Marilyn Monroe still casts a long shadow on Hollywood. The ups and downs of her life and work are a constant source of comparison for fast-rising female stars. Especially if they are young, talented, and blonde.
Monroe’s indelible image defines what it means for an actor to achieve a transcendent level of celebrity status that never diminishes. Modern fans may not have seen all of her films, but Monroe’s name and likeness are still loaded with meaning, from her sexuality to her tragic early death to her rise from poverty to wealth. The legend of how Norma Jean Baker overcame her childhood in orphanages and foster care to become a Hollywood icon is deeply embedded in the American story.
Some 65 years after her death at the age of 36, every step of Marilyn Monroe’s short life is a source of endless fascination, as detailed in books, novels, films, plays (her third husband Arthur Miller wrote two, 1964’s After the Fall and 2004’s Finishing the Picture), documentaries, television series, and works of art of all kinds. All of this has kept Monroe front and center as a pop culture touchstone.
The myth-making surrounding Monroe began even before her death. Kim Stanley played the veiled Marilyn in Paddy Chayefsky’s 1958 film Goddess. Barbara Rhoden won a Tony Award in 1964 for her thinly veiled portrayal of Monroe in the original Broadway production of After the Fall. Most recently, up-and-coming Ana de Armas delivered a raw portrait in writer-director Andrew Dominick’s 2022 Blonde, an adaptation of the 2000 biographical novel by Joyce Carol Oates.
Indeed, the list of actors and celebrities who have been influenced by or relentlessly compared to Monroe is long (and not all of them are blonde). Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Pamela Anderson, Sienna Miller, and Catherine Deneuve, just to name a few.
“I think I had been offered every Marilyn Monroe script up to this point. I thought, ‘Is this the end of my creative journey?'” Johansson told Variety in May 2023 that she reached a crossroads in her career in the mid-2010s.
By embracing Monroe’s acting skills, Deneuve made peace with the blonde ghost that haunted her career. “She was doing comedy and drama. It was funny, touching, and captivating. I thought she was amazing. She embodied beauty and film at the same time,” Deneuve told Variety in December 2016.
Oates emphasizes that, essentially, “Marilyn Monroe” was a persona, character, and shield that a street-savvy young woman named Norma Jean Baker adopted to survive in a harsh world and difficult profession.
“In a way, Norma Jean Baker represents the authentic self, because we all have an ‘authentic self’ that is usually hidden beneath a layer of defensive persona. ‘Marilyn Monroe’ is the acting self that only really exists when there is an audience,” Oates told Variety in 2022.
Here are some examples of actors and celebrities who felt the influence of Hollywood’s Monroe Doctrine.
Kim Basinger
Image credit: WireImage
With her on-screen presence in films such as 1984’s The Natural, 1985’s Fool for Love, 1986’s 9 1/2 Weeks, and 1989’s Batman, she couldn’t avoid references to Marilyn Monroe. Off-screen, Basinger’s romantic life intersected with a dynamic persona, further increasing public interest in her life.
Variety observed that in a February 2025 Barron’s article, revisiting Basinger’s 1997 Oscar win, stating, “Like Marilyn Monroe before her, and Demi Moore and Pamela Anderson after her, Basinger is not a big fan of her appearance or her appearance. She threw away expectations for a personal life favored by the Bloids (in addition to Baldwin, her former lovers included Prince, Batman producer Jon Peters and Richard Gere) and proved she was worthy of the award.” Make sure you understand your important role. ”
Farrah Fawcett
Image credit: Penske Media (Getty Images)
Fawcett’s career exploded when she was cast as one of the stars of ABC’s “Charlie’s Angels,” and she became synonymous with the 1970s. And then there was that famous poster. There were photos everywhere of Fawcett sitting in a red one-piece swimsuit, surrounded by volcanic blonde hair, chiseled into a perfect winged shape, and flirting with the camera with a sweet smile. Fawcett allowed her to mark herself as a sex symbol, and then spent the rest of her life trying to overcome the career trap of being seen only as a pretty face and a small waist.
kim kardashian
Image credit: Penske Media (Getty Images)
Kim Kardashian is a modern-day icon, having achieved Monroe-level global fame (not to mention her 345 million Instagram followers) not as an actress, but for her real-life portrayal on so many screens. Kardashian only furthered this sentiment when she wore Monroe’s iconic beaded dress (the one she wore to serenade President Kennedy with a “Happy Birthday” in 1962) at the 2022 Met Gala. That’s right, Kardashian indulged herself as best she could. “I wore Marilyn’s dress once, and I embraced everything,” she told Variety in 2024.
lady gaga
Image credit: Variety
Lady Gaga has channeled Monroe’s look many times to make statements about glamor, timeless fashion, and what the public expects from a superstar. Marilyn sported a curly bob at the 2016 Oscars and Golden Globes. Gaga went to great lengths to perfect her look, including covering up her tattoos.
jessica lang
Image credit: Variety
Lang made his first film lead role in the critically acclaimed 1976 remake of King Kong, and faced the challenge of Marilyn early on. Producer Dino De Laurentiis told those who would listen that Lange was “the second Marilyn Monroe.” Decades later, Lange recalled how difficult it was, in addition to the terrible reviews.
“She was a tragic person who lived a tragic life and was never accepted as the artist she was meant to be. I don’t want to compete with her memory or anyone,” she told People magazine in 2024.
Madonna
Image credit: Provided by Sky Original
The singer prompted comparisons to Monroe early on, starting by recreating the 1953 “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” number “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” in the video for her 1985 hit “Material Girl.” Six years later, she famously quoted Monroe in a flashy 1991 Vanity Fair photoshoot, which was canceled just as Madonna was starting to get serious about her acting career.
anna nicole smith
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Bleached blonde and voluptuous, Smith naturally evoked Monroe’s sexy side as she rose to fame in the pages of Playboy. The former stripper, married to a 90-something Texas oil tycoon, rose to tabloid stardom in the early 1990s, at the beginning of the “famous is famous” trend. Like Monroe, Smith struggled with the urgency of fame and died in 2007 at the age of 39.
sidney sweeney
Image credit: JC Olivera
Sidney Sweeney is the latest charismatic star to evoke the essence of Marilyn Monroe. A head-turning beauty with a clear determination to build a respected career as an actor and athlete who knows his worth in the modern world of entertainment. Over the course of her career, Sweeney has shown a willingness to tackle a wide variety of subjects, from high-end genres (The Housemaid) to gritty dramas (The Christie) to HBO’s blockbuster Euphoria and Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, both of which helped raise her profile. The last few years of Sweeney’s career have mirrored a Monroe-like rise to the top echelons of Hollywood.
Sharon Tate
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Sharon Tate’s long, straight, maize-colored hair and flowing minidress reflected the sex appeal of the late ’60s as much as Monroe’s curls and cone-shaped bra defined the va-va-voom of the ’50s. The talent Tate displayed in his few film roles, particularly 1967’s Valley of the Dolls and 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby, only adds to the tragedy of his murder by the Manson family in 1969.
Michelle Williams
Image credit: Getty Images
Michelle Williams received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Monroe in 2011’s A Week with Marilyn, which depicts a pivotal moment in Monroe’s career. Williams essayed the role just a few years after losing her daughter’s father, actor Heath Ledger. Williams quickly formed a bond with the woman he found in this legend, telling Variety in 2011, “I could play this role for the rest of my life.”
