Biography for Marilyn Monroe Date of Birth 1 June 1926 , Los Angeles, California, USA Date of Death 5 August 1962 , Los Angeles, California, USA (drug overdose) Birth Name Norma Jeane Mortenson Nickname The Blonde Bombshell MM Height 5' 5½" (1.66 m) Mini Biography Her mother was a film-cutter at RKO Studios who, widowed and mentally ill, abandoned her to sequence of foster homes. She was almost smothered to death at two, nearly raped at six. At nine the LA Orphans' Home paid her a nickel a month for kitchen work while taking back a penny every Sunday for church. At sixteen she worked in an aircraft plant and married a man she called Daddy; he went into the military, she modeled, they divorced in 1946. She owned 200 books (including Tolstoy, Whitman, Milton), listened to Beethoven records, studied acting at the Actors' lab in Hollywood, and took literature courses at UCLA downtown. 20th Century Fox gave her a contract but let it lapse a year later. In 1948, Columbia g...