How Did Marilyn Monroe Really Die? Her Cause Of Death Explained

How Did Marilyn Monroe Really Die?

On Saturday, August 4, 1962, late in the evening at her Los Angeles, California house at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, Marilyn Monroe passed away from a barbiturate overdose. She had a 36-year-old age. On Sunday, August 5, her body was discovered just before sunrise. She was a big sex symbol at the time, one of the most well-liked Hollywood stars of the 1950s and early 1960s, and a leading lady for ten years. By the time of her passing, $200 million had been made from Monroe’s movies.

Prior to her passing, Monroe had battled mental illness and addiction for a number of years. She had also not finished a movie since February 1, 1961’s underwhelming The Misfits. Monroe started filming Something’s Got to Give for 20th Century Fox in April 1962 after spending much of 1961 focused with her various health issues; however, the studio let her go in early June.

She was publicly criticized by the studio for the production’s issues, but in the weeks before she passed away, she made an effort to mend her reputation by giving multiple interviews to prominent magazines. Monroe also started negotiating with Fox to be re-hired for the production of Something’s Got to Give as well as for leading roles in other movies.

August 4, the day before she passed away, was spent at her Brentwood home. Publicist Patricia Newcomb, housekeeper Eunice Murray, photographer Lawrence Schiller, and psychiatrist Ralph Greenson were among those who frequently accompanied Elizabeth. Murray remained the night to keep Monroe company at Greenson’s request. On Sunday, August 5, at around three in the morning, she observed that Monroe had locked herself in her bedroom and didn’t seem to be responding when she peered in through a window.

Greenson was informed by Murray, who arrived shortly after, broke a window to enter the room, and discovered Monroe dead. Based on prior instances of her overdosing and being prone to mood swings and suicidal ideas, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office officially declared her death to be a probable suicide.

Due to the quantity of barbiturates she had consumed, accidental overdose was ruled out and there was no sign of foul play. Joe DiMaggio, her ex-husband, organized her funeral on August 8. It was held at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, and she was then laid to rest in a crypt at the Corridor of Memories.

Since the middle of the 1960s, a number of conspiracies implying murder or unintentional overdose have been put forth, despite the coroner’s findings. Numerous of these involve former American president John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, as well as Jimmy Hoffa, a union leader, and Sam Giancana, a crime boss.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office examined the case in 1982 due to the popularity of these hypotheses in the media, but they could not discover any evidence to back them up and did not differ with the conclusions of the initial inquiry.

About Marilyn Monroe: Bio & Career

American actress Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was born in the United States. She rose to prominence in the 1950s and the early 1960s as one of the most well-known sex icons and a symbol of the sexual revolution thanks to her comedic “blonde bombshell” roles.

By the time of her death in 1962, her films had made $200 million (the equivalent of $2 billion in 2021), making her a top-billed actress for a decade. Monroe has remained a significant pop culture icon for a very long time. She was ranked sixth on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest female screen 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 born and raised in Los Angeles and spent the majority of her youth in foster homes and an orphanage before getting married at the age of sixteen. She began a successful pin-up modeling career while working in a factory during World War II after meeting a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit.

This led to brief film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. In late 1950, following a string of bit parts in movies, she agreed to a new deal with Fox. She rose to fame as an actress over the course of the following two years, appearing in a number of comedies like 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 nude photos before becoming famous caused a scandal for her, but it did not harm her career; rather, it led to more people watching her movies.

By 1953, Monroe was one of the most commercially successful Hollywood actors. 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 overtly capitalized on her sex 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 the development and control of her public image, thus she was dissatisfied when the studio typecast her and underpaid her. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for rejecting a film assignment, but she later made a comeback to feature in one of her most financially successful films, The Seven Year Itch (1955).

In 1954, when the studio was still hesitant to alter Monroe’s contract, she established her own 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. The drama The Misfits is her most recent finished project (1961).

The tumultuous private life of Monroe attracted a lot of interest. Addiction and emotional disorders plagued her. Her well-publicized unions with playwright Arthur Miller and retired baseball player Joe DiMaggio both ended in divorce. She passed away from a barbiturate overdose on August 4, 1962, at the age of 36, in her Los Angeles home. Her demise was determined to be likely suicide.