Happy 88th Birthday Marilyn Monroe

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Marilyn Monroe
Had she not tragically passed away in 1962, or we suppose at some point thereafter, today (Sunday) would have been the 88th birthday of Marilyn Monroe (PeekYou profile here); a woman as famous as any actor Hollywood has ever produced, which can be said without even slight exaggeration.

Indeed, we’d wager more people than not immediately picture the troubled Norma Jeane Mortenson when hearing the term “movie star.”

The story of her all-too brief and turbulent life has been told, re-told, lied about, and speculated over for decades. A married high school drop-out at 16, she fell into an unlikely modeling career as a “girl next door” sort, which led her to an even more unlikely film career and reinvention as the quintessential blonde bombshell.

A gifted actres in possession of a keen intelligence, and a charisma as sizable as possibly any to ever grace the big screen, she proved to be a great deal more than just another Hollywood sex symbol. As we say, in some ways, she became one of the great American symbols of any type; synonymous to an extent — for better and for worse — with not only the entire film industry, but the very idea of celebrity itself.

To learn more about Marilyn, or to check out her films, or to read 1,001 interpretations of some aspect of her biography, or to buy merchandise bearing her massively iconic visage, or to do any of a million Marilyn related things on our beloved World Wide Web, head to her PeekYou profile and start clicking away on the many links to be found there.

Below, from an old episode of Entertainment Tonight, are some even older — but wildly wacthable — Marilyn hair and makeup tests from John Huston’s film The Misfits; which sadly wound up being Marilyn’s last.