Marilyn Monroe’s star perhaps shines brighter today than she did when she passed away in August 1962. People are apparently forever enamored with the platinum blonde bombshell and her short but shocking life. Ana de Armas plays Marilyn in Blonda mostly fictional biopic about the life of the beloved movie star.
In a heartbreaking scene, Marilyn’s mother tries to drown her after seven-year-old Monroe questions her about her father’s identity. In real life, Marilyn had no shortage of people to call her father: her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, was married three times. Monroe was also raised by other couples, including evangelical Christian foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender.
The identity of Monroe’s father remained a mystery until 2022, when DNA tests confirmed his identity. Marilyn was conceived during her mother’s brief affair with Charles Stanley Gifford.
Marilyn tried and failed to meet her biological father.
Charles Stanley Gifford and Marilyn Monroe | Photo by Andy Warhol/Getty Image
Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jean, reportedly inquired about her biological father. She knew that Martin Edward Mortensen, the person listed as her father on her birth certificate, was not her biological father.
Gladys Baker, Monroe’s mother, married Edward Mortensen in 1924, but the marriage lasted a few months. The couple were still legally married when Monroe was born in 1926, which explains why he was listed on his birth certificate as her father.
Charles Gifford was Gladys’s senior at Consolidated Film Industries, where she worked as a film negative cutter. The couple had a brief relationship that ended a long time ago when Baker welcomed Marilyn back.
Baker reportedly told Marilyn that her father was a famous movie star. After Gladys’ separation, Monroe allegedly found out that Charles Gifford was her father. A 1996 documentary titled Marilyn Monroe: The Deadly Goddess she claimed that before Monroe became famous, she contacted Charles, but he turned her down.
James Dougherty, Monroe’s first husband, said: “She got on the phone, looked up his number and called him. He didn’t recognize her. He said, ‘No, I don’t know who you are. See my lawyer.’ ‘”
Dougherty said the conversation saddened Monroe. Some reports claim that Monroe may have met Charles in the early 1960s. Marilyn allegedly frequented a Red Rock drive-thru owned by her father.
However, Charles’s granddaughter, Francine Gifford Deir, said in the documentary Marilyn, her last secret that Gifford refused to meet Marilyn even after she became famous.
“In the 1950s, when she was already famous, Marilyn went to see my grandfather in Hemet, California, but he turned her away,” Francine said.
Scientists used a lock of Marilyn’s hair to confirm her biological father
For a long time, many believed that Charles was Marilyn’s father, but had no means to prove it. In April 2022, a comparison of DNA from Marilyn’s hair and DNA from Charles’s descendants proved that he was her father.
Marilyn, her last secret Director Francois Pomes chronicles the process of confirming Monroe’s paternity. Francois said:
“The hair we used from Monroe was collected by the person who embalmed her body on the day she died, and we were able to extract 22 percent of her genetic profile thanks to a snippet of DNA found in the keratin.”
Charles’ granddaughter, Francine, and his great-granddaughter, Lisa, provided buccal swab samples for comparison. The analysis confirmed that Charles Gifford was the biological father of Marilyn Monroe.
Read Next: Did Marilyn Monroe Have Children? The rumors denied
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn