“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.”

American actress and model

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress and model, active in the 1950s and early 1960s. She became known for comic blonde-bombshell roles and for her status as a major sex symbol of the period. She was a top-billed film star for a decade, and her screen image came to stand for the era's sexual revolution. By the time of her death in 1962, her films had grossed $200 million.