Jean Baker Inspirational Quotes
Norma Jean Baker endured a fatherless childhood of sexual abuse and poverty and was put in a string of orphanages and foster homes after mother Gladys Baker (nee Monroe), who suffered mental illness, was institutionalised.
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| By Dell Publications, Inc., New York, publisher Modern Screen - Page 39, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49950311 |
She was born on 1 June 1926 in the Los Angeles County Hospital, the third child of Gladys Baker. She lived with a number of foster parents, as her mother was mentally unstable until her mum's best friend Grace Mckee became her guardian.
Mckee was inspired by Jean Harlow and allowed the nine-year-old Norma to wear makeup and curl her hair until McKee married and sent Norma to an orphanage.
She was then sent to live with her great aunt Olive Brunings and it is thought that Norma was sexually assaulted by Olive's son, which some biographers have claimed led to her later behaviour, including substance abuse.
At 16, she escaped her old life by marrying a 21-year-old aircraft plant worker, Jim Dougherty, who she divorced four years later. By this time she had begun modelling bathing suits and, after bleaching her hair blonde, posed for pin-ups and glamour photos.
She was then sent to live with her great aunt Olive Brunings and it is thought that Norma was sexually assaulted by Olive's son, which some biographers have claimed led to her later behaviour, including substance abuse.
At 16, she escaped her old life by marrying a 21-year-old aircraft plant worker, Jim Dougherty, who she divorced four years later. By this time she had begun modelling bathing suits and, after bleaching her hair blonde, posed for pin-ups and glamour photos.
Howard Hughes tried to get her a screen test but was beaten to the punch by 20th Century-Fox, who signed her to a contract - at $125 per week for six months - and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
After appearing in small parts in films including 'Love Happy' and 'All About Eve', Monroe found fame in 1953 with 'Niagara', 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and 'How To Marry a Millionaire'. That same year, she began dating baseball player Jo DiMaggio, and a nude spread of her appeared in the debut issue of Playboy magazine.
Monroe had hit stardom.The nude spread caused a scandal with her studio so she agreed to admit she had posed for the photo as she was struggling to pay her rent. The resulting publicity created some sympathy for the struggling actress.
After appearing in small parts in films including 'Love Happy' and 'All About Eve', Monroe found fame in 1953 with 'Niagara', 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and 'How To Marry a Millionaire'. That same year, she began dating baseball player Jo DiMaggio, and a nude spread of her appeared in the debut issue of Playboy magazine.
Monroe had hit stardom.The nude spread caused a scandal with her studio so she agreed to admit she had posed for the photo as she was struggling to pay her rent. The resulting publicity created some sympathy for the struggling actress.
Dogs never bite me. Just humans.
Monroe's work began to slow down but, after undergoing psychoanalysis, critics praised her acting in 1956 film 'Bus Stop'. She married playwright Arthur Miller the same year, divorcing him four years on.
In the meantime, she fell prey to alcohol and pills, and suffered two miscarriages. After a year off in 1958, Marilyn returned to the silver screen for smash comedy, 'Some Like It Hot'. In 1960, she appeared in 'Let's Make Love', with Yves Montand, with whom she had an affair.
'The Misfits', written by husband Miller, was to be her final film. Work was interrupted by exhaustion, and she was then fired from 'Something's Got to Give' for not turning up for filming.
On 19 May 1962, the actress attended the early birthday celebration of John F Kennedy at Madison Square Gardens and sang 'Happy Birthday Mr President' in a now iconic manner. She went into seclusion and on 5 August 1962, she was found dead at her home of an overdose of sleeping pills, aged 36.
The verdict was suicide but has always been disputed, with countless conspiracy theories triggered by alleged affairs with brothers John F and Robert Kennedy.
The verdict was suicide but has always been disputed, with countless conspiracy theories triggered by alleged affairs with brothers John F and Robert Kennedy.
Jean Baker Inspirational Quotes
I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.
If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.
If you're gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.
When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I'm already better than them.
Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.
We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.
I don't mind living in a man's world, as long as I can be a woman in it. The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.
I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.
I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot! Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.
Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature.
Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.
Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are. A sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing.
The thing I want more than anything else? I want to have children. I used to feel for every child I had, I would adopt another.
Your clothes should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to show you're a lady.
A career is born in public—talent in privacy.
I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.
Men are so willing to respect anything that bores them. I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.
If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere.
First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.
The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn't any.
