Ranking The Actresses Who’ve Portrayed Marilyn Monroe

Nope, Dominik wasn’t the first director to tackle Joyce Carol Oates’ book Blonde. The fictionalized story of Monroe’s life was adapted for a 2001 television movie of the same name. In that instance, Australia’s Poppy Montgomery was handed the responsibility of playing the blonde bombshell. Quite the task! But how did the actress do? What did people think of her performance?

Well, Montgomery’s portrayal did get some positive responses from critics, with Tom Shales of The Washington Post saying, “[She] does an essentially acceptable job.” Not exactly glowing, but not horrible, either. He thought the actress’ attempts to mirror Monroe’s grin and vulnerability were spot on. As for the movie, though, Shales wrote, “[It’s] a horrid, morbid mess. Not just trash but dismal, pretentious, and artsy-smartsy trash.” Ouch!

How’s this for a stacked cast? 1998’s TV movie The Rat Pack starred the likes of Ray Liotta, Don Cheadle, and Joe Mantegna in a story about the titular group. Marilyn Monroe also shows up in the film, with Barbara Niven taking on the part. She’s built a solid career for herself on the small screen, but this is still arguably her most high-profile role.

So, how was Niven’s portrayal? Overall, she doesn’t play a huge role in the story, with her initial meeting with John F. Kennedy marking her stand-out moment. The film itself received an okay reception from critics and audiences alike. It sits on a Rotten Tomatoes score of 57 percent, while its IMDb user rating is 6.6 out of 10. She also looks a bit like Marilyn in this photo from a few years earlier!

Who doesn’t love Drunk History? It’s a very funny show with a great premise: Comedians get drunk and recall famous historical events. Each episode features big names acting out the stories word-for-slurred-word. Notably, season four’s “Legends” covers a tale about Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, as played by Gabourey Sidibe and Juno Temple respectively.

The episode was well received in 2016, with Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya of AV Club giving it an A minus. She wrote, “Gabourey Sidibe and Juno Temple give heartfelt and truly compelling performances as Fitzgerald and Monroe, having fun with the drunken, quick dialogue, but also bringing genuine emotion to their scenes.” High praise indeed. It’s definitely worth a watch, folks.

The premise behind the 2012 TV show Smash is certainly intriguing. It’s about two budding actresses vying for the part of Marilyn Monroe in a biographical musical titled Bombshell. Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty play the two hopefuls, with the latter’s character bagging the role. It’s one of the more unique portrayals of Monroe, as it’s a fictional person’s take on her.

McPhee was definitely impressed with her co-star’s work. In fact, she believed that if Bombshell ever did become a real stage show, Hilty deserved to front it. The actress told Broadway.com, “To me, she was my favorite Marilyn [in Smash]. I’m not being hard on myself, I really think she would be an amazing Marilyn on stage.” Talk about a glowing assessment!

Much like Blonde, Marilyn: The Untold Story was also adapted from a book. In this case, it was Marilyn: A Biography. The TV movie from 1980 charts Monroe’s life from beginning to end, with Catherine Hicks playing the part. Sci-Fi and horror fans are sure to recognize her, as she made appearances in both Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Child’s Play later that decade.

Anyway, Hicks’ portrayal of Monroe earned her a deserved Primetime Emmy nomination in 1981. She’s arguably the highlight of the movie. As blogger Kristen Lopez noted on the website Ticklish Business, “Hicks is a breath of fresh air by refusing to be the Marilyn we all assume. She revitalizes the staid persona of Marilyn, by shedding many of the theatrical ‘Monroe’ moves.”

Blonde isn’t the only alternative look at Marilyn Monroe’s life. In 1991 the television movie Marilyn and Me hit the small screen, which centered on a romantic relationship between the star and a guy named Bob Slatzer. He insisted that he tied the knot with Monroe in 1952, but proof is very hard to come by. Susan Griffiths took on the starring role here.

Now, unlike the other actresses that we’ve seen so far, Griffiths makes a living off impersonating Monroe. She’s appeared in numerous films and TV shows as the blonde bombshell. So the performer’s no stranger for what’s required! As for Marilyn and Me, her portrayal did earn some strong praise from critics, with The Biopic Story website dubbing it “a top-notch impersonation."

Told across two parts, Lifetime’s The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe came out in 2015. It details Monroe’s past struggles with her mom, before focusing on the three different marriages she went through as an adult. The TV special boasted a hell of a cast, which included Susan Sarandon and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Meanwhile, Kelli Garner played the Hollywood icon.

Garner had the unenviable task of playing Monroe between the ages of 16 and 36, showing her growth across those 20 years. That’s a lot of ground to cover! But the actress nailed it, with Brian Lowry noting that she put in a “knockout performance” in his Variety review. The miniseries itself proved to be pretty divisive among the critics, though.

In another "what if"-style tale, Insignificance poses an intriguing question: What would’ve happened if Marilyn Monroe shared a room with Joe DiMaggio, Joseph McCarthy, and Albert Einstein in the past? The story was originally created by a playwright, before Nicolas Roeg turned it into a movie in 1985. Theresa Russell, who was married to Roeg at the time, was recruited to portray Monroe.

So, how did Russell fair? Legendary film critic Roger Ebert had this to say. He wrote, “She doesn't really look very much like Monroe, but what does it matter? The blond hair and red lips are there, and so is the manner, which has been imitated so often that the imitators prove that Monroe was a special case. Russell doesn’t imitate. She holds the movie together.” That’s some praise!

Thanks to all the controversy that came from the NC-17 rating, Blonde had built a notorious reputation before any of the critics had actually watched it. Despite that, though, most people have been curious to see how Ana de Armas handled the role of Marilyn Monroe. The actress certainly has the chops for it, standing out in various movies over the last few years.

Since its release, the film has proved to be extremely divisive — at the time of writing, it sat on a 50 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. Yet one of the most consistent things to come out of the reviews is praise for de Armas. The website’s critics consensus reads, “Blonde can be hard to watch, but Ana de Armas’ luminous performance makes it difficult to look away.” Could an Oscar nod be on the cards?

Compared to some of the other movies we’ve looked at, My Week with Marilyn tells a fairly small-scale story. As the title suggests, it’s only set across a few days, depicting a production assistant’s relationship with Monroe while making The Prince and the Showgirl. Michelle Williams was cast in the lead role, off the back of her consistently solid film and TV work.

And it’s fair to say that Williams aced it. The actress’ touching portrayal of the icon earned a lot of buzz during the 2012 awards season, where she picked up a Golden Globe. Williams was also nominated for a BAFTA and an Oscar, but lost out to Meryl Streep both times. There’s no shame in that! Given the overwhelmingly positive response, there’s a strong argument that her Monroe performance is the best — with one obvious exception, that is.

According to people who knew her, the woman born Norma Jeane Mortenson considered “Marilyn Monroe” a separate personality — a part to play. One story even claims that the star was walking unnoticed through New York with a friend when she said, “Do you want me to be her?” So, Monroe opened her coat and started sashaying — only to be quickly surrounded by photographers. Her attempt to balance her Norma Jeane side with her Marilyn side led to some truly dramatic moments in her life.

Monroe never knew for certain who her father was. Her mother, Gladys, said that a man called Charles Stanley Gifford was the actress’ dad. But he always turned Monroe away when she tried to contact him. Yet Gifford’s name wasn’t even on Monroe’s birth certificate. Instead, her father was listed as Martin Edward Mortensen, who had married Gladys back in 1924. Both men ultimately claimed paternity, and yet nobody knows the real truth of the matter — even now.

Monroe’s mother, Gladys, had a difficult life. After she divorced her first husband, for instance, the two children she had were taken away from her. Then, in 1933, tragedy struck when Gladys’ son Robert died of an infection. This devastating event occurred just months after Gladys’ grandfather Tilford Hogan had taken his own life, and sadly it appears that the double-whammy of grief led Monroe’s mom to a breakdown.

In 2012 Monroe’s The Prince and the Showgirl co-star Jean Kent told the Daily Mail that Monroe was an unpopular “grubby, disheveled little thing” who “never arrived on time, never said a line the same way twice [and] seemed completely unable to hit her marks on the set.” Tony Curtis was famously even more damning, once claiming that kissing Monroe was like “kissing Hitler” — although he later said that he had been joking around with the harsh remark.

Monroe may have been married three times, but gossip nevertheless spread about a liaison with drama teacher Natasha Lytess — particularly after Lytess moved in with the actress. That said, in 1954 Monroe wrote in her autobiography, My Story, “A man who had kissed me once had said it was very possible that I was a lesbian because apparently I had no response to males… Now, having fallen in love, I knew what I was. It wasn’t a lesbian.”

While Monroe was frequently filmed — often in skimpy outfits — she apparently hated the experience. In 2012 her Bus Stop co-star Don Murray told the Los Angeles Times, “For somebody who the camera loved, [Monroe] was still terrified of going before the camera and broke out in a rash all over her body.”

Norma Jeane didn’t officially change her name to Marilyn Monroe until 1956. Before that, she’d used both “Jean Norman” and “Mona Monroe” for her modeling work and had suggested “Jean Adair” for screen credits. A psychiatric clinic also admitted her under the name “Faye Miller.” And when the actress needed to check into a hotel incognito, she did so with the magnificent “Zelda Zonk.”

Even someone as naturally beautiful as Monroe couldn’t resist the lure of plastic surgery. In 1950 she had two procedures, a tip rhinoplasty, and a chin implant, paid for by her agent Johnny Hyde. And many years later, in 2013, her doctor’s notes about this work were put up for auction. They disappointed those fans who'd thought she’d never gone under the knife.

Monroe’s second and third husbands — Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, respectively — were, of course, both famous men. Her first spouse, on the other hand, was normal 21-year-old James Dougherty. In order to avoid being sent back to an orphanage, Monroe married Dougherty at the age of 16 in 1942. She didn’t enjoy being tied down, however, and so the couple ultimately parted ways just four years after they'd wed.

In 1954 Monroe tied the knot with baseball player DiMaggio in what was said to be the wedding of the year. Yet the bride didn’t actually want any attention at all. She had attempted to keep her relationship with DiMaggio quiet. But, unfortunately, someone at her studio leaked the wedding plans, meaning fans and photographers ultimately descended upon the couple on their big day.

Monroe started out as a disaster in the kitchen. Apparently, on one occasion, a friend asked her to wash some lettuce for dinner — only to find the star scrubbing at the leaves with a Brillo pad. But as Monroe got older, she learned more and more. She even created her own dishes. In 2010 The New York Times tried the actress’ Thanksgiving stuffing recipe and praised her for “cooking confidently and with flair.”

Before Monroe was famous, she agreed to pose for nude photographs for $50 as she badly needed the money. Then, after Monroe found fame, the pictures were leaked to the public — but Monroe stood up for herself. To prevent any potential scandal from ruining her career, the star confirmed that the pictures were of her but that she had only done them because she'd been broke. The public took her to their hearts shortly afterward.

Arguably the most famous image of Monroe is that of her standing over a grate while her skirt blows up in the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch. When that scene was filmed, however, Monroe’s then-husband DiMaggio is said to have taken issue. Apparently, he didn’t want other people looking at his wife that way. He was allegedly so angry that he got physical with his spouse. Shortly afterward, Monroe divorced the baseball star.

Monroe’s notebook entries were uncovered in 2010, and they showed the world the depths of despair she often felt. One passage reads, “I can’t really stand human beings sometimes — I know they all have their problems as I have mine — but I’m really too tired for it. Trying to understand, making allowances, seeing certain things that just weary me.”

For years, people have speculated that Monroe had an affair with President Kennedy. And while the actress’ sultry performance at JFK’s 1962 birthday celebration was enough proof for some, there’s no actual evidence that the two had a relationship. People who knew Monroe have said it’s possible that the pair slept together once, but the icon never talked about it.

After Monroe died, there was a flurry of press interest — some of it downright ghoulish. Famous photographer Leigh Wiener for instance — according to his own son — bribed morgue officials to gain access to Monroe’s body so that he could take snaps of the late star. Weiner died in 1993, however, and most of these secret photos have thankfully never been found.

After divorcing DiMaggio, Monroe rather unexpectedly wed playwright Arthur Miller. This bewildered many people, who thought that the blonde bombshell and the Pulitzer Prize winner couldn’t possibly have anything in common. Yet Monroe was by all accounts attracted to intellectuals. She even kept a framed photograph of Albert Einstein. But she wasn't totally done with her exes.

After Monroe divorced DiMaggio, the wounded ex-husband apparently didn't take the split well. Reportedly, he would turn up at her residence, disguised with a fake beard, to watch his former wife from afar. DiMaggio even supposedly hired a private investigator to inform him when Monroe started to see other men — which, of course, she eventually did.

Monroe was romantically linked to Bobby Kennedy as well as JFK. Some conspiracy theorists are convinced, then, that the icon was killed by the Kennedys to hide these affairs. And an FBI file published in 2007 may lend credence to the theory. This states that on the day Monroe passed away, Bobby made a phone call “to find out if Marilyn was dead yet.”

While Monroe’s half-brother, Robert, died before she could meet him, she did get to know her half-sister, Berniece. In 1938 Berniece received a letter from her mother, Gladys — whom she had previously thought dead — and it was through this that she learned of Monroe’s existence. And the sisters remained friends for the rest of Monroe’s life, with the star sometimes sending parcels of clothes to Berniece and her daughter, Mona.

Monroe’s childhood was a rough one often spent in foster homes. Yet the young girl still dreamed of a future career in show business. In 1962 she told Life magazine, “When I was five, I think, that’s when I started wanting to be an actress… I didn’t like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house… When I heard that this was acting, I said, ‘That’s what I want to be.’”

In 2012 actress Mitzi Gaynor told the Los Angeles Times that Monroe wanted to look beautiful even in death. She said, “The paparazzi would at least see a pretty picture of her when they took her out on the gurney.” And Monroe had her wish granted at her funeral. There, she was seen in a wig, as her head had been shaved for the autopsy.

Famously, the Miller-Monroe marriage didn’t last. The final nail in the coffin may have come when Monroe discovered notes written by Miller expressing disappointment in the relationship. Miller subsequently claimed that the draft was for a play, but Monroe knew better. At the time, she wrote in her diary, “I guess I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone’s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever.”

When Monroe sang “Happy Birthday” to John F. Kennedy, she notably wore a beautiful sequinned dress. However, the garment was very tight on her — so tight that she ultimately had to be sewn into it. In 2016 the famous gown was sold for $4.8 million to Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

A man named Richard Poncher owned the burial plot above Monroe's, and in 1986 — in accordance with the man's final wishes — his body was buried face down in his crypt. Poncher is still there to this day — even though his widow once tried to sell the burial space for $4.6 million. Some people may well consider this an indignity, as Monroe had no say in the matter.

During a 2012 interview with British newspaper the Daily Mirror, Monroe’s niece Mona let slip something interesting. She said, “I know [Monroe] was planning on remarrying Joe [DiMaggio]. He was really the love of her life. They knew what they wanted out of life at that point, and they could have made it work.”

At one point, Gladys was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and mental health treatment was far from sophisticated back in 1934. That was the year Gladys was first institutionalized. That's why, when Monroe began to rise to fame, she was advised to tell the world that both her parents were dead. And as records show, Monroe herself would suffer mental health problems throughout her life.

Monroe’s left-wing views — she was pro-civil rights and a member of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy — made the FBI suspicious of both her and Miller. For a while, the bureau apparently monitored her to see if she was a communist, eventually concluding that she was not. So, what became of those original files? Well, they’re lost now — according to the FBI, at least.

Miller didn’t attend Monroe’s funeral, although this wasn’t out of malice. On the day of the ceremony, the playwright penned an essay by way of explanation, writing, “Instead of jetting to the funeral to get my picture taken, I decided to stay home and let the public mourners finish the mockery. Not that everyone there will be false, but enough. Most of them there destroyed [Monroe], ladies and gentlemen.”

While the official cause of Monroe’s death is suicide, her niece, Mona, isn’t so sure. In 2012 she told the Daily Mirror, “I do not subscribe to any of these murder or suicide theories or [Monroe’s] supposed affair with President Kennedy. None of it is true. It was an accident. She had so many appointments booked. The day after she died, she was going to see producers and then a lawyer to change her will.”

Monroe bequeathed most of her fortune to her acting coach Lee Strasberg and her half-sister, along with a substantial sum for her mother’s care. Intriguingly, though, the actress also left 25 percent of her assets to her psychoanalyst, Dr. Marianne Kris. This was despite the fact that the trust between the pair had been broken in 1961 — the year when Kris sent Monroe to a mental health institution.

Back in 1992, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner bought the crypt next to Monroe’s, and it was there that he was buried after his death in 2017. But many people thought the move disrespectful. Aside from the fact that Hefner never actually met Monroe, he also printed her nude pictures in Playboy without asking her permission or compensating her.

Some Monroe fans must be eagerly awaiting the year 2039, as that’s when a box of her private files is set to be opened. “Box 39” currently sits in a special section of the UCLA library, and it’s speculated that the documents within may finally answer the question of whether the icon intended to take her own life or not.

By many accounts, DiMaggio never stopped loving Monroe — even despite their turbulent relationship. He was apparently devastated at her funeral, and for 20 years after her death, he had roses delivered to her grave twice a week. And according to DiMaggio’s lawyer, the last words of Monroe’s ex-husband were, “I’ll finally get to see Marilyn” — although this story has since been disputed by others.

Some of Monroe’s best-known quotes reflect rather unfavorably on her life as a screen goddess. At one point, she said, “Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt, and bewildered.” Her 1957 diary entries also talk of “tension, sadness, disappointment” and her own “dead eyes.” Combining that with her fear of the camera and her general anxiety makes for a sad story.

In the 2018 documentary Marilyn Monroe For Sale, fellow actress Marion Collyer said, “All that Marilyn ever wanted in her life was to have a baby.” Tragically, though, the screen legend had endometriosis, and this condition may have played a part in the several miscarriages that Monroe experienced throughout her life.

Though Monroe often played the ditzy blonde, she was anything but. She loved to read, and her California home held over 400 books. Her interests were diverse, too, with the classics, gardening manuals, and several first editions stacked up on the shelves. Apparently, Monroe was reading both Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Leo Rosten’s Captain Newman, M.D. just before she died.

Supposedly, a critic once slammed Monroe by declaring that she would look better in a potato sack than in a low-cut dress. Another story claims someone told either the star or her producers that the actress would be beautiful even in a potato sack. But regardless of the truth of the matter, Monroe actually did do a photoshoot dressed in a potato sack — and remained stunning in the resulting shots.

In 2009 Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the coroner who had performed Monroe’s autopsy, spoke to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The medic revealed that while he had performed toxicology tests on the actress, he had not analyzed her internal organs. Noguchi added, “I am sure that this could have cleared up a lot of the subsequent controversy, but I didn’t follow through as I should have. I think that was a great shame.”

Both during her life and since her death, Monroe has remained the quintessential blonde. But, interestingly, that wasn’t her natural hair color at all. She started life as a brunette and only dyed her hair with peroxide when she started getting into the acting business. No matter her hair color, though, she was still beautiful.