen Arnold Douglas, to Shanghai Pearce and to Lizzie Andrew Borden.

Don't Bother to Knock (1952) (her 18th film) was an attempt to prove to critics that she could act.

In her autobiography "My Story," she recounted her guardian told her she was a direct descendant of James Monroe. Her mother's maiden name was Monroe, but there is no evidence she was a descendant of the president.

Her "Happy Birthday Mr. President" dress sold for $1,267,500.00, a world record for the most expensive piece of clothing ever sold, and is in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Discovering her dress was torn at the 1950 Academy Awards, she burst into tears

Was an outstanding player on the Hollygrove Orphanage softball team.

In Italy, her films were dubbed at the beginning of her career by Miranda Bonansea. As she matured she was dubbed by the marvellous and prolific Rosetta Calavetta with immense success, particularly in _Some Like It Hot (1959)_ . Zoe Incrocci lent her voice to Monroe once: in _All About Eve (1950)_ .

Her behavior on the unfinished Something's Got to Give (1962) dimmed her reputation in the industry, but she was still big box office at the time of her death, slated to appear in (among other projects) the splashy musical What a Way to Go! (1964) and the stark drama The Stripper (1963).

Was roommates with Shelley Winters when they were both starting out in Hollywood.

Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"

Was originally set to play Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), but Audrey Hepburn played the role instead.

What a Way to Go! (1964) initially intended as a vehicle for her, Shirley MacLaine played Louisa May Foster instead. Producer Arthur P. Jacobs was her publicist and J. Lee Thompson was on her list of approved directors.

Friend of James Haspiel.

Voted Empire's (UK) "sexiest female movie star of all time" in 1995.

Her first modeling job paid only five dollars.

Pictured on a 32¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 1 June 1995.

Genius Sergei Parajanov made collages of Monroe, Charles Chaplin, Mona Lisa, and other famous personages and many were featured in Mikhail Vartanov's Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992).

Playboy "Sweetheart" of the Month, December 1953.

Aside from her birth name of Norma Jean Mortensen, she was baptized and mainly known throughout her life as Norma Jeane Baker. During her modeling days she was also known as Norma Jeane Dougherty (her first marriage name), and also as Jean Norman. When she signed with 20th Century-Fox, studio liaison Ben Lyon had first chosen the name Carol Lind as her stage name, although she disliked that. Eventually she chose her mother's maiden name of Monroe. Three names were drawn up as possible stage names. The first was Norma Jeane Monroe, although that sounded awkward; the second was Jean Monroe, and the third was Marilyn Monroe, the latter first name being chosen by Lyons who thought Norma Jeane resembled famed stage actress Marilyn Miller. Norma Jeane liked Jean Monroe, for it preserved some of her name, but Lyon convinced her that Marilyn Monroe sounded more alliterative and so it was chosen.

Frequently used Nivea moisturizer.

Appears on sleeve of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.

One of the first Los Angeles natives to become a major movie star.

Started using the name Marilyn Monroe in 1946, but did not legally change it until 1956.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#2). [1995]

Was named #6 Actress on The American Film Institute's 50 Greatest Screen Legends

Hugh M. Hefner owns the burial vault next to hers.

Her lifelong bouts with depression and self-destruction took their toll during filming The Seven Year Itch (1955). She frequently muffed scenes and forgot her lines, leading to sometimes as many as 40 takes of a scene before a satisfactory result was produced. Her constant tardiness and behavioral problems made the budget of the film swell to $1.8 million, a high price for the time. The film still managed to make a nice profit. The classic shot of her dress blowing up around her legs as she stands over a subway grating in this film was originally shot on Manhattan's Lexington Avenue at 52nd St. on 15th September 1954 at 1:00 a.m. Five thousand onlookers whistled and cheered through take after take as Marilyn repeatedly missed her lines. This occurred in presence of an increasingly embarrassed and angry Joe DiMaggio (her husband at the time; the nine-month-old marriage officially ended during the shooting of this film). The original footage shot on that night in New York never made it to the screen; the noise of the crowd had made it unusable. Director Billy Wilder reshot the scene on the 20th Century-Fox lot, on a set replicating Lexington Avenue, and got a more satisfactory result. However, it took another 40 takes for Marilyn to achieve the famous scene. Amazingly, her very narrow spike heels don't get stuck or break in the subway grating, although this was a universal problem at the time for the countless women wearing that very popular style heel in New York City in that era. An important promotional campaign was released for this mainstream motion picture, including a 52-foot-high cutout of Marilyn (from the blowing dress scene) erected in front of Loews State Theater, in New York City's Times Square. The movie premiere was on 1st June 1955, which was also her 29th birthday.

James Dougherty, her fist husband, died of complications of leukemia in San Rafael, California, at age 84, on 15th August 2005.

Wore glasses.

Appeared on the first cover of Playboy in 1953.

Formed her own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, with Milton H. Greene (31 December 1955).

She had an American mother of Scottish heritage and a Norwegian father.

When putting her imprints at Grauman's she joked that Jane Russell was best known for her large front-side and she was known for her wiggly walk, so Jane could lean over, and she could sit in it. It was only a joke, but she dotted the "I" in her name with a rhinestone, which was stolen within days.

Batman writer/artist Bob Kane used Marilyn's likeness as a reference when he drew Vicki Vale.

In 1946, she signed her first studio contract with 20th Century Fox and dyed her hair.

Her classic shape, according to her dressmaker, is actually measured at 37-23-36.

Hundreds of items of memorabilia auctioned off in late October, 1999 by Christie's, with her infamous 'JFK' birthday-gown fetching over $1 million.

The first time she signed an autograph as Marilyn Monroe, she had to ask how to spell it. She didn't know where to put the "i" in "Marilyn".

Even the origin of her name has been subject to debate. Although it's believed that her movie-crazy mother, Gladys, named her after Norma Talmadge, Gladys reportedly told her daughter, Bernice (Marilyn's half-sister), that she named Marilyn after Norma Jeane Cohen, a woman Gladys knew while she lived in Kentucky with Bernice's father.

The punk band 'The Misfits' got their name from her last movie, The Misfits (1961).

Offered to convert to Catholism in order to marry Joe DiMaggio in a Church ceremony, but she was turned down because she was divorced. Subsequently, when the divorced DiMaggio married Marilyn in a civil ceremony at San Francisco City Hall, he was automatically excommunicated by the Church; this edict was struck down by Pope John XXIII's Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) in 1962.

Was good friends with Dorothy Dandridge and Ava Gardner when they were all young, struggling actresses in Hollywood.

Had a dog named Tippy when she was a child. In her final, unfinished film, Something's Got to Give (1962), the dog was also named Tippy.

Premiere Magazine ranked her #2 (behind Cary Grant) in their countdown of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time.

Is portrayed by 'Misty Rowe' in Goodbye, Norma Jean (1976).

In 1972, actress Veronica Hamel and her husband became the new owners of Marilyn's Brentwood home. They hired a contractor to replace the roof and remodel the house, and the contractor discovered a sophisticated eavesdropping and telephone tapping system that covered every room in the house. The components were not commercially available in 1962, but were in the words of a retired Justice Department official, "standard FBI issue." This discovery lent further support to claims of conspiracy theorists that Marilyn had been under surveillance by the Kennedys and the Mafia. The new owners spent $100,000 to remove the bugging devices from the house.

The licensing of Marilyn's name and likeness, handled world-wide by Curtis Management Group, reportedly nets the Monroe estate about $2 million a year.

She left Hollywood to pursue serious acting by studying under Lee Strasberg at his Actors' Studio in New York City.

When budding actresses Shelley Winters and Marilyn were roommates in the late 1940s in Hollywood, Shelley said that one day she had to step out and asked Marilyn to "wash the lettuce" for a salad they were to share for dinner. When she got back to the apartment, Marilyn (aparently new to the art of cooking) had the leaves of lettuce in a small tub of soapy water and was scrubbing them clean.

Is portrayed by Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996) (TV)

When she died in 1962 at age 36, she left an estate valued at $1.6 million. In her will, Monroe bequeathed 75% of that estate to Lee Strasberg, her acting coach, and 25% to Dr. Marianne Kris, her psychoanalyst. A trust fund provided her mother, Gladys Baker Eley, with $5,000 a year. When Dr. Kris died in 1980, she passed her 25% on to the Anna Freud Centre, a children's psychiatric institute in London. Since Strasberg's death in 1982, his 75% has been administered by his widow, Anna, and her lawyer, Irving Seidman.

The first Playboy magazine cover, featuring her, is pictured on one of six stamps issued in a souvenir sheet, issued by Grenada & the Grenadines on 1 December 2003 to celebrate Playboy's 50th anniversary.

Portrayed by: Barbara Niven in The Rat Pack (1998) (TV); Holly Beavon in James Dean (2001) (TV); Constance Forslund in This Year's Blonde (1980) (TV); Susan Griffiths in Marilyn and Me (1991) (TV); Catherine Hicks in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) (TV); Sophie Monk in _Mystery of Natalie Wood, The (2004) (TV)_; Poppy Montgomery in Blonde (2001) (TV); Kerri Randles in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) (TV); Heather Thomas in Hoover vs. the Kennedys: The Second Civil War (1987) (TV); Melody Anderson in Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair (1993) (TV); Eve Gordon (I)' in "A Woman Named Jackie" (1991) (mini); Samantha Morton in _Mister Lonely (2006)_; Mary Gross on "Saturday Night Live" (1975).

During the filming of Niagara (1953), she was still under contract as a stock actor, thus, she received less salary than her make-up man. This was also the only film in which her character died. The film was reworked to highlight her after Anne Bancroft withdrew.

Because the bathing suit she wore in the movie Love Nest (1951) was so risque (for the time period) and caused such a commotion on the set, director Joseph M. Newman had to make it a closed set when she was filming.

She was suggested as a possible wife for Prince Rainier of Monaco. He later married actress Grace Kelly.

When she wasn't working she preferred wearing nothing but a bathrobe.

She was "discovered" by press photographers during a WWII photo shoot at the Radioplane plant in California (a manufacturer of military drone targets), owned by actor Reginald Denny. She was one of the plant's employees, and her attractive looks and natural charm made her a "magnet" for the photographers.

Divorced last husband, Arthur Miller, in Juarez, Mexico.

Candle In The Wind, the Elton John song written about her, was lyrically changed to fit Princess Diana upon her death. Coincidentally, both legends died at age 36.

Won an interlocutory decree from Joe DiMaggio on 27 October 1954, but, under California law, the divorce was not finalized until exactly 1 year later.

The dress Marilyn wore to serenade John F. Kennedy at his birthday celebration was so tight she had to be sewn into it.

Her USO Entertainer Identification Card listed her name as "Norma Jean DiMaggio".

She resided at the Hollywood Rossevelt while she was breaking into the acting business.

When told she was not the star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Marilyn was quoted "Well whatever I am, I'm still the blonde."

She is mentioned in the song "Lady Nina" by rock band Marillion.

Measurements: 37C-24-35 (definitive measurements for the majority of her career) / (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

On May 19, 1962 she performed for president John F. Kennedy at his 45th birthday tribute in his honor at Madison Square Garden. She sang "Happy Birthday".

Ranked #8 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

Divorced first husband, James Dougherty, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Often carried around the book, "The Biography of Abraham Lincoln."

Spent most of her childhood in foster homes and orphanages because her mother was committed to a mental institution. At 16, when a family friend could no longer take care of her, she got married to avoid returning to the orphanage.

Producer Keya Morgan owns her bible.

Elton John (British Pop/Rock Star) recorded a tribute to her entitled "Candle in the Wind". In 1997 this was re-recorded with updated lyrics in memory of Princess Diana, an equally troubled person who also met an untimely death.

The punk band 'The Misfits' recorded a song called "Who Killed Marilyn?" inspired by lead singer Glenn Danzig's belief that she had been murdered.

Childhood photos show she was born blonde, but her hair turned "mousy" as she grew older.

The character of Ginger from TV's "Gilligan's Island" (1964) was loosely based on her persona.

In How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), her character Pola is reading a book called "Murder By Strangulation" on the plane. Coincidentally, this is how her character was murdered in Niagara (1953).

The very popular version of "Santa Baby" (also found in the film, Party Monster (2003)) thought to be sung by her was instead recorded by Cynthia Basinet for Jack Nicholson as a Christmas gift.

Ex-husband Joe DiMaggio put fresh roses at her memorial site for years after her death

Her father, Martin Edward Mortensen, emigrated from Haugesund, Norway. Today the town has a statue of Marilyn sitting on the docks with her back to the ocean, created by legendary Norwegian artist Nils Aas (1933-2004).

The famous nude photo of her by Tom Kelley originally appeared as anonymous on a calendar entitled "Miss Golden Dreams." In 1952, a blackmailer threatened to identify the model as Marilyn, but she shrewdly thwarted the scheme by announcing the fact herself. Hugh M. Hefner then bought the rights to use the photo for $500. She became "The Sweetheart of the Month" in the first issue of Hefner's magazine, Playboy. Neither Kelley or Monroe ever saw a dime of the millions the calendar made for its publisher.

Born at 9:30 am

A 1982 review into the original inquest of Marilyn's death, conducted on her 20- year anniversary, concluded that the actress committed suicide or accidentally overdosed, and was not murdered--rumors that were fueled by the sloppy handling of evidence, the delay in securing the scene and the disappearance of tissue samples.

Was referenced in the dialogue of Dolce vita, La (1960), in the context of dieting.

In april 1962, MM developed a viral infection.

Following MM`s divorce of Miller, she again collapsed from exhaustion.

During the filming of `The Misfits`, 1960, MM collpased from acute exhaustion.

While filming `Bus Stop`, 1956, MM developed a viral infection and bronchitis.

Following her performance in `Anna Christie`, 1956, at the Actor Studio, MM devloped Laryngitis.

Following her trip to Korea, MM developed bronchial pneumonia.

In april 1953, MM suffered from bronchitis.

MM had the flu while making `Gentlemen Prefer Blondes`, 1953.

In april 1952, MM had her appendix removed.

MM suffered from insomnia thoughout her adult life.

While filming `A Ticket To Tomahawk`, 1950, MM developed a cold.

During the late forties, MM suffered from painfull, abnormal tissue buildup in her uterus, which is progressive, worsening every time.

During 1949, MM developed Meniere`s syndrome, an ailment that caused dizzines and partial loss of hearing in her right ear. She reportedly suffered from this thourghout her life.

While in Las Vegas, awaiting a divorce from Jim Dougherty, MM contracted Trench Mouth.

As a child, MM suffered from rickets.

As a child, while still living with the Bolenders, Norma Jeane contracted whooping cough.

Had six toes

Natural Hair was Brown

Lisped Voice

When she was 15, she had her ears pierced by Grace McKee, a close friend of her mother, who she was living with at the time.

Marilyn Monroe`s Favorite Clothes: Pucci Clothing

Marilyn Monroe`s Favorite Photograph: Cecil Beaton`s photo of her in the white dress.

Marilyn owned over 400 books

In 1950, Johnny Hyde arranged for her to have her nose and chin surgically perfected. The details are unknown.

wore Nivea Moisturizer

When not wearing makeup, she would apply lanolin or olive oil to her face as a protecting agent

She would sometimes take ice baths, prepared by her masseur, Ralph Roberts, into which she would add Chanel No. 5.

Her favorite perfume: Chanel No. 5

Phone Numbers at 5th Helena Home: 476-1890 and 472-4830

Social Security Number: 563-32-0764

Her favorite actresses: Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Ginger Rogers, Marie Dressler, Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland

Her favorite Actors: Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Charlie Chaplin

In 1946, she began using the stage name Marilyn Monroe, but did not legally change her name until February 23, 1956.