On June 29, 1956, Marilyn wed playwright Arthur Miller. The couple met through Lee Strasberg, and friends reported she made him "giddy." While they were married, Arthur wrote the part of Roslyn Taber in 1961's The Misfits especially for Marilyn. The movie co-starred Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. Sadly, the marriage between Marilyn and Arthur ended on January 20, 1961, and The Misfits was to be Marilyn's (and Gable's) last completed film.

At the 1962 Golden Globes, Marilyn was named female World Film Favorite, once again demonstrating her widespread appeal.

Sadly, in a shocking turn of events on the early morning of August 5, 1962, 36-year-old Marilyn died in her sleep at her Brentwood, California home. The world was stunned. Marilyn's vibrant spirit and beauty made it impossible to believe she was gone. On August 8, 1962, Marilyn's body was laid to rest in the Corridor of Memories, #24, at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

During her career, Marilyn made 30 films and left one, Something's Got to Give, unfinished. She was more than just a movie star or glamour queen. A global sensation in her lifetime, Marilyn's popularity has extended beyond star status to icon. Today, the name "Marilyn Monroe" is synonymous with beauty, sensuality and effervescence. She remains an inspiration to all who strive to overcome personal obstacles for the goal of achieving greatness.

"I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, 'There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.'"

"I learned to walk as a baby and I haven't had a lesson since."

"There was my name up in lights. I said, 'God, somebody's made a mistake.' But there it was, in lights. And I sat there and said, 'Remember, you're not a star.' Yet there it was up in lights."

"Gee, I never thought I had an effect on people until I was in Korea."

"That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather have it sex than some other things we've got symbols of."

"Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature."

"He [Arthur Miller] wouldn't have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde."

"I don't want to play sex roles any more. I'm tired of being known as the girl with the shape."

"I am invariably late for appointments--sometimes as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing."

"[Hollywood is] a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul."

"I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one."

"Everybody is always tugging at you. They'd all like a sort of chunk out of you. I don' think they realize it, but it's like 'grrr do this, grr do that...' But you do want to stay intact--intact and on two feet."

"It stirs up envy, fame does. People...feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you--and it won't hurt your feelings--like it's happening to your clothing."

"She [Sadie Thompson] was a girl who knew how to be gay even when she was sad. And that's important--you know?"

"I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made."

"Fame is fickle and I know it. It has its compensations, but it also has its drawbacks and I've experienced them both."

"With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else's ideas about you, but what's important is how you feel about yourself--for survival and living day to day with what comes up."

"I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else."

"Only the public can make a star. It's the studios who try to make a system out of it."

"It's all make believe, isn't it?"

"I'm not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful."

"A dollar for your thoughts"

"I've been on a calendar, but never on time."

"A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night."

"I've never dropped anyone I believed in."

"It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far."

"I'm very definately a woman and I enjoy it."

"What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course."

"Dogs never bite me. Just humans."

"If I'm a star, then the people made me a star."

"I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent."

"There's only one sort of natural blonde on earth -- albinos."

"People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one."

"The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them---and fooling them."

"To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I'm working on the foundation."

"It's often just enough to be with someone. I don't need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You're not alone."

"I'm a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they've made of me and that I've made of myself, as a sex symbol. Men expect so much, and I can't live up to it."