Dakota Johnson & More Stars Who've Played Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe's 100th Birthday: See the Actresses Who've Played the Movie Icon

The first person to play Marilyn Monroe was Marilyn Monroe.

"Do you want to see me become her?" the actress born Norma Jean Mortensen asked one day while walking down Broadway in New York, according to Amy Greene, the wife of Monroe's personal photographer Milton Greene.

"I don't know how to explain what she did because it was so very subtle," Greene recalled in 2020, "but she turned on something within herself that was almost like magic. And suddenly cars were slowing and people were turning their heads and stopping to stare."

It was more than platinum blonde hair and a brilliant smile that turned the Some Like It Hot star into a legend. But recreating her iconic physical traits has certainly been a good place to start for the slew of actresses who've played Monroe onscreen over the past 40 years, as well as all the celebs who've tried her style on for size.

My Week With Marilyn's Michelle Williams and Ana de Armas—who did her own jaw-dropping take on the moment Marilyn would turn into Marilyn in the 2022 film Blonde—were both nominated for Oscars for their portrayals of the oft-underestimated actress.

“People wanted Marilyn, they wanted that product," de Armas said on Today at the time. "She had to keep delivering that because the opposite was nothing. She was nothing else. She was not considered anything else.”

In Gyllenhaal's vision, which she said showcases "the timeless icon we know and love through a modern lens that reclaims her story," Monroe is also played Ellen Burstyn, the 93-year-old embodying a version of the legend that could have been, had the star not died at 36 in 1962.

Not least because Monroe's life was tragically short, there have been endless deep dives into what made her tick, as well as a slew of biopics hoping to capture the truth in their own way.

Monroe "perfected a persona that she created," Catherine Hicks, who starred in Marilyn: The Untold Story in 1980, told LA Monthly in June. "All of those Marilyn-isms...In order for someone to be a movie star, the audience needs to be addicted to that movie stars mannerisms and want more. Most movie stars do about five things, and we all love those five things. Underneath that all, you could see a glimpse of her loneliness in every role she played."

See all the stars who've transformed into Monroe through the years: