Born to a woman in Los Angeles who could not identify the father, Norma Jean Mortenson was abused by a foster parent at an early age and then lived in an orphanage. Married at 16 and divorced at 20, she eked out a living as a model and with bit parts in B-movies. In 1953, as Marilyn Monroe, she had a lead in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes which was an instant hit, and eventually appeared in over 30 films, including Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch, The Misfits, Bus Stop, Niagara, and others.

Although she never won an Oscar, she was celebrated around the world as a super star...singer, comedienne, actress, and model. She was, without question, one of the most famous women in the world! She married and divorced baseball great Joe DiMaggio and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, and was often linked romantically with many glamorous men, including Frank Sinatra and President John F. Kennedy.

Her death at the age of 36 in 1962 was ruled a suicide, but the bizarre controversies surrounding those events have always been the subject of conspiracy theories involving a wide range of suspects, from the Mafia to the Kennedy clan.

Soaring across our sky like a comet, she suddenly vanished - with no husband, no children, and no visible family - almost as though she had never been. Yet she was one of Hollywood’s greatest legends. We will try to unravel the real Marilyn from the mythic figure. So many different stories have been written about her: which, if any of these, come closest to the truth?