See All the Stars Who Have Played Marilyn Monroe

Misty Rowe

Known for her high-pitched voice and bubbly screen presence, Rowe was a fitting choice to play a Monroe in Larry Buchanan’s 1976 film Goodbye, Norma Jean, which chronicles her childhood through her journey to becoming a superstar in the early 1940s.

Paula Lane

Paula Lane starred as Monroe in Buchanan’s 1989 follow-up, Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn — released over a decade after Goodbye, Norma Jean. The film revolves around the murky circumstances surrounding Monroe’s death, as narrated by her “friend”/alleged killer (Jeremy Slate).

Catherine Hicks

Catherine Hicks had to play Monroe in various stages of her life in ABC’s Marilyn: The Untold Story. Per TVStoreOnline, she auditioned three times for the role and later received an Emmy nomination in 1981 for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or a special.

Theresa Russell

Theresa Russell stepped into Monroe’s shoes (well, heels) when she played her in the 1985 British drama Insignificance. The surreal film imagines an alternate reality where four iconic figures — Monroe, her second husband and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio (Gary Busey), physicist Albert Einstein (Michael Emil) and senator Joseph McCarthy (Tony Curtis) — cross paths in a New York City hotel one night in 1954.

Susan Griffiths

In 1991, Susan Griffiths — who had been impersonating Monroe in movies, advertisements and TV shows for decades — got the chance to play the icon in the TV movie Marilyn and Me, which focused on her alleged romance with writer Robert Slatzer (Jesse Dabson), who claimed he secretly married Monroe before Hollywood fame.

Melody Anderson

Melody Anderson played the blonde bombshell in the 1993 TV movie Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair, which was a fictional account of the alleged affair between Monroe and then-U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Ashley Judd

In the 1996 HBO original movie Norma Jean & Marilyn, Ashley Judd played Norma Jean Dougherty, a fictionalized version of Monroe’s pre-fame self who haunts and confronts her glamorous alter ego (Mira Sorvino) in dream-like scenes. Judd’s performance earned her both an Emmy and a Golden Globe nomination.

Mira Sorvino

Opposite Judd in Norma Jean & Marilyn, Sorvino stepped into the role of Monroe, channeling the famous actress after she became a superstar. She, too, received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her leading performance.

Poppy Montgomery

Poppy Montgomery took her turn as Monroe in the 2001 miniseries Blonde, the first screen adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.

The Australian actress told Entertainment Weekly in May 2001, “When I told my mother I got the part of Marilyn Monroe, she didn’t even bat an eyelash. She said, ‘Well, you’ve been rehearsing for it your whole life.’ ”

Charlotte Sullivan

In 2011, Charlotte Sullivan appeared on one episode of the eight-episode miniseries The Kennedys as the blonde bombshell and performed Monroe’s infamous “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy on his 45th birthday.

Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams transformed into Monroe for the 2011 film My Week with Marilyn. Williams won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Monroe and was nominated for an Academy Award.

That year, Williams told The Hollywood Reporter of portraying Monroe authentically, “For me, the most crucial discovery — the flash — was that the widely accepted image of Marilyn Monroe was a character that Norma Jean played.”

She added, “Unless you study her and understand her a bit better than the commonly accepted view, one could miss who she was underneath that. Marilyn was a part she played.”

Uma Thurman, Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty

In 2012, Uma Thurman, Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty each took their turn as Monroe on Smash, a series about the staging of a fictional musical appropriately named Bombshell.

Blake Lively

Blake Lively briefly channeled Monroe for a dream sequence on the 100th episode of Gossip Girl in 2012, donning Monroe’s iconic hot pink outfit and lip-syncing “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Kelli Garner

Kelli Garner played Monroe in the 2015 miniseries The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. The day the first 84-minute episode premiered on Lifetime, Garner told Today that she was “extremely apprehensive” to take on the role.

“It’s Marilyn Monroe, you know? Those are really, really big shoes. And I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off,” she said.

Alisha Soper

The first season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Bette and Joan was devoted to the notorious rivalry between Hollywood icons Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) and Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) during and after the making of the 1962 cult classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

On the pilot, Alisha Soper makes a brief appearance as Monroe, wearing a red sequin gown to accept an acting Golden Globe in 1961 (though Monroe didn’t attend the ceremony IRL) for her performance in Some Like It Hot.

Margot Robbie

Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn embraces the bombshell archetype in the 2020 DC film Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

After taking a hit from Roman Sinois/Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) while tied up at his nightclub, Harley falls into a surreal musical fantasy where she becomes Monroe, performing a more violent rendition of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”

Ana de Armas

De Armas stars as the late actress in the controversial Netflix film Blonde, a somewhat fictional take on the icon’s life.

According to de Armas, it was hard work perfecting Monroe’s signature breathy voice.

“I tried!” de Armas told The Sunday Times in January 2021. “It only took me nine months of dialect coaching, and practicing, and some ADR sessions.”

She received rave reviews following the film’s Venice Film Festival debut in September 2022, despite the movie itself getting a lukewarm reception. De Armas later landed an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, making history as the first Cuban performer recognized in the category.

Madonna and Chloe Fineman

Over the years, Saturday Night Live has seen several stars put on the bottle blonde wig and emulate Monroe’s breathy voice. Madonna played the icon several times throughout the ’80s and ’90s, and Chloe Fineman spoofed the 2022 Netflix film Blonde with a parody of Monroe.