How Celebrities Reacted to Marilyn Monroe’s Untimely Death
Marilyn Monroe‘s life ended with a barbiturate overdose on Aug. 5, 1962, when the star was only 36 years old. Her death wasn’t just a shock for the public — all of Hollywood, from close friends to costars to acquaintances, reeled in the wake of Monroe’s unexpected demise.
In the days that followed, her fellow stars issued touching tributes, expressed sadness and confusion, and condemned a film industry that they felt had mistreated her. Sixty-two years later, their reactions are a reminder of the epic mark Monroe made on the film industry in her short time on Earth — and of the real woman who existed behind the iconic blond bombshell exterior.
Sir Laurence Olivier
Everett Collection
Laurence Olivier starred with Monroe in 1957’s The Prince and the Showgirl, which he also directed. The day after her death, the Arizona Daily Star reported that Olivier described Monroe as “the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensation.” He added, “Popular opinion and all that goes to promote it is a horrible unsteady conveyance for life, and she was exploited beyond anyone’s means.”
Dean Martin
20th Century-Fox Film Corporation/courtesy Everett Collection
Dean Martin was Monroe’s friend as well as her costar in her unfinished final film Something’s Got to Give; he had urged Twentieth Century Fox to rehire her after she was let go due to her frequent absences. Martin said, “I just can’t believe it. She was a wonderful and warm girl. I was anxiously hoping that we would finish the picture together.”
Gina Lollobrigida
Bettmann/Getty
The Italian actress was often viewed as Monroe’s European counterpart and met her several times in the 1950s. “I met Marilyn several years ago, and she conquered me with her beauty and her sensibility as an actress,” Lollobrigida said. “Marilyn was in love with her profession. She worked with a profound passion … her main characteristic was her extreme sensibility. Her principal preoccupation was certainly not money or notoriety, but the creation of a true work of art.”
Peter Lawford
Monroe once dated Rat Pack member Peter Lawford. But after he married Pat Kennedy, sister to JFK and RFK, the Lawfords remained close with Monroe, often taking her on as a guest at their beach house. In the months before her death, Lawford told Variety of the press and film industry gossip about Monroe, “I think it’s time to stop attacking her.”
Everett Collection
Lawford is believed to be the last person to speak to Monroe, on the night before her death. The actress was depressed about the state of her career, and Lawford invited her out to dinner with him and Pat. Monroe said she’d consider, but didn’t show; when Lawford called back to ask where she’d been, Monroe’s speech was slurred. She told him she was tired, then urged him to tell his wife and JFK goodbye from her. Lawford later told police he had a “gut feeling” that something was wrong with Monroe that night and “still blames himself for not going to her home himself.″
Lawford released a statement following her death that read, “Pat and I loved her dearly. She was a marvelous, warm human being.”
Joshua Logan
The Pulitzer Prize-winning director and cowriter of South Pacific, who directed Monroe in the movie Bus Stop, said, “She was one of the most unappreciated people in the world.”
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg directed the Actors Studio, a prestigious acting school with alumni including Jack Nicholson, Sally Field, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shelley Winters, Harvey Keitel, Walter Matthau, Jane Fonda, Dustin Hoffman and many more. Considered “the father of method acting,” Strasberg was a mentor and a parent figure to Monroe — her will stipulated that he inherit her personal belongings when she died.
He gave the eulogy at her funeral, beginning with, “I am sorry. I know you would not want us to mourn, but grief is human and words must be spoken.”
He continued: “In her own lifetime, she created a myth of what a poor girl from a deprived background could maintain. For the entire world, she became a symbol of the eternal feminine. But I have no words to describe the myth and the legend. I did not know this Marilyn Monroe. We gathered here today knew only Marilyn — a warm human being, impulsive and shy, sensitive and in fear of rejection, yet ever avid for life and reaching out for fulfillment.”
Joe DiMaggio
Everett Collection
Though Monroe and DiMaggio were married for only nine months in 1954, they began spending time together after her 1961 divorce from Arthur Miller, and in the months before her death, DiMaggio told friends that he thought they might remarry. Since Monroe didn’t have any next of kin, when her body was found, law enforcement called DiMaggio.
DiMaggio organized Monroe’s funeral, held at the Westwood Village Funeral Chapel, an event that had only 25 mourners. That small crowd included no celebrities; the most famous attendee, besides DiMaggio, was Lee Strasberg. The remaining mourners included a handful of Monroe’s friends, her foster parents and half sister, and her publicist, business manager, hairstylist, makeup artist, attorney and household staff. After Strasberg’s eulogy, songs were played on the organ, including several classical pieces and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” According to The New York Times, DiMaggio was seen kissing Monroe and telling her that he loved her before the casket was closed.
>> Odd Things You Never Knew About Marilyn Monroe
In a letter to the public, cowritten with her business manager and her half sister, DiMaggio explained that only a small group of guests could attend her funeral because “[w]e could not in conscience ask one personality to attend without perhaps offending many many others, and for this reason alone, we have kept the number of persons to a minimum. Please — all of you — remember the gay, sweet Marilyn and say a prayer of farewell within the confines of your home or your church.”
But when executives from a film studio argued that they should be present at the funeral, DiMaggio was much more blunt: “Tell them if it wasn’t for them, she’d still be here.”
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