Marilyn Monroe still casts a long shadow across Hollywood. The highs and lows of her life and work are a constant source of comparison for fast-rising female stars. Especially if they happen to be 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 dims. Contemporary fans may never have seen any of her movies in full, but Monroe’s name and likeness are nonetheless imbued with meaning, from sex appeal to a tragic early death to her rags-to-riches origin story. The legend of how Norma Jeane Baker triumphed over a childhood in orphanages and foster care to become a Hollywood icon is deeply embedded into the American story.
Nearly 65 years after her death at age 36, every stage of Marilyn Monroe’s short life has been the source of endless fascination, as detailed in books, novels, movies, plays (her third husband, Arthur Miller, wrote two, 1964’s “After the Fall” and 2004’s “Finishing the Picture”), documentaries, TV series, artworks of all kinds and more. All of this has kept Monroe front and center as a pop culture touchstone.
The myth-making around Monroe started before her death. Kim Stanley played a thinly veiled version of Marilyn in Paddy Chayefsky’s 1958 film “The Goddess.” Barbara Loden won a Tony in 1964 for her portraying a thinly veiled version of Monroe in the original Broadway production of “After the Fall.” Most recently, up-and-comer Ana de Armas delivered a raw portrait in 2022’s “Blonde,” from writer-director Andrew Dominik, based on Joyce Carol Oates’ biographical novel from 2000.
For sure, list of actors and celebrities who have been influenced by or relentlessly compared to Monroe is long (and not all blonde). Just ask Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Pamela Anderson, Sienna Miller and Catherine Deneuve, to name but a few.
“I think I was offered every Marilyn Monroe script ever. I was like, ‘Is this the end of the road creatively?,’ ” Johansson told Variety in May 2023 of reaching a career crossroads in the mid-2010s.
Deneuve made peace with the blonde specter that has hung over her career by embracing Monroe’s skill as an actor. “She did comedies, dramas. She was funny, moving, seductive. I found her incredible. She embodied beauty and cinema at the same time,” Deneuve told Variety in December 2016.
Oates emphasizes that at heart, “Marilyn Monroe” was a persona, a character and a shield that a streetwise young woman named Norma Jeane Baker adopted to survive in a cutthroat world and difficult profession.
“In a sense, Norma Jeane Baker represents the authentic self — as we all possess ‘authentic selves’ usually hidden beneath layers of defensive personae. ‘Marilyn Monroe’ is the performing self that really exists only when there is an audience,” Oates told Variety in 2022.
Here’s a sampling of actors and celebrities who have felt the impact of Hollywood’s Monroe Doctrine.
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Kim Basinger
Image Credit: WireImage The actress could not escape the Marilyn Monroe mentions as she emerged as a force on screen such films as 1984’s “The Natural,” 1985’s “Fool for Love,” 1986’s “9 ½ Weeks” and 1989’s “Batman.” Off screen, Basinger’s romantic life intersected with dynamic figures that fueled more public interest in her life.
Variety observed it during our February 2025 story, revisiting Basinger’s 1997 Oscar win, writing, “Like Marilyn Monroe before her and Demi Moore and Pamela Anderson after, Basinger shed the expectations of her looks and her tabloid-friendly personal life (in addition to Baldwin, former lovers included Prince, ‘Batman’ producer Jon Peters and Richard Gere) and proved that she deserved a crack at the meaty roles.”
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Farrah Fawcett
Image Credit: Penske Media via Getty Images Fawcett became synonymous with the 1970s after her career exploded when she was cast as one of the stars of ABC’s “Charlie’s Angels.” And then there was that famous poster – the ubiquitous image of Fawcett sitting in a red one-piece swimsuit, flirting with the camera with a sweet smile surrounded by volcanic blonde locks blow-dried and sculpted into feathered perfection. Fawcett made her mark her as a sex symbol – and then spent the rest of her life trying to outrun the career trap of being seen only as a pretty face and a tiny waist.
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Kim Kardashian
Image Credit: Penske Media via Getty Images It’s a sign of modern times that Kim Kardashian has achieved Monroe-level global fame (345 million Instagram followers can’t be wrong), not as an actress but for letting her real life play out across many screens. Kardashian only encouraged this sentiment when she wore Monroe’s iconic beaded dress — the one she donned to serenade President Kennedy with “Happy Birthday” in 1962 — to the Met Gala in 2022. True to form, Kardashian indulged herself simply because she could. “I wore Marilyn’s dress once, and I just took it all in,” she told Variety in 2024.
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Lady Gaga
Image Credit: Variety Lady Gaga has channeled Monroe’s looks numerous times to make a statement about glamour, timeless fashion and what the public wants from its superstars. The multihyphenate donned the curly Marilyn bob at both the Oscars and Golden Globe ceremonies in 2016. Gaga went above and beyond to complete the look, even covering up her tattoos.
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Jessica Lange
Image Credit: Variety Lange faced the Marilyn conundrum early on with her first major film role in 1976’s critically scorched remake of “King Kong.” Producer Dino De Laurentiis told anyone who would listen that Lange was “the next Marilyn Monroe.” Decades later, Lange recalled what a challenge that presented, on top of the terrible reviews.
“She was a tragic figure who led a tragic life and who wasn’t taken as the serious artist she was,” she told People magazine in 2024. “I don’t want to compete with her memory or with anyone.”
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Madonna
Image Credit: Courtesy of Sky Original The singer invited comparisons to Monroe early on, starting with her recreation of the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” number from 1953’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” in the video for her 1985 hit “Material Girl.” Six years later, she famously invoked Monroe in a splashy 1991 Vanity Fair photo shoot that dropped just as Madonna was getting serious about her acting career.
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Anna Nicole Smith
Image Credit: Penske Media via Getty Images Bleached blonde and voluptuous, Smith naturally invoked the sexy side of Monroe as she gained fame from the pages of Playboy. The one-time stripper, who married a ninety-something Texas oil baron, rose to tabloid stardom in the early 1990s just as the “famous for being famous” trend was getting started. Much like Monroe, Smith struggled with the exigencies of fame, dying in 2007 at age 39.
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Sydney Sweeney
Image Credit: JC Olivera Sydney Sweeney is the latest charismatic star to invoke the essence of Marilyn Monroe — a head-turning beauty with a clear determination to build a respected career as an actor and as a player who knows her worth in the modern entertainment landscape. During her career to date, Sweeney has shown an appetite for tackling a wide range of material, from high-end genre (“The Housemaid”) to gritty drama (“Christy”) to HBO’s buzzy “Euphoria” and Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” both of which helped put her on the map. The last few years of Sweeney’s career have reflected a Monroe-like rise to Hollywood’s top echelon.
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Sharon Tate
Image Credit: Getty Images Sharon Tate’s corn-colored long straight hair and flowy minidresses reflected late ‘60s sex appeal as much as Monroe’s curls and conical bras defined the va-va-voom of the 1950s. The talent Tate displayed in her handful of film roles – notably 1967’s “Valley of the Dolls” and 1968’s “Rosemary’s Baby” – only magnify the tragedy of her murder at the hands of the Manson family in 1969.
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Michelle Williams
Image Credit: Getty Images Michelle Williams earned an Oscar nom for playing Monroe in 2011’s “My Week With Marilyn,” which examined a pivotal moment of Monroe’s career. Williams essayed the role just a few years after the devastation of losing actor Heath Ledger, who’s the father of her daughter. Williams bonded easily with the woman that she found inside the legend, telling Variety in 2011, “I could play this part for the rest of my life.”
