Marilyn Monroe
She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and spent her childhood in orphanages and foster homes: her mother was gravely ill, and no father was named on the papers. Modelling work during the war years took her into film, and within ten years she went from walk-on parts to leading roles — “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, “The Seven Year Itch”, “Some Like It Hot”, which brought her a Golden Globe. The part of the guileless beauty made her famous and held her captive: the studio saw a type rather than an actress. Monroe studied at the Actors Studio in New York, founded her own production company and forced a rewrite of a punishing contract — rare for an actress of her day. She died in August 1962, aged thirty-six, and the circumstances are argued over still.
She was born in Los Angeles on 1 June 1926 at 9:30 in the morning, Pacific time; the hour is stated on her birth certificate.