Photography is the art, science, and practice of creating pictures by recording radiation on a radiation-sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or electronic image sensors. Photography uses foremost radiation in the UV, visible and near-IR spectrum. For common purposes the term light is used instead of radiation. Light reflected or emitted from objects form a real image on a light sensitive area (film or plate) or a FPA pixel array sensor by means of a pin hole or lens in a camera during a timed exposure. The result on film or plate is a latent image, which is developed into a visual image (negative or diapositive). An image on a paper base is known as a print. The result on an FPA pixel array sensor is an electrical charge at each pixel which is electronically processed and stored in a computer (raster)-image file for subsequent display or processing. Photography has many uses for business, science, manufacturing (f.i. Photolithography), art, and recreational purposes.

As far as can be ascertained, it was Sir John Herschel in a lecture before the Royal Society of London, on March 14, 1839 who made the word "photography" known to the world. But in an article published on February 25 of the same year in a German newspaper called the ''Vossische Zeitung'', Johann von Maedler, a Berlin astronomer, had used the word photography already. The word photography is based on the Greek ''φῶς'' (''photos'') "light" and ''γραφή'' (''graphé'') "representation by means of lines" or "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light".

Function

The camera is the image-forming device, and photographic film or a silicon electronic image sensor is the sensing medium. The respective recording medium can be the film itself, or a digital electronic or magnetic memory.

Photographers control the camera and lens to "expose" the light recording material (such as film) to the required amount of light to form a "latent image" (on film) or "raw file" (in digital cameras) which, after appropriate processing, is converted to a usable image. Digital cameras use an electronic image sensor based on light-sensitive electronics such as charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The resulting digital image is stored electronically, but can be reproduced on paper or film.

The camera (or 'camera obscura') is a dark room or chamber from which, as far as possible, all light is excluded except the light that forms the image. The subject being photographed, however, must be illuminated. Cameras can range from small to very large, a whole room that is kept dark while the object to be photographed is in another room where it is properly illuminated. This was common for reproduction photography of flat copy when large film negatives were used. A general principle known from the birth of photography is that the smaller the camera, the brighter the image. This meant that as soon as photographic materials became sensitive enough (''fast'' enough) to take candid or what were called genre pictures, small detective cameras were used, some of them disguised as a tie pin that was really a lens, as a piece of luggage or even a pocket watch (the ''Ticka'' camera).

The discovery of the 'camera obscura' that provides an image of a scene is very old, dating back to ancient China. Leonardo da Vinci mentions natural camera obscuras that are formed by dark caves on the edge of a sunlit valley. A hole in the cave wall will act as a pinhole camera and project a laterally reversed, upside down image on a piece of paper. So the invention of photography was really concerned with finding a means to fix and retain the image in the camera obscura. This in fact occurred first using the reproduction of images without a camera when Josiah Wedgewood, from the famous family of potters, obtained copies of paintings on leather using silver salts. As he had no way of fixing them, that is to say to stabilize the image by washing out the non exposed silver salts, they turned completely black in the light and had to be kept in a dark room for viewing.

Renaissance painters used the camera obscura which, in fact, gives the optical rendering in color that dominates Western Art.

The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film. In contrast to a still camera, which captures a single snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images, each called a "frame". This is accomplished through an intermittent mechanism. The frames are later played back in a movie projector at a specific speed, called the "frame rate" (number of frames per second). While viewing, a person's eyes and brain merge the separate pictures together to create the illusion of motion.

In all but certain specialized cameras, the process of obtaining a usable exposure must involve the use, manually or automatically, of a few controls to ensure the photograph is clear, sharp and well illuminated. The controls usually include but are not limited to the following:

!Control	!Description
	The adjustment to place the sharpest focus where it is desired on the subject.
Aperture
Shutter speed	Adjustment of the speed (often expressed either as fractions of seconds or as an angle, with mechanical shutters) of the shutter to control the amount of time during which the imaging medium is exposed to light for each exposure. Shutter speed may be used to control the amount of light striking the image plane; 'faster' shutter speeds (that is, those of shorter duration) decrease both the amount of light and the amount of image blurring from motion of the subject and/or camera.
	On digital cameras, electronic compensation for the color temperature associated with a given set of lighting conditions, ensuring that white light is registered as such on the imaging chip and therefore that the colors in the frame will appear natural. On mechanical, film-based cameras, this function is served by the operator's choice of film stock or with color correction filters. In addition to using white balance to register natural coloration of the image, photographers may employ white balance to aesthetic end, for example white balancing to a blue object in order to obtain a warm color temperature.
ISO speed	Traditionally used to "tell the camera" the film speed of the selected film on film cameras, ISO speeds are employed on modern digital cameras as an indication of the system's ''gain'' from light to numerical output and to control the automatic exposure system. The higher the ISO number the greater the film sensitivity to light, whereas with a lower ISO number, the film is less sensitive to light. A correct combination of ISO speed, aperture, and shutter speed leads to an image that is neither too dark nor too light, hence it is 'correctly exposed,' indicated by a centered meter.
Autofocus point	On some cameras, the selection of a point in the imaging frame upon which the auto-focus system will attempt to focus. Many Single-lens reflex cameras (SLR) feature multiple auto-focus points in the viewfinder.

Many other elements of the imaging device itself may have a pronounced effect on the quality and/or aesthetic effect of a given photograph; among them are:

Focal length and type of lens (normal, long focus, wide angle, telephoto, macro, fisheye, or zoom)

Filters placed between the subject and the light recording material, either in front of or behind the lens

Inherent sensitivity of the medium to light intensity and color/wavelengths.

The nature of the light recording material, for example its resolution as measured in pixels or grains of silver halide.

Exposure and rendering

Camera controls are inter-related. The total amount of light reaching the film plane (the 'exposure') changes with the duration of exposure, aperture of the lens, and on the effective focal length of the lens (which in variable focal length lenses, can force a change in aperture as the lens is zoomed). Changing any of these controls can alter the exposure. Many cameras may be set to adjust most or all of these controls automatically. This automatic functionality is useful for occasional photographers in many situations.

The duration of an exposure is referred to as shutter speed, often even in cameras that do not have a physical shutter, and is typically measured in fractions of a second. It is quite possible to have exposures one of several seconds, usually for still-life subects, and for night scenes exposure times can be several hours.

The effective aperture is expressed by an f-number or f-stop (derived from focal ratio), which is proportional to the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture. Longer lenses will pass less light even though the diameter of the aperture is the same due to the greater distance the light has to travel: shorter lenses (a shorter focal length) will be brighter with the same size of aperture.

The smaller the f/number, the larger the effective aperture. The present system of f/numbers to give the effective aperture of a lens was standardized by an international convention. There were earlier, different series of numbers in older cameras.

If the f-number is decreased by a factor of $\backslash sqrt\; 2$, the aperture diameter is increased by the same factor, and its area is increased by a factor of 2. The f-stops that might be found on a typical lens include 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, where going up "one stop" (using lower f-stop numbers) doubles the amount of light reaching the film, and stopping down one stop halves the amount of light.

Image capture can be achieved through various combinations of shutter speed, aperture, and film or sensor speed. Different (but related) settings of aperture and shutter speed enable photographs to be taken under various conditions of film or sensor speed, lighting and motion of subjects and/or camera, and desired depth of field. A slower speed film will exhibit less "grain", and a slower speed setting on an electronic sensor will exhibit less "noise", while higher film and sensor speeds allow for a faster shutter speed, which reduces motion blur or allows the use of a smaller aperture to increase the depth of field. For example, a wider aperture is used for lower light and a lower aperture for more light. If a subject is in motion, then a high shutter speed may be needed. A tripod can also be helpful in that it enables a slower shutter speed to be used.

For example, f/8 at 8 ms (1/125th of a second) and f/5.6 at 4 ms (1/250th of a second) yield the same amount of light. The chosen combination has an impact on the final result. The aperture and focal length of the lens determine the depth of field, which refers to the range of distances from the lens that will be in focus. A longer lens or a wider aperture will result in "shallow" depth of field (i.e. only a small plane of the image will be in sharp focus). This is often useful for isolating subjects from backgrounds as in individual portraits or macro photography. Conversely, a shorter lens, or a smaller aperture, will result in more of the image being in focus. This is generally more desirable when photographing landscapes or groups of people. With very small apertures, such as pinholes, a wide range of distance can be brought into focus, but sharpness is severely degraded by diffraction with such small apertures. Generally, the highest degree of "sharpness" is achieved at an aperture near the middle of a lens's range (for example, f/8 for a lens with available apertures of f/2.8 to f/16). However, as lens technology improves, lenses are becoming capable of making increasingly sharp images at wider apertures.

Image capture is only part of the image forming process. Regardless of material, some process must be employed to render the latent image captured by the camera into a viewable image. With slide film, the developed film is just mounted for projection. Print film requires the developed film negative to be printed onto photographic paper or transparency. Digital images may be uploaded to an image server (e.g., a photo-sharing web site), viewed on a television, or transferred to a computer or digital photo frame. Prior to the rendering of a viewable image, modifications can be made using several controls. Many of these controls are similar to controls during image capture, while some are exclusive to the rendering process. Most printing controls have equivalent digital concepts, but some create different effects. For example, dodging and burning controls are different between digital and film processes. Other printing modifications include:

Chemicals and process used during film development

Duration of print exposure – equivalent to shutter speed

Printing aperture – equivalent to aperture, but has no effect on depth of field

Contrast – changing the visual properties of objects in an image to make them distinguishable from other objects and the background

Dodging – reduces exposure of certain print areas, resulting in lighter areas

Burning in – increases exposure of certain areas, resulting in darker areas

Paper texture – glossy, matte, etc.

Paper type – resin-coated (RC) or fiber-based (FB)

Paper size

Toners – used to add warm or cold tones to black-and-white prints

Uses

Photography gained the interest of many scientists and artists from its inception. Scientists have used photography to record and study movements, such as Eadweard Muybridge's study of human and animal locomotion in 1887. Artists are equally interested by these aspects but also try to explore avenues other than the photo-mechanical representation of reality, such as the pictorialist movement. Military, police, and security forces use photography for surveillance, recognition and data storage. Photography is used by amateurs to preserve memories of favorite times, to capture special moments, to tell stories, to send messages, and as a source of entertainment.

History

Photography is the result of combining several technical discoveries. Long before the first photographs were made, Chinese philosopher Mo Di and Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. In the 6th century AD, Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles used a type of camera obscura in his experiments, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1040) studied the camera obscura and pinhole camera, Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) discovered silver nitrate, and Georges Fabricius (1516–71) discovered silver chloride. Daniele Barbaro described a diaphragm in 1568. Wilhelm Homberg described how light darkened some chemicals (photochemical effect) in 1694. The fiction book Giphantie, published in 1760, by French author Tiphaigne de la Roche, described what can be interpreted as photography.

Invented in the first decades of the 19th century, photography (by way of the camera) seemed able to capture more detail and information than traditional mediums, such as painting and sculpting. Photography as a usable process goes back to the 1820s with the development of chemical photography. The first permanent photoetching was an image produced in 1822 by the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce, but it was destroyed by a later attempt to duplicate it. Niépce was successful again in 1825. He made the first permanent photograph from nature with a camera obscura in 1826. However, because his photographs took so long to expose (8 hours), he sought to find a new process. Working in conjunction with Louis Daguerre, they experimented with silver compounds based on a Johann Heinrich Schultz discovery in 1816 that a silver and chalk mixture darkens when exposed to light. Niépce died in 1833, but Daguerre continued the work, eventually culminating with the development of the daguerreotype in 1837. Daguerre took the first ever photo of a person in 1838 when, while taking a daguerreotype of a Paris street, a pedestrian stopped for a shoe shine, long enough to be captured by the long exposure (several minutes). Eventually, France agreed to pay Daguerre a pension for his formula, in exchange for his promise to announce his discovery to the world as the gift of France, which he did in 1839.

thumb|right|180px|A latticed window in Lacock Abbey, England, photographed by William Fox Talbot in 1835. Shown here in positive form, this is the oldest known extant photographic negative made in a camera. Meanwhile, Hercules Florence had already created a very similar process in 1832, naming it ''Photographie'', and English inventor William Fox Talbot had earlier discovered another means to fix a silver process image but had kept it secret. After reading about Daguerre's invention, Talbot refined his process so that portraits were made readily available to the masses. By 1840, Talbot had invented the calotype process, which creates negative images. Talbot's famous 1835 print of the Oriel window in Lacock Abbey is the oldest known negative in existence. John Herschel made many contributions to the new methods. He invented the cyanotype process, now familiar as the "blueprint". He was the first to use the terms "photography", "negative" and "positive". He discovered sodium thiosulphate solution to be a solvent of silver halides in 1819, and informed Talbot and Daguerre of his discovery in 1839 that it could be used to "fix" pictures and make them permanent. He made the first glass negative in late 1839.

In March 1851, Frederick Scott Archer published his findings in "The Chemist" on the wet plate collodion process. This became the most widely used process between 1852 and the late 1860s when the dry plate was introduced. There are three subsets to the Collodion process; the Ambrotype (positive image on glass), the Ferrotype or Tintype (positive image on metal) and the negative which was printed on Albumen or Salt paper.

Many advances in photographic glass plates and printing were made in through the 19th century. In 1884, George Eastman developed the technology of film to replace photographic plates, leading to the technology used by film cameras today.

In 1908 Gabriel Lippmann won the Nobel Laureate in Physics for his method of reproducing colors photographically based on the phenomenon of interference, also known as the Lippmann plate.

Processes

Black-and-white

All photography was originally monochrome, or ''black-and-white''. Even after color film was readily available, black-and-white photography continued to dominate for decades, due to its lower cost and its "classic" photographic look. It is important to note that some monochromatic pictures are not always pure blacks and whites, but also contain other hues depending on the process. The cyanotype process produces an image of blue and white for example. The albumen process, first used more than 150 years ago, produces brown tones.

Many photographers continue to produce some monochrome images, often because of the established archival permanence of well processed silver halide based materials.

Some full color digital images are processed using a variety of techniques to create black and whites, and some manufacturers produce digital cameras that exclusively shoot monochrome.

Color

Color photography was explored beginning in the mid-19th century. Early experiments in color required extremely long exposures (hours or days for camera images) and could not "fix" the photograph to prevent the color from quickly fading when exposed to white light.

The first permanent color photograph was taken in 1861 using the three-color-separation principle first published by physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1855. Maxwell's idea was to take three separate black-and-white photographs through red, green and blue filters. This provides the photographer with the three basic channels required to recreate a color image. Transparent prints of the images could be projected through similar color filters and superimposed on the projection screen, an additive method of color reproduction. A color print on paper could be produced by superimposing carbon prints of the three images made in their complementary colors, a subtractive method of color reproduction pioneered by Louis Ducos du Hauron in the late 1860s. Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii made extensive use of this color separation technique, employing a special camera which successively exposed the three color-filtered images on different parts of an oblong plate. Because his exposures were not simultaneous, unsteady subjects exhibited color "fringes" or, if rapidly moving through the scene, appeared as brightly colored ghosts in the resulting projected or printed images.

The development of color photography was held back by the limited sensitivity of early photographic materials, which were mostly sensitive to blue, only slightly sensitive to green and virtually insensitive to red. The discovery of dye sensitization by photochemist Hermann Vogel in 1873 suddenly made it possible to add sensitivity to green, yellow and even red. Improved color sensitizers and ongoing improvements in the overall sensitivity of emulsions steadily reduced the once-prohibitive long exposure times required for color, bringing it ever closer to commercial viability.

Autochrome, the first commercially successful color process, was introduced by the Lumière brothers in 1907. Autochrome plates incorporated a mosaic color filter layer made of dyed grains of potato starch, which allowed the three color components to be recorded as adjacent microscopic image fragments. After an Autochrome plate was reversal processed to produce a positive transparency, the starch grains served to illuminate each fragment with the correct color and the tiny colored points blended together in the eye, synthesizing the color of the subject by the additive method. Autochrome plates were one of several varieties of additive color screen plates and films marketed between the 1890s and the 1950s.

Kodachrome, the first modern "integral tripack" (or "monopack") color film, was introduced by Kodak in 1935. It captured the three color components in a multilayer emulsion. One layer was sensitized to record the red-dominated part of the spectrum, another layer recorded only the green part and a third recorded only the blue. Without special film processing, the result would simply be three superimposed black-and-white images, but complementary cyan, magenta, and yellow dye images were created in those layers by adding color couplers during a complex processing procedure. Agfa's similarly structured Agfacolor Neu was introduced in 1936. Unlike Kodachrome, the color couplers in Agfacolor Neu were incorporated into the emulsion layers during manufacture, which greatly simplified the processing. Currently available color films still employ a multilayer emulsion and the same principles, most closely resembling Agfa's product.

Instant color film, used in a special camera which yielded a unique finished color print only a minute or two after the exposure, was introduced by Polaroid in 1963.

Color photography may form images as positive transparencies, which can be used in a slide projector, or as color negatives intended for use in creating positive color enlargements on specially coated paper. The latter is now the most common form of film (non-digital) color photography owing to the introduction of automated photoprinting equipment.

Full-spectrum, ultraviolet and infrared

Ultraviolet and infrared films have been available for many decades and employed in a variety of photographic avenues since the 1960s. New technological trends in digital photography have opened a new direction in full spectrum photography, where careful filtering choices across the ultraviolet, visible and infrared lead to new artistic visions.

Modified digital cameras can detect some ultraviolet, all of the visible and much of the near infrared spectrum, as most digital imaging sensors are sensitive from about 350 nm to 1000 nm. An off-the-shelf digital camera contains an infrared hot mirror filter that blocks most of the infrared and a bit of the ultraviolet that would otherwise be detected by the sensor, narrowing the accepted range from about 400 nm to 700 nm. Replacing a hot mirror or infrared blocking filter with an infrared pass or a wide spectrally transmitting filter allows the camera to detect the wider spectrum light at greater sensitivity. Without the hot-mirror, the red, green and blue (or cyan, yellow and magenta) colored micro-filters placed over the sensor elements pass varying amounts of ultraviolet (blue window) and infrared (primarily red, and somewhat lesser the green and blue micro-filters).

Uses of full spectrum photography are for fine art photography, geology, forensics & law enforcement, and even some claimed use in ghost hunting.

Digital photography

Traditional photography burdened photographers working at remote locations without easy access to processing facilities, and competition from television pressured photographers to deliver images to newspapers with greater speed. Photo journalists at remote locations often carried miniature photo labs and a means of transmitting images through telephone lines. In 1981, Sony unveiled the first consumer camera to use a charge-coupled device for imaging, eliminating the need for film: the Sony Mavica. While the Mavica saved images to disk, the images were displayed on television, and the camera was not fully digital. In 1991, Kodak unveiled the DCS 100, the first commercially available digital single lens reflex camera. Although its high cost precluded uses other than photojournalism and professional photography, commercial digital photography was born.

Digital imaging uses an electronic image sensor to record the image as a set of electronic data rather than as chemical changes on film. The primary difference between digital and chemical photography is that chemical photography resists photo manipulation because it involves film and photographic paper, while digital imaging is a highly manipulative medium. This difference allows for a degree of image post-processing that is comparatively difficult in film-based photography and permits different communicative potentials and applications.

Digital imaging has raised ethical concerns because of the ease of manipulating digital photographs in post-processing. Many photojournalists have declared they will not crop their pictures, or are forbidden from combining elements of multiple photos to make "photomontages," passing them as "real" photographs. Today's technology has made photo editing relatively simple for even the novice photographer. However, recent changes of in-camera processing allows digital fingerprinting of photos to detect tampering for purposes of forensic photography.

Digital point-and-shoot cameras have become widespread consumer products, outselling film cameras, and including new features such as video and audio recording. Kodak announced in January 2004 that it would no longer sell reloadable 35 mm cameras in western Europe, Canada and the United States after the end of that year. Kodak was at that time a minor player in the reloadable film cameras market. In January 2006, Nikon followed suit and announced that they will stop the production of all but two models of their film cameras: the low-end Nikon FM10, and the high-end Nikon F6. On May 25, 2006, Canon announced they will stop developing new film SLR cameras. Though most new camera designs are now digital, a new 6x6cm/6x7cm medium format film camera was introduced in 2008 in a cooperation between Fuji and Voigtländer.

According to a survey made by Kodak in 2007 when the majority of photography was already digital, 75 percent of professional photographers say they will continue to use film, even though some embrace digital.

According to the U.S. survey results, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of professional photographers prefer the results of film to those of digital for certain applications including:

film’s superiority in capturing more information on medium and large format films (48 percent);

creating a traditional photographic look (48 percent);

capturing shadow and highlighting details (45 percent);

the wide exposure latitude of film (42 percent); and

archival storage (38 percent)

Modes of production

===Amateur=== An amateur photographer is one who practices photography as a hobby and not for profit. The quality of some amateur work is comparable to that of many professionals and may be highly specialized or eclectic in its choice of subjects. Amateur photography is often pre-eminent in photographic subjects which have little prospect of commercial use or reward.

Commercial

Commercial photography is probably best defined as any photography for which the photographer is paid for images rather than works of art. In this light money could be paid for the subject of the photograph or the photograph itself. Wholesale, retail, and professional uses of photography would fall under this definition. The commercial photographic world could include:

Advertising photography: photographs made to illustrate and usually sell a service or product. These images, such as packshots, are generally done with an advertising agency, design firm or with an in-house corporate design team.

Fashion and glamour photography usually incorporates models. Photographers here are paid more because of the demand for good photographers to shoot the item being sold and incorporate the models beauty in the image. Fashion photography like the work featured in Harper's Bazaar emphasizes clothes and other products; glamour emphasizes the model and body form. Glamour photography is popular in advertising and men's magazines which means these pictures are more revealing than editorial fashion photography. Models in glamour photography sometimes work nude.

Crime scene photography consists of photographing scenes of crime such as robberies and murders. A black and white camera or an infrared camera may be used to capture specific details.

Still life photography usually depicts inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made.

Food photography can be used for editorial, packaging or advertising use. Food photography is similar to still life photography, but requires some special skills.

Editorial photography illustrates a story or idea within the context of a magazine. These are usually assigned by the magazine.

* Photojournalism can be considered a subset of editorial photography. Photographs made in this context are accepted as a documentation of a news story.

Portrait and wedding photography: photographs made and sold directly to the end user of the images.

Landscape photography depicts locations.

Wildlife photography demonstrates the life of animals.

Paparazzi

The market for photographic services demonstrates the aphorism "A picture is worth a thousand words", which has an interesting basis in the history of photography. Magazines and newspapers, companies putting up Web sites, advertising agencies and other groups pay for photography.

Many people take photographs for self-fulfillment or for commercial purposes. Organizations with a budget and a need for photography have several options: they can employ a photographer directly, organize a public competition, or obtain rights to stock photographs. Photo stock can be procured through traditional stock giants, such as Getty Images or Corbis; smaller microstock agencies, such as Fotolia; or web marketplaces, such as Cutcaster.

Art

During the 20th century, both fine art photography and documentary photography became accepted by the English-speaking art world and the gallery system. In the United States, a handful of photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, John Szarkowski, F. Holland Day, and Edward Weston, spent their lives advocating for photography as a fine art. At first, fine art photographers tried to imitate painting styles. This movement is called Pictorialism, often using soft focus for a dreamy, 'romantic' look. In reaction to that, Weston, Ansel Adams, and others formed the Group f/64 to advocate 'straight photography', the photograph as a (sharply focused) thing in itself and not an imitation of something else.

The aesthetics of photography is a matter that continues to be discussed regularly, especially in artistic circles. Many artists argued that photography was the mechanical reproduction of an image. If photography is authentically art, then photography in the context of art would need redefinition, such as determining what component of a photograph makes it beautiful to the viewer. The controversy began with the earliest images "written with light"; Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre, and others among the very earliest photographers were met with acclaim, but some questioned if their work met the definitions and purposes of art.

Clive Bell in his classic essay ''Art'' states that only "significant form" can distinguish art from what is not art.

On February 14, 2006 Sotheby’s London sold the 2001 photograph "99 Cent II Diptychon" for an unprecedented $3,346,456 to an anonymous bidder making it the most expensive of all time.

Conceptual photography

: Photography that turns a concept or idea into a photograph. Even though what is depicted in the photographs are real objects, the subject is strictly abstract.

Science and forensics

The camera has a long and distinguished history as a means of recording phenomena from the first use by Daguerre and Fox-Talbot, such as astronomical events (eclipses for example), small creatures and plants when the camera was attached to the eyepiece of microscopes (in photomicroscopy) and for macro photography of larger specimens. The camera also proved useful in recording crime scenes and the scenes of accidents, such as the Wootton bridge collapse in 1861. The methods used in analysing photographs for use in legal cases are collectively known as forensic photography.

By 1853, Charles Brooke had invented a technology for the automatic registration of instruments by photography. These instruments included barometers, thermometers, psychrometers, and magnetometers, which recorded their readings by means of an automated photographic process.

Photography has become ubiquitous in recording events and data in science and engineering, and at crime scenes or accident scenes. The method has been much extended by using other wavelengths, such as infrared photography and ultraviolet photography, as well as spectroscopy. Those methods were first used in the Victorian era and developed much further since that time.

Other image forming techniques

Besides the camera, other methods of forming images with light are available. For instance, a photocopy or xerography machine forms permanent images but uses the transfer of static electrical charges rather than photographic film, hence the term electrophotography. Photograms are images produced by the shadows of objects cast on the photographic paper, without the use of a camera. Objects can also be placed directly on the glass of an image scanner to produce digital pictures.

Social and cultural implications

There are many ongoing questions about different aspects of photography. In her writing "On Photography" (1977), Susan Sontag discusses concerns about the objectivity of photography. This is a highly debated subject within the photographic community. Sontag argues, "To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting one’s self into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge, and therefore like power." Photographers decide what to take a photo of, what elements to exclude and what angle to frame the photo, and these factors may reflect a particular socio-historical context. Along these lines it can be argued that photography is a subjective form of representation.

Modern photography has raised a number of concerns on its impact on society. In Alfred Hitchcock's ''Rear Window'' (1954), the camera is presented as promoting voyeurism. 'Although the camera is an observation station, the act of photographing is more than passive observing'. Michal Powell's ''Peeping Tom'' (1960) portrays the camera as both sexual and sadistically violent technology that literally kills in this picture and at the same time captures images of the pain and anguish evident on the faces of the female victims.

"The camera doesn't rape or even possess, though it may presume, intrude, trespass, distort, exploit, and, at the farthest reach of metaphor, assassinate - all activities that, unlike the sexual push and shove, can be conducted from a distance, and with some detachment."

Photography is one of the new media forms that changes perception and changes the structure of society. Further unease has been caused around cameras in regards to desensitization. Fears that disturbing or explicit images are widely accessible to children and society at large have been raised. Particularly, photos of war and pornography are causing a stir. Sontag is concerned that "to photograph is to turn people into objects that can be symbolically possessed." Desensitization discussion goes hand in hand with debates about censored images. Sontag writes of her concern that the ability to censor pictures means the photographer has the ability to construct reality.

One of the practices through which photography constitutes society is tourism. Tourism and photography combine to create a "tourist gaze" in which local inhabitants are positioned and defined by the camera lens. However, it has also been argued that there exists a "reverse gaze" through which indigenous photographees can position the tourist photographer as a shallow consumer of images.

Additionally, photography has been the topic of many songs in popular culture.

Law

Photography is both restricted and protected by the law in many jurisdictions. Protection of photographs is typically achieved through the granting of copyright or moral rights to the photographer. In the UK a recent law (Counter-Terrorism Act 2008) increases the power of the police to prevent people, even press photographers, from taking pictures in public places.

See also

; Forms

Aviation photography

Architectural photography

Candid photography

Cloudscape photography

Cosplay photography

Digiscoping

Documentary photography

Erotic photography

Fashion photography

Fine art photography

Fire photography

Food photography

Forensic photography

Glamour photography

Head shot

Landscape art

Landscape photography

Miksang (contemplative photography)

Nature photography

Social photography

Nude photography

Old-time photography

Photojournalism

Portrait photography

Sports photography

Still life photography

Stock photography

Street photography

Travel photography

Underwater photography

Vernacular photography

VR photography

War photography

Wedding photography

Wildlife photography

; Photographers and photographs

List of most expensive photographs

List of photographers

Movie stills photographer

; Equipment (cameras, etc.)

Camera

Camera Phone

Color chart

Digital camera

Digital single-lens reflex camera

Dry box

Film base

Film format

Film holder

Film scanner

Film stock

Filter

Flash

Gray card

Lenses for SLR and DSLR cameras

List of photographic equipment makers

Monopod

Movie projector

Perspective control lens

Photographic film

Photographic lens

Reflector

Rangefinder camera

SD Card(for digital photography)

Single-lens reflex camera

Slide projector

Soft box

Still camera

Toy camera

Tripod

Twin-lens reflex camera

Video camera

View camera

Zone plate

; History

Albumen print

Calotype

Daguerreotype

Timeline of photography technology

; Techniques

Aerial Photography

Afocal photography

Astrophotography

Bokeh

Contre-jour

Cross processing

Cyanotype

Fill flash

Film developing

Full spectrum photography

Harris Shutter

High dynamic range imaging

High speed photography

Infrared photography

Kinetic photography

Kite aerial photography

Lead room

Light painting

Lith-Print

Macro photography

Micrography, or Photomicrography

Monochrome Photography

Motion blur

Night photography

Panning

Panoramic photography

Photogram

Photograph conservation

Photographic mosaic

Photographic print toning

Push printing

Push processing

Rephotography

Rollout photography

Sabatier Effect

Schlieren photography

Stereoscopy

Sun printing

Tilted plane focus

Time-lapse

Ultraviolet photography

Wide dynamic range

Zoom burst

; General concepts

Adobe Photoshop

Camera obscura

Composition in visual arts

Diana camera

Early photographers of York

Gelatin-silver process

Gum printing

Hand-coloring

Holography

Kirlian photography

Lomography

Mourning portraits

Negative

North American Nature Photography Association

Photograph

Print permanence

Vignetting

; Technical principles

Angle of view

Aperture

Color temperature

Depth of field

Depth of focus

Digital versus film photography

Double exposure

Exposure

F-number

Film format

Film speed

Perspective distortion

Photographic printing

Photographic processes

Pinhole camera

Reciprocity (photography)

Red-eye effect

Rule of thirds

Science of photography

Shutter speed

Zone System

References

Further reading

Introduction

''Photography. A Critical Introduction'' [Paperback], ed. by Liz Wells, 3rd edition, London [etc.]: Routledge, 2004, ISBN 041530704X

History

''A New History of Photography'', ed. by Michel Frizot, Köln : Könemann, 1998

Franz-Xaver Schlegel, ''Das Leben der toten Dinge - Studien zur modernen Sachfotografie in den USA 1914-1935'', 2 Bände, Stuttgart/Germany: Art in Life 1999, ISBN 3-00-004407-8.

Reference works

Hans-Michael Koetzle: ''Das Lexikon der Fotografen: 1900 bis heute'', Munich: Knaur 2002, 512 p., ISBN 3-426-66479-8

John Hannavy (ed.): ''Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography'', 1736 p., New York: Routledge 2005 ISBN 978-0415972352

Lynne Warren (Hrsg.): ''Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography'', 1719 p., New York, NY [et.] : Routledge, 2006

''The Oxford Companion to the Photograph'', ed. by Robin Lenman, Oxford University Press 2005

Other books

''Photography and The Art of Seeing'' by Freeman Patterson, Key Porter Books 1989, ISBN 1-55013-099-4.

''The Art of Photography:'' An Approach to Personal Expression by Bruce Barnbaum, Rocky Nook 2010, ISBN 1933952687.

''Image Clarity: High Resolution Photography'' by John B. Williams, Focal Press 1990, ISBN 0-240-80033-8.

External links

World History of Photography From The History of Art.

Daguerreotype to Digital: A Brief History of the Photographic Process From the State Library & Archives of Florida.

Shades of Light (Australian Photography 1839 - 1988) the online version of the original Shades of Light published 1998, Gael Newton, National Gallery of Australia.

Category:1822 introductions Category:Greek loanwords Category:Optics

af:Fotografie ar:تصوير an:Fotografía ast:Fotografía az:Fotoqrafiya bm:Kɔtɛba be:Фатаграфія be-x-old:Фатаграфія bar:Photographie bo:འོད་པར་རྒྱབ་ཐབས། bs:Fotografija br:Luc'hskeudennerezh bg:Фотография ca:Fotografia cv:Фотографи cs:Fotografie co:Fotografia cy:Ffotograffiaeth da:Fotografi pdc:Pikder de:Fotografie et:Fotograafia el:Φωτογραφία es:Fotografía eo:Fotarto ext:Fotografia eu:Argazkigintza fa:عکاسی hif:Photography fr:Photographie fur:Fotografie ga:Grianghrafadóireacht gl:Fotografía gan:拍相 ko:사진술 hy:Լուսանկարչություն hi:छायाचित्र hr:Fotografija io:Fotografo id:Fotografi ia:Photographia is:Ljósmyndun it:Fotografia he:צילום jv:Fotografi ka:ფოტოგრაფია csb:Fòtografijô kk:Фотография ht:Fotografi lo:ການຖ່າຍຮູບ la:Photographia lv:Fotogrāfija lb:Fotografie lt:Fotografija li:Fotografie hu:Fényképezés mk:Фотографија ml:ഛായാഗ്രഹണം arz:فوتوجرافيا ms:Fotografi mn:Гэрэл зураг авалт nl:Fotografie nds-nl:Fotografie ja:写真 nap:Fotografia no:Fotografi nn:Fotografi nrm:Photographie oc:Fotografia uz:Fotografiya pnb:فوٹوگرافی pcd:Fotografie pl:Fotografia pt:Fotografia ro:Fotografie rue:Фотоґрафія ru:Фотография sc:Fotografia sco:Photography sq:Fotografia scn:Fotu si:ඡායාරූප ශිල්පය simple:Photography sk:Fotografovanie sl:Fotografija sr:Фотографија sh:Fotografija fi:Valokuvaus sv:Fotografi tl:Potograpiya ta:ஒளிப்படவியல் te:ఫోటోగ్రఫి th:การถ่ายภาพ tr:Fotoğrafçılık uk:Фотографія ur:عکاسی vec:Fotografia vi:Nhiếp ảnh fiu-vro:Fotokunst vls:Fotografie war:Paglitrato wo:Nataal yi:פאטאגראפיע zh-yue:影相 bat-smg:Puortėgrapėjė zh:摄影

birth name	Norma Jeane Mortenson
birth date	June 01, 1926
birth place	Los Angeles
death date	August 05, 1962
death place	Brentwood, Los Angeles
death cause	Barbiturate overdose
restingplace	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Westwood, Los Angeles
other names	Norma Jeane BakerNorma Jeane DoughertyNorma Jeane DiMaggio
occupation	Actress, model, film producer, singer
years active	1947–1962
religion	Christian (1926-1956),Jewish (1956-1962)
spouse	(divorced) (divorced) (divorced)
signature	Marilyn Monroe Signature.svg }}

Marilyn Monroe (pronounced or , born Norma Jeane Mortenson but baptized and raised as Norma Jeane Baker; June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress, singer and model. After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in ''The Asphalt Jungle'' and ''All About Eve'' (both 1950) were well received. By 1953, Monroe had progressed to leading roles. Her "dumb blonde" persona was used to comedic effect in such films as ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' (1953), ''How to Marry a Millionaire'' (1953) and ''The Seven Year Itch'' (1955). Limited by typecasting, Monroe studied at the Actors Studio to broaden her range, and her dramatic performance in ''Bus Stop'' (1956) was hailed by critics, and she received a Golden Globe nomination. Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released ''The Prince and the Showgirl'' (1957), for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and won a David di Donatello award. She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959).

The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to work with. The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a "probable suicide", the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as the possibility of homicide, have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the years and decades following her death, Monroe has often been cited as a pop and cultural icon as well as an eminent American sex symbol.

Family and early life

Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926 in the Los Angeles County Hospital as Norma Jeane Mortenson (soon after changed to Baker), the third child born to Gladys Pearl Baker (née Monroe) (May 27, 1902 – March 11, 1984). Monroe's birth certificate names the father as Martin Edward Mortensen with his residence stated as "unknown". The name Mortenson is listed as her surname on the birth certificate, although Gladys immediately had it changed to Baker, the surname of her first husband and which she still used. Martin's surname was misspelled on the birth certificate leading to more confusion on who her actual father was. Gladys Baker had married a Martin E. Mortensen in 1924, but they had separated before Gladys' pregnancy. Several of Monroe's biographers suggest that Gladys Baker used his name to avoid the stigma of illegitimacy. Mortensen died at the age of 85, and Monroe's birth certificate, together with her parents' marriage and divorce documents, were discovered. The documents showed that Mortensen filed for divorce from Gladys on March 5, 1927, and it was finalized on October 15, 1928. Throughout her life, Marilyn Monroe denied that Mortensen was her father. She said that, when she was a child, she had been shown a photograph of a man that Gladys identified as her father, Charles Stanley Gifford. She remembered that he had a thin mustache and somewhat resembled Clark Gable, and that she had amused herself by pretending that Gable was her father.

Gladys was mentally unstable and financially unable to care for the young Norma Jeane, so she placed her with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender of Hawthorne, California, where she lived until she was seven. One day, Gladys visited and demanded that the Bolenders return Norma Jeane to her. Ida refused, she knew Gladys was unstable and the situation would not benefit her young daughter. Gladys pulled Ida into the yard, then quickly ran back to the house and locked herself in. Several minutes later, she walked out with one of Albert Bolender's military duffel bags. To Ida's horror, Gladys had stuffed a screaming Norma Jeane into the bag, zipped it up, and was carrying it right out with her. Ida charged toward her, and their struggle split the bag apart, dumping out Norma Jeane, who wept loudly as Ida grabbed her and pulled her back inside the house, away from Gladys. In 1933, Gladys bought a house and brought Norma Jeane to live with her. A few months later, Gladys began a series of mental episodes that would plague her for the rest of her life. In ''My Story'', Monroe recalls her mother "screaming and laughing" as she was forcibly removed to the State Hospital in Norwalk.

Norma Jeane was declared a ward of the state. Gladys' best friend, Grace McKee, became her guardian. It was Grace who told Monroe that someday she would become a movie star. Grace was captivated by Jean Harlow, and would let Norma Jeane wear makeup and take her out to get her hair curled. They would go to the movies together, forming the basis for Norma Jeane's fascination with the cinema and the stars on screen. When she was 9, McKee married Ervin Silliman "Doc" Goddard in 1935, and subsequently sent Monroe to the Los Angeles Orphans Home (later renamed Hollygrove), followed by a succession of foster homes. While at Hollygrove, several families were interested in adopting her; however, reluctance on Gladys' part to sign adoption papers thwarted those attempts. In 1937, Monroe moved back into Grace and Doc Goddard's house, joining Doc's daughter from a previous marriage. Due to Doc's frequent attempts to sexually assault Norma Jeane, this arrangement did not last long.

Grace sent Monroe to live with her great-aunt, Olive Brunings in Compton, California; this was also a brief stint ended by an assault (some reports say it was sexual)--one of Olive's sons had attacked the now middle-school-aged girl. Biographers and psychologists have questioned whether at least some of Norma Jeane's later behavior (i.e. hypersexuality, sleep disturbances, substance abuse, disturbed interpersonal relationships), was a manifestation of the effects of childhood sexual abuse in the context of her already problematic relationships with her psychiatrically ill mother and subsequent caregivers. In early 1938, Grace sent her to live with yet another one of her aunts, Ana Lower, who lived in Van Nuys, another city in Los Angeles County. Years later, she would reflect fondly about the time that she spent with Lower, whom she affectionately called "Aunt Ana." She would explain that it was one of the only times in her life when she felt truly stable. As she aged, however, Lower developed serious health problems.

In 1942, Monroe moved back to Grace and Doc Goddard's house. While attending Van Nuys High School, she met a neighbor's son, James Dougherty (more commonly referred to as simply "Jim"), and began a relationship with him. Several months later, Grace and Doc Goddard decided to relocate to Virginia, where Doc had received a lucrative job offer. Although it was never explained why, they decided not to take Monroe with them. An offer from a neighborhood family to adopt her was proposed, but Gladys rejected the offer. With few options left, Grace approached Dougherty's mother and suggested that Jim marry her so that she would not have to return to an orphanage or foster care, as she was two years below the California legal age. Jim was initially reluctant, but he finally relented and married her in a ceremony arranged by Ana Lower. During this period, Monroe briefly supported her family as a homemaker. In 1943, during World War II, Dougherty enlisted in the Merchant Marine. He was initially stationed on Santa Catalina Island off California's west coast, and Monroe lived with him there in the town of Avalon for several months before he was shipped out to the Pacific. Frightened that he might not come back alive, Monroe begged him to try and get her pregnant before he left. Dougherty disagreed, feeling that she was too young to have a baby, but he promised that they would revisit the subject when he returned home. Subsequently, Monroe moved in with Dougherty's mother.

Career

Early work: 1945–47

While Dougherty served in the Merchant Marine, Monroe began working in the Radioplane Munitions Factory, mainly spraying airplane parts with fire retardant and inspecting parachutes. During that time, Army photographer David Conover noticed her and snapped a photograph of her for a ''Yank'' magazine article. He encouraged her to apply to The Blue Book Modeling Agency. She signed with the agency and began researching the work of Jean Harlow and Lana Turner. She was told that they were looking for models with lighter hair, so Norma Jeane bleached her brunette hair to a golden blonde.

Monroe became one of Blue Book's most successful models; she appeared on dozens of magazine covers. Her successful modeling career brought her to the attention of Ben Lyon, a 20th Century Fox executive, who arranged a screen test for her. Lyon was impressed and commented, "It's Jean Harlow all over again." She was offered a standard six-month contract with a starting salary of $125 per week. Lyon did not like the name Norma Jeane and chose "Carole Lind" as a stagename, after Carole Lombard and Jenny Lind, but he soon decided it was not an appropriate choice. Monroe was invited to spend the weekend with Lyon and his wife Bebe Daniels at their home. It was there that they decided to find her a new name. Following her idol Jean Harlow, she decided to choose her mother's maiden name of Monroe. Several variations such as Norma Jeane Monroe and Norma Monroe were tried and initially "Jeane Monroe" was chosen. Eventually, Lyon decided Jeane and variants were too common, and he decided on a more alliterative sounding name. He suggested "Marilyn", commenting that she reminded him of Marilyn Miller. Monroe was initially hesitant because Marilyn was the contraction of the name Mary Lynn, a name she did not like. Lyon, however, felt that the name "Marilyn Monroe" was sexy, had a "nice flow", and would be "lucky" due to the double "M" and thus Norma Jeane Baker took the name Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe's first movie role was an uncredited role as a telephone operator in ''The Shocking Miss Pilgrim'' in 1947. She won a brief role that same year in ''Dangerous Years'' and extra appearances in ''Green Grass of Wyoming'' and ''You Were Meant for Me'', she also won a three scene role as Betty in ''Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!''. Monroe's part in ''Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!'' was to be three scenes long, but before the release of the film her part was cut down to a brief one-line scene. ''Green Grass of Wyoming'', ''You Were Meant For Me'', and ''Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!'', wouldn't be released until 1948, which was months after Monroe's contract had ended in late 1947. She attempted to find opportunities for film work, and while unemployed, she posed for nude photographs. She was paid $50 and signed the model release form as "Mona Monroe". It would be the only time she would get paid for the nude photos. That year, she was also crowned the first "Miss California Artichoke Queen" at the annual artichoke festival in Castroville.

Breakthrough: 1948–51

In 1948, Monroe signed a six-month contract with Columbia Pictures and was introduced to the studio's head drama coach Natasha Lytess, who became her acting coach for several years. She starred in the low-budget musical ''Ladies of the Chorus'' (1948). Monroe was capitalized as one of the film's bright spots, but the movie didn't bring any success for Monroe nor Columbia. During her short stint at Columbia, studio head Harry Cohn softened her appearance somewhat by correcting a slight overbite she had.

She had a small role in the Marx Brothers film ''Love Happy'' (1949). Monroe impressed the producers, who sent her to New York to feature in the film's promotional campaign. ''Love Happy'' brought Monroe to the attention of the talent agent, Johnny Hyde, who agreed to represent her. He arranged for her to audition for John Huston, who cast her in the drama ''The Asphalt Jungle'' as the young mistress of an aging criminal. Her performance brought strong reviews, and was seen by the writer and director, Joseph Mankiewicz. He accepted Hyde's suggestion of Monroe for a small comedic role in ''All About Eve'' as Miss Caswell, an aspiring actress, described by another character as a student of "The Copacabana School of Dramatic Art". Mankiewicz later commented that he had seen an innocence in her that he found appealing, and that this had confirmed his belief in her suitability for the role. Following Monroe's success in these roles, Hyde negotiated a seven-year contract for her with 20th Century Fox, shortly before his death in December 1950. It was at some time during this 1949–50 period that Hyde arranged for her to have a slight bump of cartilage removed from her somewhat bulbous nose which further softened her appearance and accounts for the slight variation in look she had in films after 1950.

In 1951, Monroe enrolled at University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied literature and art appreciation, and appeared in several minor films playing opposite such long-established performers as Mickey Rooney, Constance Bennett, June Allyson, Dick Powell and Claudette Colbert. In March 1951, she appeared as a presenter at the 23rd Academy Awards ceremony. In 1952, Monroe appeared on the cover of ''Look'' magazine wearing a Georgia Tech sweater as part of an article celebrating female enrollment to the school's main campus. In the early 1950s, Monroe and Gregg Palmer both unsuccessfully auditioned for roles as Daisy Mae and Abner in a proposed ''Li'l Abner'' television series based on the Al Capp comic strip, but the effort never materialized.

Leading films: 1952–55

In March 1952, Monroe faced a possible scandal when one of her nude photos from a 1949 session with photographer Tom Kelley was featured in a calendar. The press speculated about the identity of the anonymous model and commented that she closely resembled Monroe. As the studio discussed how to deal with the problem, Monroe suggested that she should simply admit that she had posed for the photograph but emphasize that she had done so only because she had no money to pay her rent. She gave an interview in which she discussed the circumstances that led to her posing for the photographs, and the resulting publicity elicited a degree of sympathy for her plight as a struggling actress.

She made her first appearance on the cover of ''Life'' magazine in April 1952, where she was described as "The Talk of Hollywood". Stories of her childhood and upbringing portrayed her in a sympathetic light: a cover story for the May 1952 edition of ''True Experiences'' magazine showed a smiling and wholesome Monroe beside a caption that read, "Do I look happy? I should — for I was a child nobody wanted. A lonely girl with a dream — who awakened to find that dream come true. I am Marilyn Monroe. Read my Cinderella story." It was also during this time that she began dating baseball player Joe DiMaggio. A photograph of DiMaggio visiting Monroe at the 20th Century Fox studio was printed in newspapers throughout the United States, and reports of a developing romance between them generated further interest in Monroe.

Four films in which Monroe featured were released beginning in 1952. She had been lent to RKO Studios to appear in a supporting role in ''Clash by Night'', a Barbara Stanwyck drama, directed by Fritz Lang. Released in June 1952, the film was popular with audiences, with much of its success credited to curiosity about Monroe, who received generally favorable reviews from critics.

This was followed by two films released in July, the comedy ''We're Not Married!'', and the drama ''Don't Bother to Knock''. ''We're Not Married!'' featured Monroe as a beauty pageant contestant. ''Variety'' described the film as "lightweight". Its reviewer commented that Monroe was featured to full advantage in a bathing suit, and that some of her scenes suggested a degree of exploitation. In ''Don't Bother to Knock'' she played the starring role of a babysitter who threatens to attack the child in her care. The downbeat melodrama was poorly reviewed, although Monroe commented that it contained some of her strongest dramatic acting. ''Monkey Business'', a successful comedy directed by Howard Hawks starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers, was released in September and was the first movie in which Monroe appeared in with platinum blonde hair. In ''O. Henry's Full House'' for 20th Century Fox, released in August 1952, Monroe had a single one-minute scene with Charles Laughton, yet she received top billing alongside him and the film's other stars, including Anne Baxter, Farley Granger, Jean Peters and Richard Widmark.

Darryl F. Zanuck considered that Monroe's film potential was worth developing and cast her in ''Niagara'', as a femme fatale scheming to murder her husband, played by Joseph Cotten. During filming, Monroe's make-up artist Whitey Snyder noticed her stage fright (that would ultimately mark her behavior on film sets throughout her career); the director assigned him to spend hours gently coaxing and comforting Monroe as she prepared to film her scenes. Much of the critical commentary following the release of the film focused on Monroe's overtly sexual performance, and a scene which shows Monroe (from the back) making a long walk toward Niagara Falls received frequent note in reviews. After seeing the film, Constance Bennett reportedly quipped, "There's a broad with her future behind her." Whitey Snyder also commented that it was during preparation for this film, after much experimentation, that Monroe achieved "the look, and we used that look for several pictures in a row ... the look was established." While the film was a success, and Monroe's performance had positive reviews, her conduct at promotional events sometimes drew negative comments. Her appearance at the ''Photoplay'' awards dinner in a skin-tight gold lamé dress was criticized. Louella Parsons' newspaper column quoted Joan Crawford discussing Monroe's "vulgarity" and describing her behavior as "unbecoming an actress and a lady". Monroe had previously received criticism for wearing a dress with a neckline cut almost to her navel when she acted as Grand Marshall at the Miss America Parade in September 1952. A photograph from this event was used on the cover of the first issue of ''Playboy'' in December 1953, with a nude photograph of Monroe, taken in 1949, inside the magazine.

Her next film was ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' (1953) co-starring Jane Russell and directed by Howard Hawks. Her role as Lorelei Lee, a gold-digging showgirl, required her to act, sing, and dance. The two stars became friends, with Russell describing Monroe as "very shy and very sweet and far more intelligent than people gave her credit for". She later recalled that Monroe showed her dedication by rehearsing her dance routines each evening after most of the crew had left, but she arrived habitually late on set for filming. Realizing that Monroe remained in her dressing room due to stage fright, and that Hawks was growing impatient with her tardiness, Russell started escorting her to the set.

At the Los Angeles premiere of the film, Monroe and Russell pressed their hand- and footprints in the cement in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Monroe received positive reviews and the film grossed more than double its production costs. Her rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" became associated with her. ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' also marked one of the earliest films in which William Travilla dressed Monroe. Travilla dressed Monroe in eight of her films including ''Bus Stop'', ''Don't Bother to Knock'', ''How to Marry a Millionaire'', ''River of No Return'', ''There’s No Business Like Show Business'', ''Monkey Business'', and ''The Seven Year Itch''. ''How to Marry a Millionaire'' was a comedy about three models scheming to attract wealthy husbands. The film teamed Monroe with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, and was directed by Jean Negulesco. The producer and scriptwriter, Nunnally Johnson, said that it was the first film in which audiences "liked Marilyn for herself [and that] she diagnosed the reason very shrewdly. She said that it was the only picture she'd been in, in which she had a measure of modesty... about her own attractiveness."

Monroe's films of this period established her "dumb blonde" persona and contributed to her popularity. In 1953 and 1954, she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the United States for the stars that had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year. "I want to grow and develop and play serious dramatic parts. My dramatic coach, Natasha Lytess, tells everybody that I have a great soul, but so far nobody's interested in it." Monroe told the ''New York Times''. She saw a possibility in 20th Century Fox's upcoming film, ''The Egyptian,'' but was rebuffed by Darryl F. Zanuck who refused to screen test her.

Instead, she was assigned to the western ''River of No Return'', opposite Robert Mitchum. Director Otto Preminger resented Monroe's reliance on Natasha Lytess, who coached Monroe and announced her verdict at the end of each scene. Eventually Monroe refused to speak to Preminger, and Mitchum had to mediate. Of the finished product, she commented, "I think I deserve a better deal than a grade Z cowboy movie in which the acting finished second to the scenery and the CinemaScope process." In late 1953 Monroe was scheduled to begin filming ''The Girl in Pink Tights'' with Frank Sinatra. When she failed to appear for work, 20th Century Fox suspended her.

International success: 1954–57

Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married in San Francisco on January 14, 1954. They traveled to Japan soon after, combining a honeymoon with a business trip previously arranged by DiMaggio. For two weeks she took a secondary role to DiMaggio as he conducted his business, having told a reporter, "Marriage is my main career from now on." Monroe then traveled alone to Korea where she performed for 13,000 American Marines over a three-day period. She later commented that the experience had helped her overcome a fear of performing in front of large crowds. Edward H. Comins (1932–2011) of Las Vegas, Nevada, the winner of a Bronze Star medal in the Korean War, reported having cooked for Monroe during one of her engagements abroad.

Returning to Hollywood in March 1954, Monroe settled her disagreement with 20th Century Fox and appeared in the musical ''There's No Business Like Show Business''. The film failed to recover its production costs and was poorly received. Ed Sullivan described Monroe's performance of the song "Heat Wave" as "one of the most flagrant violations of good taste" he had witnessed. ''Time magazine'' compared her unfavorably to co-star Ethel Merman, while Bosley Crowther for ''The New York Times'' said that Mitzi Gaynor had surpassed Monroe's "embarrassing to behold" performance. The reviews echoed Monroe's opinion of the film. She had made it reluctantly, on the assurance that she would be given the starring role in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit ''The Seven Year Itch.''

One of Monroe's most notable film roles was shot in September 1954, a skirt-blowing key scene for ''The Seven Year Itch'' in New York City. In it, she stands with her co-star, Tom Ewell, while the air from a subway grating blows her skirt up. A large crowd watched as director Billy Wilder ordered the scene to be refilmed many times. Joe DiMaggio was reported to have been present and infuriated by the spectacle. After a quarrel, witnessed by journalist Walter Winchell, the couple returned to California where they avoided the press for two weeks, until Monroe announced that they had separated. Their divorce was granted in November 1954. The filming was completed in early 1955, and after refusing what she considered to be inferior parts in ''The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing'' and ''How to Be Very, Very Popular'', Monroe decided to leave Hollywood on the advice of Milton Greene. The role of Curly Flagg in ''How to Be Very, Very Popular'' went to Sheree North, and ''Girl in the Red Velvet Swing'' went to Joan Collins. ''The Seven Year Itch'' was released and became a success, earning an estimated $8 million. Monroe received positive reviews for her performance and was in a strong position to negotiate with 20th Century Fox. On New Year's Eve 1955, they signed a new contract which required Monroe to make four films over a seven-year period. The newly formed Marilyn Monroe Productions would be paid $100,000 plus a share of profits for each film. In addition to being able to work for other studios, Monroe had the right to reject any script, director or cinematographer she did not approve of. In June 2011, the dress was sold for $4.6 million to an undisclosed buyer.

Milton Greene had first met Monroe in 1953 when he was assigned to photograph her for ''Look'' magazine. While many photographers tried to emphasize her sexy image, Greene presented her in more modest poses, and she was pleased with his work. As a friendship developed between them, she confided in him her frustration with her 20th Century Fox contract and the roles she was offered. Her salary for ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' amounted to $18,000, while freelancer Jane Russell was paid more than $100,000. Greene agreed that she could earn more by breaking away from 20th Century Fox. He gave up his job in 1954, mortgaged his home to finance Monroe, and allowed her to live with his family as they determined the future course of her career.

On April 8, 1955, veteran journalist Edward R. Murrow interviewed Greene and his wife Amy, as well as Monroe, at the Greenes' home in Connecticut on a live telecast of the CBS program ''Person to Person''. The kinescope of the telecast has been released on home video.

Truman Capote introduced Monroe to Constance Collier, who gave her acting lessons. She felt that Monroe was not suited to stage acting, but possessed a "lovely talent" that was "so fragile and subtle, it can only be caught by the camera". After only a few weeks of lessons, Collier died. Monroe had met Paula Strasberg and her daughter Susan on the set of ''There's No Business Like Show Business'', and had previously said that she would like to study with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. In March 1955, Monroe met with Cheryl Crawford, one of the founders of the Actors Studio, and convinced her to introduce her to Lee Strasberg, who interviewed her the following day and agreed to accept her as a student.

In May 1955, Monroe started dating playwright Arthur Miller; they had met in Hollywood in 1950 and when Miller discovered she was in New York, he arranged for a mutual friend to reintroduce them. On June 1, 1955, Monroe's birthday, Joe DiMaggio accompanied Monroe to the premiere of ''The Seven Year Itch'' in New York City. He later hosted a birthday party for her, but the evening ended with a public quarrel, and Monroe left the party without him. A lengthy period of estrangement followed. Throughout that year, Monroe studied with the Actors Studio, and found that one of her biggest obstacles was her severe stage fright. She was befriended by the actors Kevin McCarthy and Eli Wallach who each recalled her as studious and sincere in her approach to her studies, and noted that she tried to avoid attention by sitting quietly in the back of the class. When Strasberg felt Monroe was ready to give a performance in front of her peers, Monroe and Maureen Stapleton chose the opening scene from Eugene O'Neill's ''Anna Christie,'' and although she had faltered during each rehearsal, she was able to complete the performance without forgetting her lines. Kim Stanley later recalled that students were discouraged from applauding, but that Monroe's performance had resulted in spontaneous applause from the audience. While Monroe was a student, Lee Strasberg commented, "I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of actors and actresses, and there are only two that stand out way above the rest. Number one is Marlon Brando, and the second is Marilyn Monroe."

The first film to be made under the contract and production company was ''Bus Stop'' directed by Joshua Logan. Logan had studied under Constantin Stanislavski, approved of method acting, and was supportive of Monroe. Monroe severed contact with her drama coach, Natasha Lytess, replacing her with Paula Strasberg, who became a constant presence during the filming of Monroe's subsequent films. thumb|left|300px|Monroe's dramatic performance as Chérie in ''[[Bus Stop (film)|Bus Stop'' (1956), a saloon singer with little talent, marked a departure from her earlier comedies.]] In ''Bus Stop'', Monroe played Chérie, a saloon singer with little talent who falls in love with a cowboy, Beauregard "Bo" Decker, played by Don Murray. Her costumes, make-up and hair reflected a character who lacked sophistication, and Monroe provided deliberately mediocre singing and dancing. Bosley Crowther of ''The New York Times'' proclaimed: "Hold on to your chairs, everybody, and get set for a rattling surprise. Marilyn Monroe has finally proved herself an actress." In his autobiography, ''Movie Stars, Real People and Me,'' director Logan wrote: "I found Marilyn to be one of the great talents of all time... she struck me as being a much brighter person than I had ever imagined, and I think that was the first time I learned that intelligence and, yes, brilliance have nothing to do with education." Logan championed Monroe for an Academy Award nomination and complimented her professionalism until the end of his life. Though not nominated for an Academy Award, she received a Golden Globe nomination.

''Bus Stop'' was followed by ''The Prince and the Showgirl'' directed by Laurence Olivier, who also co-starred. Prior to filming, Olivier praised Monroe as "a brilliant comedienne, which to me means she is also an extremely skilled actress". During filming in England he resented Monroe's dependence on her drama coach, Paula Strasberg, regarding Strasberg as a fraud whose only talent was the ability to "butter Marilyn up". He recalled his attempts at explaining a scene to Monroe, only to hear Strasberg interject, "Honey — just think of Coca-Cola and Frank Sinatra." Olivier later commented that in the film "Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all." Monroe's performance was hailed by critics, especially in Europe, where she won the David di Donatello, the Italian equivalent of the Academy Awards, as well as the French Crystal Star Award. She was also nominated for a BAFTA. It was more than a year before Monroe began her next film. During her hiatus, she summered with Miller in Amagansett, New York. She suffered a miscarriage on August 1, 1957.

Last films: 1958–62

With Miller's encouragement she returned to Hollywood in August 1958 to star in ''Some Like It Hot''. The film was directed by Billy Wilder and co-starred Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Wilder had experienced Monroe's tardiness, stage fright, and inability to remember lines during production of ''The Seven Year Itch''. However her behavior was now more hostile, and was marked by refusals to participate in filming and occasional outbursts of profanity. Monroe consistently refused to take direction from Wilder, or insisted on numerous retakes of simple scenes until she was satisfied. She developed a rapport with Lemmon, but she disliked Curtis after hearing that he had described their love scenes as "like kissing Hitler". Curtis later stated that the comment was intended as a joke. During filming, Monroe discovered that she was pregnant. She suffered another miscarriage in December 1958, as filming was completed.

''Some Like it Hot'' became a resounding success, and was nominated for six Academy Awards. Monroe was acclaimed for her performance and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Wilder commented that the film was the biggest success he had ever been associated with. He discussed the problems he encountered during filming, saying "Marilyn was so difficult because she was totally unpredictable. I never knew what kind of day we were going to have... would she be cooperative or obstructive?" He had little patience with her method-acting technique and said that instead of going to the Actors Studio "she should have gone to a train-engineer's school ... to learn something about arriving on schedule." Wilder had become ill during filming, and explained, "We were in mid-flight – and there was a nut on the plane." In hindsight, he discussed Monroe's "certain indefinable magic" and "absolute genius as a comic actress."

By this time, Monroe had only completed one film, ''Bus Stop'', under her four-picture contract with 20th Century Fox. She agreed to appear in ''Let's Make Love,'' which was to be directed by George Cukor, but she was not satisfied with the script, and Arthur Miller rewrote it. Gregory Peck was originally cast in the male lead role, but he refused the role after Miller's rewrite; Cary Grant, Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and Rock Hudson also refused the role before it was offered to Yves Montand. Monroe and Miller befriended Montand and his wife, actress Simone Signoret, and filming progressed well until Miller was required to travel to Europe on business. Monroe began to leave the film set early and on several occasions failed to attend, but her attitude improved after Montand confronted her. Signoret returned to Europe to make a film, and Monroe and Montand began a brief affair that ended when Montand refused to leave Signoret. The film was not a critical or commercial success.

Monroe's health deteriorated during this period, and she began to see a Los Angeles psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson. He later recalled that during this time she frequently complained of insomnia, and told Greenson that she visited several medical doctors to obtain what Greenson considered an excessive variety of drugs. He concluded that she was progressing to the point of addiction, but also noted that she could give up the drugs for extended periods without suffering any withdrawal symptoms. According to Greenson, the marriage between Miller and Monroe was strained; he said that Miller appeared to genuinely care for Monroe and was willing to help her, but that Monroe rebuffed while also expressing resentment towards him for not doing more to help her. Greenson stated that his main objective at the time was to enforce a drastic reduction in Monroe's drug intake.

In 1956, Arthur Miller had briefly resided in Nevada and wrote a short story about some of the local people he had become acquainted with, a divorced woman and some aging cowboys. By 1960 he had developed the short story into a screenplay, and envisaged it as containing a suitable role for Monroe. It became her last completed film. ''The Misfits'', directed by John Huston and costarring Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter. Shooting commenced in July 1960, with most taking place in the hot Northern Nevada desert. Monroe was frequently ill and unable to perform, and away from the influence of Dr. Greenson, she had resumed her consumption of sleeping pills and alcohol. A visitor to the set, Susan Strasberg, later described Monroe as "mortally injured in some way," and in August, Monroe was rushed to Los Angeles where she was hospitalized for ten days. Newspapers reported that she had been near death, although the nature of her illness was not disclosed. Louella Parsons wrote in her newspaper column that Monroe was "a very sick girl, much sicker than at first believed", and disclosed that she was being treated by a psychiatrist. Monroe returned to Nevada and completed the film, but she became hostile towards Arthur Miller, and public arguments were reported by the press. Making the film had proved to be an arduous experience for the actors; in addition to Monroe's distress, Montgomery Clift had frequently been unable to perform due to illness, and by the final day of shooting, Thelma Ritter was in hospital suffering from exhaustion. Gable, commenting that he felt unwell, left the set without attending the wrap party. Monroe and Miller returned to New York on separate flights.

Within ten days Monroe had announced her separation from Miller, and Gable had died from a heart attack. Gable's widow, Kay, commented to Louella Parsons that it had been the "eternal waiting" on the set of ''The Misfits'' that had contributed to his death, though she did not name Monroe. When reporters asked Monroe if she felt guilty about Gable's death, she refused to answer, but the journalist Sidney Skolsky recalled that privately she expressed regret for her poor treatment of Gable during filming and described her as being in "a dark pit of despair". Monroe later attended the christening of the Gables' son, at the invitation of Kay Gable. ''The Misfits'' received mediocre reviews, and was not a commercial success, though some praised the performances of Monroe and Gable. Huston later commented that Monroe's performance was not acting in the true sense, and that she had drawn from her own experiences to show herself, rather than a character. "She had no techniques. It was all the truth. It was only Marilyn."

During the following months, Monroe's dependence on alcohol and prescription medications began to take a toll on her health, and friends such as Susan Strasberg later spoke of her illness. Her divorce from Arthur Miller was finalized in January 1961, with Monroe citing "incompatibility of character", and in February she voluntarily entered the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. Monroe later described the experience as a "nightmare". She was able to phone Joe DiMaggio from the clinic, and he immediately traveled from Florida to New York to facilitate her transfer to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. She remained there for three weeks. Illness prevented her from working for the remainder of the year; she underwent surgery to correct a blockage in her Fallopian tubes in May, and the following month underwent gallbladder surgery. She returned to California and lived in a rented apartment as she convalesced.

In 1962, Monroe began filming ''Something's Got to Give,'' which was to be the third film of her four-film contract with 20th Century Fox. It was to be directed by George Cukor, and co-starred Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. She was ill with a virus as filming commenced, and suffered from high temperatures and recurrent sinusitis. On one occasion she refused to perform with Martin as he had a cold, and the producer Henry Weinstein recalled seeing her on several occasions being physically ill as she prepared to film her scenes, and attributed it to her dread of performing. He commented, "Very few people experience terror. We all experience anxiety, unhappiness, heartbreaks, but that was sheer primal terror."

On May 19, 1962, she attended the early birthday celebration of President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, at the suggestion of Kennedy's brother-in-law, actor Peter Lawford. Monroe performed "Happy Birthday" along with a specially written verse based on Bob Hope's "Thanks for the Memory". Kennedy responded to her performance with the remark, "Thank you. I can now retire from politics after having had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way." (also see entry Happy Birthday, Mr. President)

Monroe returned to the set of ''Something's Got to Give'' and filmed a sequence in which she appeared nude in a swimming pool. Commenting that she wanted to "push Liz Taylor off the magazine covers", she gave permission for several partially nude photographs to be published by ''Life''. Having only reported for work on twelve occasions out of a total of 35 days of production, Monroe was dismissed. The studio 20th Century Fox filed a lawsuit against her for half a million dollars, and the studio's vice president, Peter Levathes, issued a statement saying "The star system has gotten way out of hand. We've let the inmates run the asylum, and they've practically destroyed it." Monroe was replaced by Lee Remick, and when Dean Martin refused to work with any other actress, he was also threatened with a lawsuit. Following her dismissal, Monroe engaged in several high-profile publicity ventures. She gave an interview to ''Cosmopolitan'' and was photographed at Peter Lawford's beach house sipping champagne and walking on the beach. She next posed for Bert Stern for ''Vogue'' in a series of photographs that included several nudes. Published after her death, they became known as 'The Last Sitting'. Richard Meryman interviewed her for ''Life'', in which Monroe reflected upon her relationship with her fans and her uncertainties in identifying herself as a "star" and a "sex symbol". She referred to the events surrounding Arthur Miller's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956, and her studio's warning that she would be "finished" if she showed public support for him, and commented, "You have to start all over again. But I believe you're always as good as your potential. I now live in my work and in a few relationships with the few people I can really count on. Fame will go by, and, so long, I've had you fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live."

In the final weeks of her life, Monroe engaged in discussions about future film projects, and firm arrangements were made to continue negotiations on Something's Got to Give. Among the projects was a biography of Jean Harlow filmed two years later unsuccessfully with Carroll Baker. Starring roles in Billy Wilder's ''Irma la Douce'' and ''What a Way to Go!'' were also discussed; Shirley MacLaine eventually played the roles in both films. Kim Novak replaced her in ''Kiss Me, Stupid'', a comedy in which she was to star opposite Dean Martin. A film version of the Broadway musical, ''A Tree Grows In Brooklyn'', and an unnamed World War I–themed musical co-starring Gene Kelly were also discussed, but the projects never materialized due to her death. Her dispute with 20th Century Fox was resolved, and her contract renewed into a $1 million two-picture deal, and filming of ''Something's Got to Give'' was scheduled to resume in early fall 1962. Marilyn, having fired her own agent and MCA in 1961 managed her own negoiations as President of Marilyn Monroe Productions. Also on the table was an Italian four film deal worth 10 million giving her script, director, and co-star approval. Allan "Whitey" Snyder who saw her during the last week of her life, said Monroe was pleased by the opportunities available to her, and that she "never looked better [and] was in great spirits".

Death and aftermath

On August 5, 1962, LAPD police sergeant Jack Clemmons received a call at 4:25 am from Dr Ralph Greenson, Monroe's psychiatrist, proclaiming that Monroe was found dead at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. She was 36 years old. At the subsequent autopsy, eight milligram per cent of Chloral hydrate and 4.5 milligram percent of Nembutal were found in her system, and Dr. Thomas Noguchi of the Los Angeles County Coroners office recorded cause of death as "acute barbiturate poisoning," resulting from a "probable suicide." Many theories, including murder, circulated about the circumstances of her death and the timeline after the body was found. Some conspiracy theories involved John and Robert Kennedy, while other theories suggested CIA or Mafia complicity. It was reported that the last person Monroe called was the President.

On August 8, 1962, Monroe was interred in a crypt at Corridor of Memories #24, at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Lee Strasberg delivered the eulogy. The crypt space immediately to the left of Monroe's was bought and reserved by Hugh Hefner in 1992. DiMaggio took control of the funeral arrangements which consisted of only 31 close family and friends. Police were also present to keep the press away. Her casket was solid bronze and was lined with champagne colored silk. Allan “Whitey” Snyder did her make-up which was supposedly a promise made in earlier years if she were to die before him. She was wearing her favorite green Emilio Pucci dress. In her hands was a small bouquet of pink teacup roses. For the next 20 years, red roses were placed in a vase attached to the crypt, courtesy of Joe DiMaggio.

In August 2009, the crypt space directly above that of Monroe was placed for auction on eBay. Elsie Poncher plans to exhume her husband and move him to an adjacent plot. She advertised the crypt, hoping "to make enough money to pay off the $1.6 million mortgage" on her Beverly Hills mansion. The winning bid was placed by an anonymous Japanese man for $4.6 million, but the winning bidder later backed out "because of the paying problem". Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, who never met Monroe, bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. He affirmed that the initial success of his magazine directly correlated with Monroe.

Administration of estate

In her will, Monroe stated she would leave Lee Strasberg her personal effects, which amounted to just over half of her residuary estate, expressing her desire that he "distribute [the effects] among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted". Instead, Strasberg stored them in a warehouse, and willed them to his widow, Anna, who successfully sued Los Angeles-based Odyssey Auctions in 1994 to prevent the sale of items consigned by the nephew of Monroe's business manager, Inez Melson. In October 1999, Christie's auctioned the bulk of Monroe's effects, including those recovered from Melson's nephew, netting an amount of $13,405,785. Subsequently, Strasberg sued the children of four photographers to determine rights of publicity, which permits the licensing of images of deceased personages for commercial purposes. The decision as to whether Monroe was a resident of California, where she died and where her will was probated, or New York, which she considered her primary residence, was worth millions.

On May 4, 2007, a New York judge ruled that Monroe's rights of publicity ended at her death. In October 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 771. The legislation was supported by Anna Strasberg and the Screen Actors Guild. Senate Bill 771 established that non-family members may inherit rights of publicity through the residuary clause of the deceased's will, provided that the person was a resident of California at the time of death. In March 2008, the United States District Court in Los Angeles ruled that Monroe was a resident of New York at the time of her death, citing the statement of the executor of her estate to California tax authorities, and a 1966 sworn affidavit by her housekeeper. The decision was reaffirmed by the United States District Court of New York in September 2008.

In July 2010, Monroe's Brentwood home was put up for sale by Prudential California Realty. The house was sold for $3.6 million. Monroe left to Lee Strasberg an archive of her own writing – diaries, poems, and letters, which Anna discovered in October 1999. In October 2010, the documents were published as a book, ''Fragments''.

Personal life

Relationships

Monroe had three marriages, all of which ended in divorce. The first was to James Dougherty, the second to Joe DiMaggio, and lastly to Arthur Miller. Allegedly, she was briefly married to writer Robert "Bob" Slatzer. She is alleged to have had affairs with both John and Robert Kennedy. Marlon Brando, in his autobiography ''Songs My Mother Taught Me'', claimed that he had had a relationship with her, and enduring friendship lasting until her death. She also suffered two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy during her three marriages.

Monroe married James Dougherty on June 19, 1942, at the home of Chester Howell in Los Angeles. As a result of her modeling career, he began to lose interest in her and stated that he did not approve of her new job. Monroe then decided to divorce Dougherty. The marriage ended when he returned from overseas in 1946. In ''The Secret Happiness of Marilyn Monroe'' and ''To Norma Jeane with Love, Jimmie'', he claimed they were in love, but dreams of stardom lured her away. In 1953, he wrote a piece called "Marilyn Monroe Was My Wife" for ''Photoplay'', in which he claimed that she threatened to jump off the Santa Monica Pier if he left her. She was reported to have been furious and explained in 1956 interview that she confessed to having attempted suicide during the marriage and stated that she felt trapped and bored by Dougherty, even blaming their marriage on her foster mother. In her autobiography, explaining the sudden dissolution of their marriage, Monroe stated, "My marriage didn't make me sad, but it didn't make me happy either. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn't because we were angry. We had nothing to say. I was dying of boredom."

Doc Goddard had plans to publish extra details about the marriage, citing that he hoped to clear up rumors about an arranged marriage, but decided against the publication at the last minute. In the 2004 documentary ''Marilyn's Man'', Dougherty made three new claims: that he invented the "Marilyn Monroe" persona; studio executives forced her to divorce him; and that he was her true love and her "dedicated friend for life".

Monroe eloped with Joe DiMaggio at San Francisco City Hall on January 14, 1954. In 1951, DiMaggio saw a photograph of Monroe alongside Chicago White Sox players Joe Dobson and Gus Zernial, prompting him to request a date with her in 1952. Of their initial meeting, Monroe wrote in ''My Story'' that she did not have a desire to know him, as she had feared a stereotypical jock. During their honeymoon in Japan, she was asked to visit Korea as part of the USO. She performed ten shows in four days for over 100,000 servicemen.

thumb|left|Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe staying at [[Imperial Hotel, Tokyo|Imperial Hotel in Tokyo on their honeymoon (1954)]] Maury Allen quoted New York Yankees PR man Arthur Richman that Joe told him that the marriage went wrong from then. On September 14, 1954, Monroe filmed the famed skirt-blowing scene for ''The Seven Year Itch'' in front of New York's Trans-Lux Theater. Bill Kobrin, then Fox's east coast correspondent, told the ''Palm Springs Desert Sun'' in 1956 that it was Billy Wilder's idea to turn the shoot into a media circus, and that the couple had a "yelling battle" in the theater lobby. She filed for divorce on grounds of mental cruelty nine months after the wedding. In February 1961, Monroe was admitted to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. She contacted DiMaggio, who secured her release. She later joined him in Florida, where he was serving as a batting coach at the New York Yankees' training camp. Bob Hope jokingly dedicated Best Song nominee ''The Second Time Around'' to them at the 1961 Academy Awards. According to Allen, on August 1, 1962, DiMaggio – alarmed by how Monroe had fallen in with people he considered detrimental to her well-being – quit his job with a PX supplier to ask her to remarry him. After Monroe's death, DiMaggio claimed her body and arranged her funeral. For 20 years, he had a half-dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week. In 2006, DiMaggio's adopted granddaughters auctioned the bulk of his estate, which featured two letters Monroe penned to him and a photograph signed "I love you, Joe, Marilyn."

On June 29, 1956, Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller, in a civil ceremony in White Plains, New York. Monroe met Miller in 1950. During this filming of ''Bus Stop'', the relationship between Monroe and Miller had developed, and although the couple were able to maintain their privacy for almost a year, the press began to write about them as a couple, often referred to as "The Egghead and The Hourglass". The reports of their romance were soon overtaken by news that Miller had been called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee to explain his supposed communist affiliations. Called upon to identify communists he was acquainted with, Miller refused and was charged with contempt of Congress. He was acquitted on appeal. During the investigation, Monroe was urged by film executives to abandon Miller, rather than risk her career but she refused, later branding them as "born cowards". The press began to discuss an impending marriage, but Monroe and Miller refused to confirm the rumor. In June 1956, a reporter was following them by car, and as they attempted to elude him, the reporter's car crashed, killing a female passenger. Monroe became hysterical upon hearing the news, and their engagement was announced, partly in the expectation that it would reduce the excessive media interest they were being subjected to. City Court Judge Seymour D. Robinowitz presided over the hushed ceremony in the law office of Sam Slavitt (the wedding had been kept secret from both the press and the public). Monroe and Miller wed again two days later in a Jewish ceremony before a small group of guests. Rabbi Robert E. Goldburg, a Reform rabbi at Congregation Mishkan Israel, presided over the ceremony. Their nuptials were celebrated at the home of Miller's literary agent, Kay Brown, in Westchester County, New York. Some 30 friends and relatives attended the hastily arranged party. Less than two weeks after the wedding, the Millers flew to London, where they were greeted at Parkside House by Laurence Olivier and wife Vivien Leigh. Monroe created chaos among the normally staid British press. In reflecting on his courtship of Monroe, Miller wrote, "She was a whirling light to me then, all paradox and enticing mystery, street-tough one moment, then lifted by a lyrical and poetic sensitivity that few retain past early adolescence." Nominally raised as a Christian but before her 1956 conversion (to Judaism), Monroe laughingly rejected Jane Russell's conversion attempts during the 1953 filming of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" saying "Jane tried to convert me (to religion) and I tried to introduce her to Freud". She did convert to Judaism before marrying Miller. After she finished shooting ''The Prince and the Showgirl'' with Laurence Olivier, the couple returned to the United States from England and discovered she was pregnant. Tony Curtis, her co-star from ''Some Like It Hot,'' claims he got Monroe pregnant during their on-off affair that was rekindled during the filming of ''Some Like It Hot'' in 1959, while she was still married to Arthur Miller.

Miller's screenplay for ''The Misfits'', a story about a despairing divorcée, was meant to be a Valentine gift for his wife, but by the time filming started in 1960 their marriage was beyond repair. A Mexican divorce was granted on January 24, 1961 in Ciudad Juarez by Francisco José Gómez Fraire. On February 17, 1962, Miller married Inge Morath, one of the Magnum photographers recording the making of ''The Misfits''. In January 1964, Miller's play ''After The Fall'' opened, featuring a beautiful and devouring shrew named Maggie. Simone Signoret noted in her autobiography the morbidity of Miller and Elia Kazan resuming their professional association "over a casket". In interviews and in his autobiography, Miller insisted that Maggie was not based on Monroe. However, he never pretended that his last Broadway-bound work, ''Finishing the Picture'', was not based on the making of ''The Misfits''. He appeared in the documentary ''The Century of the Self'', lamenting the psychological work being done on her before her death.

On May 19, 1962, Monroe made her last significant public appearance, singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at a birthday party for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. The dress that she wore to the event, specially designed and made for her by Jean Louis, sold at an auction in 1999 for $1.26 million. Monroe reportedly had an affair with President John F. Kennedy. JFK's reputed mistress Judith Exner, in her 1977 autobiography, also wrote about an affair that she said the president and Monroe had. Journalist Anthony Summers examines the issue of Monroe's relationships with the Kennedy brothers at length in two books: his 1993 biography of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, entitled ''Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover'', and his 1985 biography of Monroe, entitled ''Goddess''. In the Hoover book, Summers concludes that Monroe was in love with President Kennedy and wanted to marry him in the early 1960s; that she called the White House frequently; and that, when the married President had to break off their affair, Monroe became even more depressed, and then turned to Robert Kennedy, who visited Monroe in Los Angeles the day that she died. Patricia Seaton Lawford, the fourth wife of actor Peter Lawford, also deals with the Monroe-Kennedy matters in her 1988 biography of Peter Lawford, entitled ''The Peter Lawford Story''. Lawford's first wife was Patricia Kennedy Lawford, a sister of John and Robert; Lawford was very close to the Kennedy family for over a decade, including the time of Monroe's death. In 1997, documents purporting to prove a coverup of a relationship between JFK and Monroe were discovered to be fraudulent.

Psychoanalysis

Monroe had a long experience with psychoanalysis. She was in analysis with Margaret Herz Hohenberg, Anna Freud, Marianne Rie Kris, Ralph S. Greenson (who found Monroe dead), and Milton Wexler.

Politics

In Monroe's last interview she pleaded with a reporter to end the article with the folllowing quote: "What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers. Please don’t make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe."

Monroe was friends with Ella Fitzgerald and helped Ella in her career. Ella Fitzgerald later recounted, "I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt…it was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the club, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it."

Political discussions were recounted with Robert Kennedy as to policy towards Cuba, and President Kennedy. The latter said to have taken place at had luncheon with the Peter Lawfords. She was very pleased, as she had asked the President a lot of socially significant questions concerning the morality of atomic testing. Monroe supported Peace Action, which was created from a merge of Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign.

While in Mexico in 1962, she openly associated with Americans who were identified by the FBI as communists, such as Frederick Vanderbilt Field. The daughter of Monroe's last psychiatrist, Joan Greenson, said that Monroe was “passionate about equal rights, rights for blacks, rights for the poor. She identified strongly with the workers."

Portrayals

Monroe has been portrayed by:

Catherine Hicks in ''Marilyn: The Untold Story'' (1980)

Susan Griffiths in a fictionalized biopic ''Marilyn and Me'' (1991)

Melody Anderson in ''Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair'' (1993)

By Ashley Judd as the younger Marilyn (who constantly appears as an illusion to the older Marilyn thorought the film), and by Mira Sorvino as the older Marilyn in ''Norma Jean & Marilyn'' (1996)

Barbara Niven in ''The Rat Pack'' (1998)

Poppy Montgomery in ''Blonde'' (2001)

Holly Beavon in ''James Dean'' (2001) (NOTE: This role was uncredited)

Sophie Monk in ''The Mystery of Natalie Wood'' (2004)

Charlotte Sullivan in ''The Kennedys'' (2011)

Michelle Williams will portray Monroe in ''My Week with Marilyn'' (2011)

Naomi Watts will portray Monroe in another adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' book in a film also called ''Blonde'' (2012). It is unknown if it will premiere on TV or be released to theaters.

Susan Griffiths is a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who has portrayed Monroe, or an intentional look-alike, in several films and television series, including: the 1994 film ''Pulp Fiction'' (a look-alike waitress), ''Quantum Leap'', ''Dark Skies'', ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' and ''Timecop''.

Filmography

! Year	! Film title	! Role	! Co-actors	! Director	! Producer	! Notes
	''''	Telephone Operator	Betty Grable and Dick Haymes		20th Century Fox	Uncredited
1947	''Dangerous Years''	Evie	Billy Halop and Ann E. Todd		20th Century Fox
	''Green Grass of Wyoming''	Square Dance extra	Peggy Cummins and Charles Coburn		20th Century Fox	Uncredited
1948		Lady in Waiting	Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain		20th Century Fox	Uncredited
1948	''Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!''	Betty	June Haver and Natalie Wood		20th Century Fox	Uncredited
1948	''Ladies of the Chorus''	Peggy Martin	Adele Jergens and Rand Brooks		Columbia Pictures	First major film appearance
	''Love Happy''	Grunion's Client	Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Groucho Marx		United Artists
	''A Ticket to Tomahawk''	Clara	Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter, Rory Calhoun		20th Century Fox	Uncredited
1950	''Right Cross''	Dusky Ledoux	June Allyson and Dick Powell		Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	Uncredited
1950	''''	Polly	Mickey Rooney and Pat O'Brien		20th Century Fox	Aka: ''The Challenge''
1950	''''	Angela Phinlay	Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen		Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1950	''All About Eve''	Miss Claudia Caswell	Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders		20th Century Fox
	''Home Town Story''	Iris Martin	Jeffrey Lynn, Alan Hale, Jr., Donald Crisp	Arthur Pierson	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1951	''As Young as You Feel''	Hariett	Monty Woolley, Thelma Ritter, Jean Peters	Harmen Jones	20th Century Fox
1951	''Love Nest''	Roberta "Bobbie" Stevens	June Haver, William Lundigan, Frank Fay		20th Century Fox
1951	''Let's Make It Legal''	Joyce Mannering	Claudette Colbert, Macdonald Carey, Barbara Bates, Jeanne Crain		20th Century Fox
	''O. Henry's Full House''	Streetwalker	Fred Allen, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark		20th Century Fox	Cameo appearance
1952		Lois Laurel	Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn		20th Century Fox
1952	'' Clash by Night''	Peggy	Barbara Stanwyck, Keith Andes, Paul Douglas		RKO Radio Pictures
1952	''We're Not Married!''	Anabel Norris	Ginger Rogers, Fred Allen, Victor Moore, David Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor		20th Century Fox
1952	''Don't Bother to Knock''	Nell Forbes	Richard Widmark and Anne Bancroft		20th Century Fox	First starring role
		Rose Loomis	Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters		20th Century Fox
1953		Lorelei Lee	Jane Russell, Charles Coburn, Elliot Reid		20th Century Fox
1953	''How to Marry a Millionaire''	Pola Debevoise	Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, William Powell		20th Century Fox
	''River of No Return''	Kay Weston	Robert Mitchum, Tommy Rettig, Rory Calhoun		20th Century Fox
1954		Victoria "Vicky" Hoffman	Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor		20th Century Fox
	''''	The Girl	Tom Ewell and Evelyn Keyes		20th Century Fox	Contains the famous scene of Monroe's skirt being blown up by a subway grating.
		Chérie	Don Murray and Arthur O'Connell		20th Century Fox	Aka: ''The Wrong Kind of Girl''
	''	Elsie Marina	Laurence Olivier		Warner Brothers	The only film released under Marilyn Monroe Productions.
	''Some Like It Hot''	Sugar Kane Kowalczyk	Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon		Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	Monroe's most successful film. Known as a comedy film classic.
	''Let's Make Love''	Amanda Dell	Yves Montand, Frankie Vaughan, Tony Randall		20th Century Fox
	''''	Roslyn Taber	Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift		United Artists	Final film appearance

Uncompleted films

! Year	! Film	! Role	! Co-stars	! Director	! Producer
1962	''Something's Got to Give''	Ellen Wagstaff Arden	Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse	George Cukor	20th Century Fox

Television appearances

''As Herself''

! Year	! TV Program	! Notes
1953	''The Jack Benny Program''	1 episode
1955	''Person to Person''	Television documentary
1959	''Premier Khrushchev in the USA''	Television documentary
1962	''President Kennedy's Birthday Salute''	Television movie
1962	''Lykke og krone''	Television documentary

Songs

! Year	! Film title	! Song title
		"Every Baby Needs a Da-Da-Daddy"
"Anyone Can See I Love You"
"Ladies Of The Chorus"
1950		"Oh, What a Forward Young Man You Are"
1953	align=center	"Kiss"
	rowspan="7" style="text-align:center;"	"Two Little Girls from Little Rock"
"When Love Goes Wrong"
"Bye Bye Baby"
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"
"Four French Dances – Sur le balcon, La Tentateur, Sol taire, Parle d'affair"
"Down Boy"'
"When The Wild Wild Women Go Swimmin' Down In the Bimini Bay"
		"She Acts Like A Woman Should"
"You'd Be Surprised"
"A Fine Romance"
"Do It Again"
		"I'm Gonna File My Claim"
"One Silver Dollar"
"Down In The Meadow"
"River Of No Return"
	rowspan="4" style="text-align:center;"	"Heat Wave"
"Lazy"
"After You Get What You Want"
"A Man Chases a Girl"
1956	align=center	"That Old Black Magic"
1957		"I Found a Dream"
		"Runnin' Wild"
"I Wanna Be Loved By You"
"I'm Through With Love"
"Some Like It Hot"
		"My Heart Belongs to Daddy"
"Specialization"
"Let's Make Love"
"Incurably Romantic"
1962		"Happy Birthday, Mr. President"

Awards and nominations

1951 Henrietta Award: The Best Young Box Office Personality

1952 Photoplay Award: Fastest Rising Star of 1952

1952 Photoplay Award: Special Award

1952 Look American Magazine Achievement Award: Most Promising Female Newcomer of 1952

1953 Golden Globe Henrietta Award: World Film Favorite Female.

1953 Sweetheart of The Month (Playboy)

1953 Photoplay Award: Most Popular Female Star

1954 Photoplay Award for Best Actress: for ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' and ''How to Marry a Millionaire''

1956 BAFTA Film Award nomination: Best Foreign Actress for ''The Seven Year Itch''

1956 Golden Globe nomination: Best Motion Picture Actress in Comedy or Musical for ''Bus Stop''

1958 BAFTA Film Award nomination: Best Foreign Actress for ''The Prince and the Showgirl''

1958 David di Donatello Award (Italian): Best Foreign Actress for ''The Prince and the Showgirl''

1959 Crystal Star Award (French): Best Foreign Actress for ''The Prince and the Showgirl''

1960 Golden Globe, Best Motion Picture Actress in Comedy or Musical for ''Some Like It Hot''

1962 Golden Globe, World Film Favorite: Female

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 6104 Hollywood Blvd.

1999 she was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute in their list AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars.

See also

Marilyn Monroe in popular culture

Berniece Baker Miracle, Monroe's half-sister

Notes

References

Jacke, Andreas: Marilyn Monroe und die Psychoanalyse. Psychosozial Verlag, Gießen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89806-398-2, ISBN 3-89806-398-4

Meaker, M. J. ''Sudden Endings: 13 Profiles in Depth of Famous Suicides'' Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY: 1964 p. 26–45: "Marilyn and Norma Jean: Marilyn Monroe"

External links

Gallery: Marilyn Monroe: Life and Times – ''Life Magazine''

''What Really Killed Marilyn'', article by Clare Boothe Luce for ''Life Magazine'', 7 August 1964.

"Marilyn!", essay by Dan Callahan for ''Alt Screen'' on the occasion of a retrospective at BAMcinématek

Category:1926 births Category:1962 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:Actors Studio alumni Category:Actors who committed suicide Category:University High School (Los Angeles, California) alumni Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Converts to Judaism from Christianity Category:American Jews Category:Drug-related suicides in California Category:Female suicides Category:Former Christian Scientists Category:Models who committed suicide Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Playboy Playmates (1953–1959) Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Torch singers

af:Marilyn Monroe ar:مارلين مونرو an:Marilyn Monroe ast:Marilyn Monroe az:Merilin Monro bn:মেরিলিন মনরো zh-min-nan:Marilyn Monroe be:Мэрылін Манро be-x-old:Мэрылін Манро bs:Marilyn Monroe br:Marilyn Monroe bg:Мерилин Монро ca:Marilyn Monroe cs:Marilyn Monroe co:Marilyn Monroe cy:Marilyn Monroe da:Marilyn Monroe de:Marilyn Monroe et:Marilyn Monroe el:Μέριλιν Μονρόε es:Marilyn Monroe eo:Marilyn Monroe eu:Marilyn Monroe fa:مریلین مونرو hif:Marilyn Monroe fr:Marilyn Monroe fy:Marilyn Monroe ga:Marilyn Monroe gl:Marilyn Monroe ko:메릴린 먼로 hy:Մերիլին Մոնրո hi:मर्लिन मुनरो hsb:Marilyn Monroe hr:Marilyn Monroe io:Marilyn Monroe bpy:মেরিলিন মনরো id:Marilyn Monroe ia:Marilyn Monroe ie:Marilyn Monroe is:Marilyn Monroe it:Marilyn Monroe he:מרילין מונרו jv:Marilyn Monroe kn:ಮ್ಯಾರಿಲಿನ್ ಮೊನ್ರೊ pam:Marilyn Monroe krc:Мэрилин Монро ka:მერილინ მონრო kk:Мерилин Монро kw:Marilyn Monroe sw:Marilyn Monroe la:Marilyn Monroe lv:Merilina Monro lb:Marilyn Monroe lt:Marilyn Monroe li:Marilyn Monroe lmo:Marilyn Monroe hu:Marilyn Monroe mk:Мерилин Монро ml:മരിലിൻ മൺറോ mr:मॅरिलिन मन्रो arz:ماريلين مونرو ms:Marilyn Monroe mn:Мэрилин Монро nah:Marilyn Monroe nl:Marilyn Monroe nds-nl:Marilyn Monroe new:म्यारिलीन मुन्रो ja:マリリン・モンロー nap:Marilyn Monroe no:Marilyn Monroe nn:Marilyn Monroe nov:Marilyn Monroe oc:Marilyn Monroe uz:Marilyn Monroe pnb:مرلن منرو pms:Marilyn Monroe pl:Marilyn Monroe pt:Marilyn Monroe kbd:Мэрилин Монро kaa:Marilyn Monroe ksh:Marilyn Monroe ro:Marilyn Monroe qu:Marilyn Monroe rue:Мерілін Монро ru:Мэрилин Монро sah:Мэрилин Монро sc:Marilyn Monroe sq:Marilyn Monroe scn:Marilyn Monroe simple:Marilyn Monroe sk:Marilyn Monroe sl:Marilyn Monroe szl:Marilyn Monroe ckb:مارلین مۆنڕۆ srn:Marilyn Monroe sr:Мерилин Монро sh:Marilyn Monroe fi:Marilyn Monroe sv:Marilyn Monroe tl:Marilyn Monroe ta:மர்லின் மன்றோ te:మార్లిన్ మన్రో th:มาริลิน มอนโร tr:Marilyn Monroe uk:Мерилін Монро ur:میریلن مونرو za:Marilyn Monroe vec:Marilyn Monroe vi:Marilyn Monroe vo:Marilyn Monroe war:Marilyn Monroe yi:מארלין מאנרא zh-yue:瑪莉蓮夢露 bat-smg:Marilyn Monroe zh:玛丽莲·梦露

Name	James May
Birth name	James Daniel May
Birth date	January 16, 1963
Birth place	Bristol, England
Residence	Hammersmith, West London, England
Nationality	British
Other names	''Captain Slow'', Captain sense of direction
Ethnicity	White British
Known for	Presenting:
Education
Years active	–
Alma mater	Lancaster University
Employer	BBC, ''The Daily Telegraph'',
Occupation	Author, writer, journalist,television presenter, pianist, media personality
Home town	Bristol, England
Height
Partner	Sarah Frater (–present)
Website	}}

James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter, journalist and writer.

May is best known as co-presenter of the motoring programme ''Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. May has presented a variety of other programmes on themes including science and technology, childhood toys, cars, food and drink, and the plight of manliness in modern times. In addition he has released a variety of DVDs and books with similar themes, and writes a weekly column for ''The Daily Telegraph's'' motoring section.

On ''Top Gear'', May has the nickname "Captain Slow", for his careful driving style, a love of small, underpowered cars and habit of getting lost and distracted while driving. However, in a July 2010 episode of Top Gear he drove a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, reaching a speed of .

Early life

James May was born in Bristol, one of four children; he has two sisters and a brother. In his early years, May attended Caerleon Endowed Junior School in Newport, Monmouthshire. He spent his teenage years in South Yorkshire where he attended Oakwood Comprehensive School in Rotherham and was a choirboy at Whiston Parish Church. He was also at school with ''Life On Mars'' and ''Ashes to Ashes'' star Dean Andrews. A keen flautist and pianist, he later studied music at Lancaster University, where he was a member of Pendle College. After graduating, May briefly worked at a hospital in Chelsea as a records officer, and had a short stint in Her Majesty's Civil Service.

Personal life

May currently lives in Hammersmith, London with dance critic Sarah Frater, whom he has dated since 2000.

May has owned a number of cars: Bentley T2, Triumph 2000, Rover P6, Alfa Romeo 164, 1971 Rolls-Royce Corniche, Jaguar XJS, Range Rover, Fiat Panda, Datsun 120Y, Vauxhall Cavalier Mk1, Ferrari F430, 1984 Porsche 911, 2005 Porsche Boxster S (which he claims is the first car he has ever purchased new), Mini Cooper, Citroën Ami, Mazda MX-5 and several classic motorcycles including a Yamaha XJR1300, Moto Guzzi V11 Sport, a Triumph Daytona 675R and a 1978 Guzzi California. He has a penchant for prestige cars like Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, simple and basic cars such as the Fiat Panda, and motorcycles. He often uses a Brompton folding bicycle for commuting. He passed his driving test on his second attempt, and justified this by saying "All the best people pass the second time".

May obtained a light aircraft pilot's licence in October 2006 having trained at White Waltham Airfield. He has owned a Luscombe 8A 'Silvaire' and an American Champion 8KCAB Super Decathlon.

May received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Lancaster University on 15 July 2010.

Journalism

During the early 1980s, May worked as a writer for ''The Engineer'' and later ''Autocar'' magazine, from which he was dismissed. He has since written for several publications, including a regular column called ''England Made Me'' in ''Car Magazine'', articles for ''Top Gear'' magazine, and a weekly column in ''The Daily Telegraph''.

He has written a book titled ''May On Motors'', which is a collection of his published articles, and co-authored ''Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure'', based on the TV series of the same name.

He has also written the afterword to ''Long Lane with Turnings'', published in September 2006, the final book by motoring writer L. J. K. Setright. In the same month he co-presented a tribute to Raymond Baxter. His book, ''Notes From The Hard Shoulder'', was published on 26 April 2007. ''James May's 20th Century'', a book to accompany the television series of the same name, was published on 6 September 2007.

Dismissal from ''Autocar''

In an interview with Richard Allinson on BBC Radio 2, May confessed that he was fired in 1992 from ''Autocar'' magazine after putting together a hidden message or acrostic in one issue. At the end of the year, the magazine's "Road Test Year Book" supplement was published. Each spread featured four reviews and each review started with a large red letter (known in typography as an initial). May's role was to put the entire supplement together, which "was extremely boring and took several months". He went on to say:

So I had this idea that if I re-edited the beginnings of all the little texts, I could make these red letters spell out a message through the magazine, which I thought was brilliant. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was to the effect that "You might think this is a really great thing, but if you were sitting here making it up you'd realise it's a real pain in the arse". It took me about two months to do it and on the day that it came out I'd actually forgotten that I'd done it because there's a bit of a gap between it being "put to bed" and coming out on the shelves. When I arrived at work that morning everybody was looking at their shoes and I was summoned to the managing director of the company's office. The thing had come out and nobody at work had spotted what I'd done because I'd made the words work around the pages so you never saw a whole word. But all the readers had seen it and they'd written in thinking they'd won a prize or a car or something.

May's original message, punctuated appropriately, reads: "So you think it's really good, yeah? You should try making the bloody thing up; it's a real pain in the arse."

This was referenced by Jeremy Clarkson during episode 2 of series 17 (in the course of the "hot hatch"-challenge in Italy) when May was noting Autocar's opinion on the car he had purchased, and Clarkson replied "Autocar.... The magazine that sacked you...?"

Radio and television

His past television credits include presenting ''Driven'' on Channel 4 in 1998-99, narrating an eight-part BBC One series called ''Road Rage School'', and co-hosting the ITV1 coverage of the ''2006 London Boat Show.'' He also wrote and presented a Christmas special called ''James May's Top Toys'' (for BBC One) exploring the toys of his childhood. This list was followed up the next year by a sequel of sorts, broadcast on BBC Two, entitled ''James May: My Sister's Top Toys'', this time attempting to investigate the gender divide of toy appeal. In series 3, episode 3 of Gordon Ramsay's ''The F Word'', May managed to beat Ramsay in eating animal penises and with his fish pie recipe.

''Top Gear''

May first co-presented ''Top Gear'' in 1999, before it was axed by the BBC because of poor viewing figures. He rejoined the show in the second series of the present ''Top Gear'' format in 2003, where he earned the nickname "Captain Slow" owing to his careful driving style. Despite this sobriquet, he has done some especially high-speed driving, including in ''Top Gear'' Series 9, taking a Bugatti Veyron to its top speed of 253 mph (407 km/h) which is nearly one-third of the speed of sound at sea level and later on taking a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport edition to 259 mph (417 km/h). In an earlier episode he also tested the original version of the Bugatti Veyron against the new Pagani Zonda F. On the show he claimed that it was 'a piece of cake' driving those cars, but seconds later Jeremy Clarkson played a tape showing him spinning wildly over the test track in the Zonda. Originally he did not want to do this test, but Clarkson had hurt his neck in the previous episode while driving a truck through a brick wall and Richard Hammond claimed that he was busy selling fish at Morrisons. He is often mocked for a poor sense of direction, shown getting lost many times throughout the course of the series, including race tracks and even being mocked once by Jeremy and Hammond for mistaking a normal Range Rover as the camera crew. He also flew in a Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon at a speed of around 1320 mph for his television programme, ''James May's 20th Century''. He also became one of the first people – with co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson and an Icelandic support crew – to travel by car to the magnetic North Pole, using a modified Toyota Hilux. He claims to be the first person on the north pole who didn't want to go there. He was also one of the first people to drive across the Makgadikgadi salt plains in Botswana. He has driven a 1.3 litre Suzuki SJ413 through the Bolivian jungle and along Death Road and over the Andes to the Pacific Ocean in Chile. He also drove a modified Toyota Hilux (also used as a crew car during the North Pole expedition) up the side of the erupting volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland.

Science

May has also presented a documentary for Sky about sharks called ''Inside Killer Sharks'' and a series looking at inventions and discoveries during the twentieth century, entitled ''James May's 20th Century''. In late 2008, the BBC broadcast ''James May's Big Ideas'', a three-part series in which May travelled around the globe in search of implementations for concepts widely considered science fiction.

''James May on the Moon''

In June 2009 May presented a documentary on BBC Two called ''James May on the Moon'' commemorating 40 years since man first landed on the moon. This was followed by another documentary on BBC Four called ''James May at the Edge of Space'', where May was flown to the edge of space (70,000 ft) in a U.S. Air Force Lockheed U-2 spy plane. Highlights of the footage from the training for the flight, and the flight itself was used in ''James May on the Moon'', but was shown fully in this programme. This made him one of the highest flying persons, along with the pilot, at that time, after the crew of the International Space Station.

''James May's Toy Stories''

Beginning in October 2009, May presented a 6-part TV series showing favourite toys of the past era and whether they can be applied in the modern day. The toys featured were Airfix, Plasticine, Meccano, Scalextric, Lego and Hornby. In each show, May attempts to take each toy to its limits, also fulfilling several of his boyhood dreams in the process. For example, in August 2009, May built a full-sized house out of Lego at Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey. Plans for Legoland to move it to their theme park fell through in September 2009 because costs to deconstruct, move and then rebuild were too high and despite a final Facebook appeal for someone to take it, it was demolished on 22 September, with the plastic bricks planned to be donated to charity. Also for the series, he recreated the banked track at Brooklands using Scalextric track, and an attempt at the world's longest working model railway along the Tarka Trail between Barnstaple and Bideford in North Devon, although the attempt was foiled due to vandals placing coins on the track, causing a short circuit. The running order was:

Episode number !! Featured toy !! Feat accomplished
One	Airfix	Building a 1:1 scale Spitfire model in the plastic injection moulding style of Airfix
Two	Plasticine
Three	Meccano
Four	Scalextric
Five	Lego
Six	Hornby Railways>Hornby
2011 Special	Great Train Race

Drink

In late 2006, the BBC broadcast ''Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure'', a series in which May, a committed bitter drinker, travelled around France with wine expert Oz Clarke. A second series was broadcast in late 2007, this time with May and Clarke in the Californian wine country, and was followed by a third series in 2009 called ''Oz and James Drink to Britain''.

Programme !! Notes
''Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure''	Book released (October 2006), DVD released (2007)
''Oz and James Drink to Britain''	Book released (January 2009), DVD released (2009)

Television

Year !! Title !! Role
1999	Top Gear (1977 TV series)>Top Gear (Original Format)''	Presenter
2003	Top Gear (current format)>Top Gear (Current Format)''
2005	''James May's Top Toys''
2006	''Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure''
2006	''Inside Killer Sharks''
2006	''Petrolheads''
2007	''Top Gear of the Pops''
2007	''James May's 20th Century''
2007	''James May: My Sisters' Top Toys''
2008	''Top Ground Gear Force''
2008	''James May's Big Ideas''
2009	''Oz and James Drink to Britain''
2009	''James May on the Moon''
2009	''James May at the Edge of Space''
2009	''James May's Toy Stories''
2010	''James May's Man Lab''
2011	''James May's Things You Need To Know''

DVD

Title !! Label !! Year
''James May's Motormania Car Quiz''	DMD	2006
''James May's 20th Century''	ITV
''James May's Big Ideas''	DMD
''James May's Moon Adventures''	BBC
''James May's Amazing Brain Trainer''	DMD
''James May's Toy Stories''	BBC
''Oz and James Big Wine Adventure: Series One''	BBC
''Oz and James Big Wine Adventure: Series Two''	BBC
''Oz and James Drink to Britain: Series Three''	BBC
''Top Gear Apocalypse''	BBC

As The DVD Contains Both "On The Moon" and "The Edge Of Space", The Classification Name Is "Moon Adventures" or "James May On The Moon".

Books

Title !! Publisher !! Year
''May on Motors: On the Road with James May''	Virgin Books	2006
''Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure''	BBC Books
''May on Motors''	Virgin Books
''Notes from the Hard Shoulder''	Virgin Books
''James May's 20th Century''	Hodder & Stoughton
''James May's Magnificent Machines''	Hodder & Stoughton
''Oz and James Drink to Britain''	Pavilion (Anova)
''James May's Car Fever'' (H/B)	Hodder & Stoughton
''James May's Car Fever'' (P/B)	Hodder & Stoughton
''James May's Toy Stories''	Conway (Anova)
''James May's Car Fever: Volume 2''	Hodder & Stoughton
''How to Land an A330 Airbus''	Hodder & Stoughton

References

External links

''Telegraph Motoring'' - James May's weekly column

James May on Top Gear

''Daily Mail'' article on May

Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:British television presenters Category:People from Bristol Category:Top Gear Category:English writers Category:Alumni of Lancaster University Category:Motoring journalists

cs:James May da:James May de:James May es:James May fa:جیمز می fr:James May it:James May he:ג'יימס מיי hu:James May nl:James May ja:ジェームズ・メイ no:James May pl:James May ro:James May ru:Мэй, Джеймс fi:James May sv:James May

Name	Richard Hammond|image Richard Hammond.jpg
Birth name	Richard Mark Hammond
Birth date	December 19, 1969
Birth place	Solihull, Warwickshire, England, UK
Nationality	British
Other names	''Hamster''
Known for	Presenting:
Height
Education	Solihull SchoolRipon Grammar School
Alma mater	Harrogate College of Art and Technology
Employer
Occupation	Author, writer, voice-over artist,journalist, talk and game show host,radio DJ/television presenter,media personality
Years active
Home town	Solihull, West Midlands,England
Spouse
Children	2
Parents	Eileen and Alan Hammond }}

Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English broadcaster, writer, and journalist most noted for co-hosting car programme ''Top Gear'' with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, as well as presenting ''Brainiac: Science Abuse'' on Sky 1.

Early life

Hammond was born in Solihull (then Warwickshire, now West Midlands) and is the grandson of workers in the Birmingham automobile industry. In the mid-1980s Hammond moved with his family (mother Eileen, father Alan, and younger brothers Andrew and Nicholas) to the North Yorkshire cathedral city of Ripon where his father ran a probate business in the market square. Originally a pupil of Solihull School, a fee-paying boys' independent school, he moved to Ripon Grammar School, and from 1987 to 1989 attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology. After his graduation he worked for several radio stations, including Radio Cleveland, Radio York, Radio Cumbria, Radio Leeds, Radio Newcastle and Radio Lancashire, before auditioning for ''Top Gear''.

Top Gear

Hammond became a presenter on ''Top Gear'' in 2002, when the show began in its present format. He is sometimes referred to as "Hamster" by fans and his co-presenters on ''Top Gear'' due to his comparatively small stature. His nickname was further reinforced when on three separate occasions in series 7, Hammond ate cardboard, mimicking hamster-like behaviour. A running gag is Hammond's supposed use of teeth whitener. In a series 7 episode, co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson claimed to have found a pack of teeth whiteners in a Marcos TSO GT2 that Hammond had tested. Hammond had objected, claiming it was a set-up. In a series 10 episode that featured the Peel P50, Clarkson was seen supposedly talking to Hammond on the phone about him considering a tooth whitening treatment costing £4000. Later, during a series 13 episode that featured the presenters in their office searching for car insurance prices, a teeth whitening kit was pictured on his desk. It was staged to appear that he was caught looking at a website on teeth whiteners on ''Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show''.

In the first episode of series 9 broadcast on 28 January 2007, having recovered from his high speed crash Hammond returned to a hero's welcome, complete with dancing girls, aeroplane style stairs and fireworks. The show also contained images of the crash, which had made international headlines, with Hammond talking through the events of the day after which the audience broke into spontaneous applause. Hammond then requested that the crash never be mentioned on the show again, though all three Top Gear presenters have since referred to it in jokes during the news segment of the programme. He told his colleagues, "The only difference between me now, and before the crash, is that I like celery now and I didn't before".

During the third episode of series sixteen, Hammond attempted to be a bit like Jeremy Clarkson and copied him a little bit by being a little racist, he suggested that no one would ever want to own a Mexican car, since cars are supposed to reflect national characteristics and so a Mexican car would be a "lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight oaf." Hammond finished with the remark "I'm sorry, but can you imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican?!" Following complaints, the BBC defended the broadcast of this segment on the grounds that such national stereotyping was a "robust part" of traditional British humour.

Brainiac: Science Abuse

In 2003, Hammond became the first presenter of ''Brainiac: Science Abuse''; he was joined by Jon Tickle with Charlotte Hudson joining in series 2. After the fourth series it was announced that Hammond was no longer going to present the Sky1 show after he signed an exclusive deal with the BBC. Vic Reeves took his place as main presenter.

Other radio and television work

Early in his career, Hammond worked at many radio stations, including Radio Cleveland, Radio York, Radio Cumbria, Radio Leeds, and Radio Lancashire, before going on to present a number of daytime lifestyle shows and motoring programmes such as Motor Week on ''Men & Motors''.

He presented the ''Crufts'' dog show in 2005, the 2004 and 2005 British Parking Awards, and has appeared on ''School's Out'', a quiz show on BBC One where celebrities answer questions about things they learned at school. He has also presented ''The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend''. Along with his work on ''Top Gear'', he presented ''Should I Worry About...?'' on BBC One, ''Time Commanders'' on BBC Two and the first four series of ''Brainiac: Science Abuse'' on Sky One. He was also a team captain on the BBC Two quiz show, ''Petrolheads'', in which a memorable part was one where Hammond was tricked into smashing his classic Ferrari while trying to parallel park blindfolded in another car.

From 3 January 2006 until 10 February 2006, Hammond was the eponymous star of ''Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show'' with his co-star Mel Giedroyc of ''Light Lunch'' fame. The programme, which discussed a wide range of topics, was shown every weekday on ITV between 17:00 and 18:00.

In July 2005, Hammond was voted number one in a ''Heat'' magazine poll of top "weird celebrity crushes". Also in 2005 he was voted one of the top 10 British TV talents.

He presented ''Richard Hammond and the Holy Grail'' in 2006. During the special, he traveled to various locations around the world, including the Vatican Secret Archives, exploring the history of the Holy Grail.

In one episode of ''Top Gear'', fellow presenter James May was mocked by both Hammond and Clarkson for being named the celebrity with the worst hairstyle, while Hammond was named the celebrity with the best.

As part of Red Nose Day 2007, Hammond stood for nomination via a public telephone vote, along with Andy Hamilton and Kelvin MacKenzie, to be a one-off co-presenter of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour on 16 March 2007. However, he was defeated by Andy Hamilton.

In April 2007, Hammond presented a one off special on BBC Radio 2 for Good Friday followed by another in August 2007 for the Bank Holiday. He is scheduled to present more Bank Holiday specials for the station.

Hammond recorded an interview with the famed American stuntman Evel Knievel, which aired on 23 December 2007 on BBC One, and was Knievel's last interview before his death on 30 November 2007.

In September 2008, Hammond presented the first episode of a new series; ''Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections'' on the National Geographic Channel. In this show, Hammond discovers how the inventions of the past, along with assistance from nature, help designers today. Episodes include the building of the Airbus A380, Taipei 101 and the Keck Observatory. Series 2 of Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections began in May 2010 and has included the building of the Wembley Stadium and the Sydney Opera House.

Hammond also filmed an advertisement for Morrisons supermarkets in 2008, and joined the cast of TV show ''Ashes To Ashes'' for a special insert on the 2008 Children in Need special.

While in New Zealand for ''Top Gear Live 2009'', Hammond filmed several television commercials for Telecom New Zealand's new XT UTMS mobile network. Telecom claimed that the new network was "faster in more places", compared to its competitors and its existing CDMA network. After the network repeatedly failed in late 2009 and early 2010, Hammond became the butt of a joke when he did not return to New Zealand for ''Top Gear Live 2010''. His fellow ''Top Gear'' co-hosts said he was too embarrassed to come back to New Zealand, and in a supposed live feed back to Hammond, the feed suddenly drops out as the "XT Network had crashed". Hammond was later given the right of reply to his colleagues during an interview with Marcus Lush on RadioLIVE's breakfast show in New Zealand.

Hammond is currently hosting the UK version of the US series ''Wipeout'', called ''Total Wipeout''. It takes place in Argentina, and is co-presented by Hammond and Amanda Byram. Hammond presents and does the voiceover for the clips in a London studio, and Byram is filmed at the obstacle course in Buenos Aires.

Hammond also presented a science-themed game show for children, ''Richard Hammond's Blast Lab'' which aired on BBC Two and CBBC.

In March 2010, Hammond presented a 3 episode series called Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds, which looked at things too fast for the naked eye to see, things that are beyond the visible spectrum (e.g. ultraviolet and infra-red light), as well as microscopic things.

One of Hammond's lesser known television roles was as presenter of the BBC2 'gameshow' Time Commanders, a sophisticated warfare simulator which used a modified version of Creative Assembly's Rome: Total War game engine.

Since February 2011, Hammond has presented a online technology series ''"Richard Hammond's Tech Head"''.

In July 2011, Hammond presented a two-part natural science documentary ''Richard Hammond's Journey To The Centre Of The Planet'', focused on Earth geology and plate tectonics.

Personal life

Hammond has been married to Amanda Etheridge (mostly known as Mindy) since May 2002; the couple have two daughters.

Hammond is a fan of Porsche 911s and claims the Pagani Zonda to be the ultimate supercar. He once owned a 1982 Porsche 911 SC (sold in the mid-2000s), and later purchased a 2006 Porsche 911 (997) Carrera S. In 2004, Hammond purchased a Porsche 928 for the purpose of daily driving. Much unlike Clarkson and May, he also has an interest in American muscle cars. Hammond has owned a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, a 1967 Ford Mustang GT 390, and a 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 (which was purchased in the United States on a Series 12 episode of ''Top Gear'').

Hammond had also owned a Morgan AeroMax, in which he was involved in a car accident on 9 August 2009. He also owns a Jaguar E-Type and is also a fan of monster trucks, having attended Truckfest '07.

On 20 July 2007, during severe flooding, Hammond left his Porsche 911 – in which he had been stuck in traffic for 13 hours – to run home for his daughter's birthday. He ran 16 miles (26 km) in two and a half hours (from 3 am to 5:30 am), arriving home before his daughter woke up.

An interview with ''The Sunday Times'' in February 2008 reported Hammond as having moved briefly from Gloucestershire to Buckinghamshire, then back again because he missed the country life.

Hammond is a keen motorcyclist and Land Rover Defender fan. He spent over £70,000 rebuilding his 110 "Buster" in 2008.

In October it was reported he had spent over £2 million buying Bollitree Castle which is situated near Weston under Penyard, Ross-on-Wye. It has been rumoured he has also bought a large house in the small town of Wantage, Oxfordshire.

On ''Top Gear'' in 2007, Hammond went to Africa on an 'Epic Road Trip' across Botswana. While there he found a 1963 Opel Kadett, in which he drove across Botswana. Hammond named it Oliver. On ''Top Gear'' a week after the special was aired, Hammond announced during the news, that he had shipped Oliver back to the UK, where it was restored by a team from Practical Classics magazine. Oliver features on Hammond's children's science television show ''Richard Hammond's Blast Lab'' and in another episode of Top Gear as a kind of "Hill-holder" in the trailer truck challenge (after it acquired the personal plate "OLI V3R"). Oliver is also mentioned in Hammond's second autobiography ''As You Do''.

In 2010, Hammond was the President of the 31st Herefordshire Country Fair held at Hampton Court in Hope under Dinmore. His attendance caused unprecedented attendance with "nearly 15,000 people" drawn to the event to meet the presenter.

In 2010, Hammond gained a PPL(H) in an R44 helicopter.

Charity work

Richard Hammond is a Vice-President of UK children's brain injury charity The Children's Trust, Tadworth.

''Vampire'' dragster crash

thumb|left|200px|Hammond in the ''Vampire'' immediately before the crash. The front-right tyre has burst.During filming of a ''Top Gear'' segment at the former RAF Elvington airbase near York on 20 September 2006, Hammond was injured in the crash of the jet-powered car he was piloting. Hammond was travelling at at the time of the crash.

His vehicle, a dragster called ''Vampire'', was theoretically capable of travelling at speeds of up to . The vehicle was the same car that in 2000, piloted by Colin Fallows, set the British land speed record at . The ''Vampire'' was powered by a single Bristol-Siddeley Orpheus afterburning turbojet engine putting out hp}} .

Some accounts suggested that the accident occurred during an attempt to break the British land speed record, but the Health and Safety Executive report on the crash found that a proposal to try to officially break the record was vetoed in advance by ''Top Gear'' executive producer Andy Wilman, due to the risks and complexities of such a venture. (The report stated: "Runs were to be carried out in only one direction along a pre-set course on the Elvington runway. Vampire’s speed was to be recorded using GPS satellite telemetry. The intention was to record the maximum speed, not to measure an average speed over a measured course, and for [Hammond] to describe how it felt.")

Hammond was completing a seventh and final run to collect extra footage for the programme when his front-right tyre failed, and, according to witness and first responder Dave Ogden, "one of the parachutes had deployed but it went on to the grass and spun over and over before coming to a rest about 100 yards from us." The emergency crew quickly arrived at the car, finding it inverted and partially embedded in the grass. Rescuers felt a pulse and heard the unconscious Hammond breathing before the car was turned upright. Hammond was cut free with hydraulic shears, and placed on a backboard. "He was regaining consciousness at that point and said he had some lower back pain". He was then transported by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to the neurological unit of the Leeds General Infirmary. Hammond's family visited him at the hospital along with ''Top Gear'' co-presenters James May and Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson wished Hammond well, saying "Both James and I are looking forward to getting our 'Hamster' back", referring to Hammond by his nickname.

The Health & Safety Executive report stated that "Hammond's instantaneous reaction to the tyre blow out seems to have been that of a competent high performance car driver, namely to brake the car and to try to steer into the skid. Immediately afterwards he also seems to have followed his training and to have pulled back on the main parachute release lever, thus shutting down the jet engine and also closing the jet and afterburner fuel levers. The main parachute did not have time to deploy before the car ran off the runway." The HSE notes that, based on the findings of the North Yorkshire Police (who investigated the crash), "the accident may not have been recoverable", even if Hammond's efforts to react were as fast as "humanly possible".

The crash was shown on an episode of ''Top Gear'' on 28 January 2007; this was the first episode of the new series, which had been postponed pending Hammond's recovery. Hammond requested at the end of the episode that his fellow presenters never mention the crash again, a request which has been generally agreed by both Hammond and the other presenters, although occasional oblique references have been made. ''On The Edge: My Story'', which contains first hand accounts from both Hammond and his wife about the crash, immediate aftermath, and his recovery was published later that year.

In February 2008 Hammond gave an interview to ''The Sunday Times'' newspaper in which he described the effects of his brain injuries and the progression of his recovery. He reported suffering loss of memory, depression, and difficulties with emotional experiences, for which he was consulting a psychiatrist.

After the car crash the BBC website Have Your Say received more than 10,000 messages of good wishes and sympathy for Richard Hammond from people around the world.

Works

TV shows

Year !! Title !! Notes
1998	''Motorweek (Men & Motors TV series)''	Presenter
2002–present	Top Gear (2002 TV series)>Top Gear''
2003–06	''Brainiac: Science Abuse''
rowspan="2"	2004–05	''Crufts''
''Should I Worry About...?''	Presenter
rowspan="3"	2005	''The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend''
''Time Commanders''	Presenter
''Inside Britain's Fattest Man''	Presenter
rowspan="6"	2006	''Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show''
''Petrolheads''	Contestant
''School's Out (TV series)	School's Out''	Contestant
''Richard Hammond: Would You Believe It?''	Presenter
''Richard Hammond: The Holy Grail''	Presenter
''Battle of the Geeks''	Presenter
rowspan="3"	2007	Last Man Standing (UK TV series)>Last Man Standing''
''Helicopter Heroes''	Narrator
''Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel''	Presenter
rowspan="2"	2008	Timewatch>BBC Timewatch''
''Sport Relief#Sport Relief 2008	Sport Relief''	Presenter
2009	''Richard Hammond's Blast Lab''
rowspan="2"	2009 – present	''Total Wipeout''
''Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections''	Presenter
rowspan="3"	2010	''Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds''
''Sport Relief 2010''	Co-presenter with Claudia Winkleman
''Hammond Meets Moss''	Presenter
2011	''Richard Hammond's Journey To...''

Books

Car Books

Children's Books

Biographies

DVDs

# Richard Hammond's Top Gear Interactive Challenge Quiz (2007, 2|Entertain). # Richard Hammond's Top Gear Interactive Stunt Challenge Quiz (2008, 2|Entertain). # Richard Hammond's Top Gear Uncovered: The DVD Special (2009, 2|Entertain). # Top Gear Apocalypse (2010)

Television Advertisements

# Morrisons (2008) # Morrisons (Christmas 2008) # Morrisons (2009) # Morrisons (Christmas 2009) # Top Gear Turbo Challenge Trading Cards Test Set (2009) # Top Gear Turbo Challenge Trading Cards (2010) # Top Gear Interactive Challenge DVD (2007) # Top Gear Interactive Stunt Challenge DVD (2009) # Top Gear Uncovered DVD (2009) # Top Gear [Re-Runs On Dave] (2009) # Telecom XT network NZ (2009)

References

External links

Richard Hammond Interview 2006

Donations to Yorkshire Air Ambulance double as a result of their life-saving rescue of Richard Hammond

Richard Hammond on Top Gear

Q&A – The Guardian – 2009-1-3. Hammond questions about himself. Retrieved 2009-6-29.

Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:People from Solihull Category:Old Silhillians Category:Old Riponians Category:English autobiographers Category:English children's writers Category:English broadcasters Category:English journalists Category:English non-fiction writers Category:English radio DJs Category:English radio personalities Category:English science writers Category:English television presenters Category:Motoring journalists Category:People with brain injuries Category:Top Gear

ar:ريتشارد هاموند bg:Ричард Хамънд cs:Richard Hammond da:Richard Hammond de:Richard Hammond es:Richard Hammond fa:ریچارد هموند fr:Richard Hammond it:Richard Hammond he:ריצ'רד האמונד hu:Richard Hammond nl:Richard Hammond ja:リチャード・ハモンド no:Richard Hammond pl:Richard Hammond ro:Richard Hammond ru:Хаммонд, Ричард fi:Richard Hammond sv:Richard Hammond

name	Vanessa Hudgens
background	solo_singer
birth name	Vanessa Anne Hudgens
alias
birth date	December 14, 1988
birth place	Salinas, California, United States
genre	Pop, dance
occupation	Actress, singer
years active	2002–present
label	Hollywood
website	VanessaHudgensOfficial.com }}

Vanessa Anne Hudgens (born December 14, 1988) is an American actress and singer, who is best known for her portrayal of the character Gabriella Montez in the ''High School Musical'' series. She also earned critical acclaim for her role in the 2009 film ''Bandslam''.

As an actress, Hudgens has appeared in several television programs including ''Quintuplets'', ''Still Standing'', ''The Brothers García'', ''Drake & Josh'', and ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody''. She made her screen debut in the 2003 drama ''Thirteen'' as Noel. She got her first starring role in the 2004 science-fiction-adventure ''Thunderbirds'' as Tintin.

Hudgens' debut album ''V'' was released on September 26, 2006. The album entered the ''Billboard'' 200 at number twenty four, and was later certified Gold. Hudgens released her second album, ''Identified'', on July 1, 2008 in the U.S.

Hudgens' fame has also been marked by scandal caused by the release of private, self-taken nude photographs of herself on the Internet without her permission on several occasions. Since a third and anonymous release of these images, the FBI is now investigating these leaked photos in an attempt to find the source in connection with similar investigations regarding such hackings around altogether about 50 Hollywood celebrities.

Early life

Hudgens was born in Salinas, California, and lived all over the West Coast — from Oregon to Southern California — with her parents, Gina (née Guangco), who held a succession of office jobs, and Gregory Hudgens, a firefighter. She was raised as a Roman Catholic and has a younger sister, Stella Hudgens, who is also an actress. Hudgens is of mixed cultural background, as her father is of Irish and Native American descent, and her mother, a native of Manila, is of Chinese-Filipino-Spanish descent. Two of her grandparents were musicians.

Starting at the age of eight, Hudgens performed in musical theater as a singer, and appeared in local productions of ''Carousel'', ''The Wizard of Oz'', ''The King and I'', ''The Music Man'', and ''Cinderella'', among others. Two years after her career in stage plays and musicals, she started auditioning for commercials and television shows, and her family moved to Los Angeles after she won a role in a television commercial. Her acting career started at the age of 15, and she briefly attended Orange County High School of the Arts, followed by homeschooling with tutors.

Acting career

In 2003, Hudgens played a minor role in the independent drama film ''Thirteen'', where she plays Noel, a friend of a lead character (Tracy, played by Evan Rachel Wood). The film was critically successful, receiving generally favorable reviews, and its receipts surpassed its $4 million budget. Hudgens subsequently landed a role in the 2004 science fiction-adventure film ''Thunderbirds'' as Tintin. Unfortunately, the film was commercially and critically unsuccessful, and received heavy criticism through the Internet prior to its release.

In late 2005 Hudgens appeared in television shows such as ''Quintuplets'', ''Still Standing'', ''The Brothers García'', ''Drake & Josh'', and ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody''.

In late 2005 she landed her breakout role of shy and meek Gabriella Montez in ''High School Musical'', opposite to Zac Efron. Her performance received numerous nominations and awards. With the success of the film, the ''BBC'' predicted that Hudgens would be a "household name" in the US.

In 2007, Hudgens reprised her role as Gabriella Montez in the sequel of ''High School Musical'', ''High School Musical 2''. Virginia Heffernan of ''TV Review'' described Hudgens in her performance in the movie as "matte" as she "glows like a proper ingénue".

Hudgens reprised her role as Gabriella Montez in ''High School Musical 3: Senior Year''. Her performance in the film made her win favorite movie actress in the 2009 Kids Choice Awards.

Post-''High School Musical'', Hudgens remarked that she will focus in her acting and films, while "taking a break" from her music career as a solo artist. She played a supporting role in a musical comedy ''Bandslam'', which was released theatrically on August 14, 2009. Hudgens plays "Sa5m", a 15-year-old awkward freshman with untapped talents. Although ''Bandslam'' was commercially unsuccessful, Hudgens's performance received praise from critics. David Waddington of the ''North Wales Pioneer'' noted that Hudgens "outshines the rest of the cast, failing to fit in with the outcast narrative and making the inevitable climactic ending all the more expected," and Philip French of ''The Guardian'' compared her acting to Thandie Newton and Dorothy Parker.

Hudgens performed a musical number with other artists during the 81st Academy Awards. Hudgens later provided voice roles in an episode of Robot Chicken. Hudgens' involvement in ''Beastly'', a film based on Alex Flinn's novel of the same name, was announced in early 2009. She played one of the main characters in the film as Linda Taylor, described by Hudgens as the "beauty" of the story but not the stereotypical beauty everyone thinks of. Along with ''Beastly'' co-star, Alex Pettyfer, Hudgens was recognized as ''ShoWest'' stars of Tomorrow. Hudgens was later cast in an action film directed by Zack Snyder, ''Sucker Punch,'' playing Blondie, an institutionalized girl in an asylum, which was released in March 2011.

After so many years, Hudgens returned to theater productions wherein she starred in the musical ''Rent'' as Mimi. The stage production ran from August 6–8, 2010 at the Hollywood Bowl. Her involvement in the production drew negative comments, but director Neil Patrick Harris defended his decision with casting Hudgens by saying, "Vanessa [Hudgens] is awesome. She's a friend. I asked her to come in and sing to make sure she had the chops for it. And she was very committed and seemed great."

In October 2010, it was announced that Hudgens will be joining the sequel to the 2008 film ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' alongside Dwayne Johnson and Josh Hutcherson, playing Hutcherson's love interest. In April 2011, it was reported that she would star in an indie film, ''Gimme Shelter'' with Brendan Fraser, written and directed by Ron Krauss.

Music career

Hudgens received a recording contract with Hollywood Records. On September 2006 her debut album entitled ''V'' was released. It charted on the ''Billboard'' 200 at number twenty-four, and was certified Gold on February 27, 2007. Her first single, "Come Back to Me" became her highest-charting single. Her second single was "Say OK". ''Billboard'' readers chose "V" as the seventh best album of the year. Hudgens was named Female Breakout Singer of the year at the 2007 Teen Choice Awards.

Hudgens also participated in the nationwide ''High School Musical: The Concert'' tour in fall 2006, performing the songs from the soundtrack album as well as the three songs from her debut album. She sang the duet "Still There For Me" with Corbin Bleu for his debut album.

In December 2007, she sang to George Bush, who was then the president of the U.S., and his family, at The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. with other singers at a Christmas event.

Her second album, ''Identified,'' which received generally favorable reviews, was released on July 1, 2008, debuting at #23 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The album's lead single was "Sneakernight", which was a moderate commercial success, peaking at #88 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #94 on the Australian Singles Chart. Hudgens's ''Identified Summer Tour'' began on August 1, 2008 and ended on September 9 of the same year.

Image and personal life

Her height is . ''Us Weekly'' said Hudgens and her ''High School Musical'' series co-star Zac Efron "met in 2005 while making the first ''High School Musical'' flick, and became a romantic item about two years later." The two were paired together during the audition process and got the part because of their chemistry. The two ended their relationship in December 2010.

In 2006, Hudgens's earnings were estimated to be $2 million. Hudgens was included in ''Forbes'' richest list in early 2007, and the ''Forbes'' article noted that she was included in ''Young Hollywood's Top Earning-Stars''. On December 12, 2008, Hudgens was ranked #20 in the list of ''Forbes'' "High Earners Under 30", having reported to have an estimated earnings of $3 million in 2008. She was number 62 at ''FHM''s Sexiest Women in the World of 2008 and number 42 in the 2009 list. Hudgens is also featured in ''Maxim''s lists. She was included in ''People'' annual "100 Most Beautiful People" 2008 and 2009 lists.

Hudgens was represented by William Morris Agency but she signed on to Creative Artists Agency in 2011. Hudgens also promotes Neutrogena and was the 2008 featured celebrity for Sears' back-to school campaign. She was a spokesperson for Mark Ecko products. But in late 2009, she ended the 2-year contract with Ecko products. Hudgens regularly volunteers for charitable activities, including those for Best Buddies International, Lollipop Theater Network, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. Hudgens is also featured in ''A Very Special Christmas Vol.7'' disc which benefits the Special Olympics. Hudgens is also part of the "Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C): Change The Odds" along with other Hollywood stars including Zac Efron, Dakota Fanning, Kristen Bell, and others.

On September 6, 2007, photos of Hudgens appeared online, one showing her posing in lingerie and another showing her nude. A statement from her publicist claims that the photo was taken privately and it was unfortunate that they were released on the Internet. Hudgens later apologized, saying that she was "embarrassed over the situation" and regretted having "taken [those] photos." Hudgens subsequently released a statement indicating that she declined to comment further on the scandal. ''OK!'' magazine speculated that Hudgens would be dropped from ''High School Musical 3'' as a result of the images. The Walt Disney Company denied the reports, saying, "Vanessa has apologized for what was obviously a lapse in judgment. We hope she's learned a valuable lesson."

In August 2009, a new set of pictures showing Hudgens topless emerged on the Internet. Hudgens's representatives did not comment, though her lawyers requested the removal of the pictures from the Internet. In late 2009, Hudgens sued "www.moejackson.com" for posting nude 'self-portrait photographs' of her taken on a mobile phone in a private home. Hudgens later commented on the photos' impact on her career in the October issue of ''Allure'' with, "Whenever anybody asks me, would I do nudity in a film, if I say that it's something I'm not comfortable with, they're like, 'Bullshit, you've already done it.' If anything, it makes it more embarrassing, because that was a private thing. It's screwed up that someone screwed me over like that. At least some people are learning from my mistake." According to ''Us Weekly'', further pictures were released on the internet March 15, 2011 as well as a nude video. Some of the released images involved another female celebrity, Alexa Nikolas, the 18-year old star of ''Zoey 101''.

Brian Schall sued Hudgens in 2007 for an alleged "breach of contract"; according to the suit, Schall claims he advanced costs and expenses on Hudgens's behalf for her songwriting and recording career. Schall claims Hudgens owed him $150,000 after helping her earn more than $5 million for her music career. Hudgens argues that she was underage to sign her contract in October 2005 as she was just 16 then. She subsequently disaffirmed it on October 9, 2008. Papers filed in court by her lawyer say California's Family Code "provides that the contract of a minor is voidable and may be disaffirmed before (age 18) or within a reasonable time afterward." In 2008, Hudgens was sued by Johnny Vieira, who claims he was owed a share of Hudgens' advances, royalties and merchandising revenue in exchange for his management services. Vieira accuses Hudgens of abandoning her talent team as soon as she became a commercial name in the ''High School Musical'' era. In early May 2009, the case was settled.

Filmography

+ Theatrical films	! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2003		Noel
2004			Main character
2008	''High School Musical 3: Senior Year''	Gabriella Montez	Lead role, Disney Channel Original Movie
2009	''Bandslam''	Sa5m
2011
2011		Blondie
2012	''Journey 2: The Mysterious Island''	Kailani	Post-Production
2012		Apple	Post-Production

+ Television films	! Year	! Title	! Role	! Channel
2006	''High School Musical''	Gabriella Montez	Disney Channel
2007	''High School Musical 2''	Gabriella Montez	Disney Channel

+ Television	! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2002		Tiffany	"Still Rocking" (Season 1: Episode 4)
2002	''Robbery Homicide Division''	Nicole	"Had" (Season 1: Episode 10)
2003	''The Brothers Garcia''	Lindsay	"New Tunes" (Season 4: Episode 37)
2005	''Quintuplets''	Carmen	"The Coconut Kapow" (Season 1: Episode 22)
2006	''Drake & Josh''	Rebecca	"Little Sibling" (Season 3: Episode 13)
2006	''The Suite Life of Zack and Cody''	Corrie	Season 2Recurring role
2009	''Robot Chicken''	Lara Lor-Van/Butterbear/Erin Esurance	"Especially the Animal Keith Crofford" (Season 4: Episode 19)

Discography

''V'' (2006)

''Identified'' (2008)

Theatre

''Rent'' – Mimi Marquez (Hollywood Bowl, 2010)

Awards and nominations

Year !! Award !! Category !! Result !! Link
2006		"Best Actress – Television"
2006	Teen Choice Awards	"Choice TV Chemistry" (shared with Zac Efron)
2006	Teen Choice Awards	"Choice TV Breakout Star"
2007	Teen Choice Awards	"Choice Music: Breakout Artist – Female"
2007	Young Artist Award	Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries, or Special (Comedy or Drama) – Leading Young Actress
	2008	Teen Choice Awards	"Choice Hottie"
2009	Kids Choice Awards	"Favorite Movie Actress"
2009	MTV Movie Awards	"Breakthrough Female Performance"
2009	MTV Movie Awards	"Best Kiss" (shared with Zac Efron)
2009	Teen Choice Awards	"Choice Movie Actress: Music/Dance"
2009	Teen Choice Awards	"Choice Movie: Liplock" (shared with Zac Efron)
2009	Teen Choice Awards	"Choice Hottie"
2010	ShoWest	"Female Star Of Tomorrow"
2011	People's Choice Awards	"Favorite Movie Star Under 25"
2011	Teen Choice Awards	"Red Carpet Fashion Icon - Female"
2011	Teen Choice Awards	"Choice Movie: Liplock" (shared with Alex Pettyfer)

References

External links

Category:1988 births Category:Actors from California Category:American actors of Asian descent Category:American child actors Category:American child singers Category:American dance musicians Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American musicians of Asian descent Category:American musicians of Chinese descent Category:American musicians of Filipino descent Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American people of Chinese descent Category:American people of Filipino descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Native American descent Category:American people of Spanish descent Category:American pop singers Category:American television actors Category:English-language singers Category:Hollywood Records artists Category:Musicians from California Category:Living people Category:People from Salinas, California

ar:فانيسا هادجنز bs:Vanessa Hudgens bg:Ванеса Хъджинс ca:Vanessa Anne Hudgens ceb:Vanessa Anne Hudgens cs:Vanessa Hudgens cy:Vanessa Hudgens da:Vanessa Hudgens de:Vanessa Hudgens et:Vanessa Hudgens el:Βανέσα Χάντζενς es:Vanessa Hudgens fa:ونسا هاجنز fr:Vanessa Hudgens ga:Vanessa Hudgens gl:Vanessa Hudgens gu:વનેસા હજિન્સ hy:Վանեսսա Հադջենս hi:वेनेसा हजेंस hr:Vanessa Hudgens id:Vanessa Hudgens is:Vanessa Hudgens it:Vanessa Hudgens he:ונסה הדג'נס kn:ವನೆಸ್ಸಾ ಹಡ್ಜೆನ್ಸ್ la:Vanessa Anna Hudgens lv:Vanesa Hadžensa hu:Vanessa Hudgens ms:Vanessa Anne Hudgens nl:Vanessa Hudgens ja:ヴァネッサ・ハジェンズ no:Vanessa Hudgens nn:Vanessa Hudgens pl:Vanessa Hudgens pt:Vanessa Hudgens ro:Vanessa Hudgens ru:Хадженс, Ванесса sq:Vanessa Hudgens simple:Vanessa Hudgens sk:Vanessa Anne Hudgensová sl:Vanessa Hudgens sr:Ванеса Хаџенс fi:Vanessa Hudgens sv:Vanessa Hudgens tl:Vanessa Anne Hudgens ta:வனேசா ஹட்ஜன்ஸ் te:వెనెస్సా హడ్జెన్స్ th:วาเนสซา ฮัดเจนส์ tr:Vanessa Hudgens uk:Ванесса Гадженс vi:Vanessa Hudgens zh:凡妮莎·哈金斯