Marilyn Monroe lived in many homes during her glamorous career. For her, homeownership seemed to carry more weight than her three marriages during her short lifetime. Famous for playing “blonde bombshell” characters in comedies such as Some Like it Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s.
A Los Angeles native, Monroe spent her childhood bouncing between orphanages and foster care and would keep up the lifestyle of frequent moves for the rest of her life. Sadly, Monroe’s troubled private life received much attention as she struggled with addiction and mood disorders.
Married at 16 to James Dougherty, a man five years her senior, Monroe lived with her first husband in a studio apartment in Sherman Oaks. As her star began to rise, she sought a quickie divorce in Vegas and set out on her own.
After stints at the female-only Hollywood Studio club and the Beverly Hills Hilton, Monroe and her second husband, retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio, moved into a sprawling Runyon Canyon mansion. Her marriage to DiMaggio was highly publicized, but ended in divorce.
A year after her breakup with DiMaggio, Monroe wed playwright Arthur Miller. Marriage to Miller brought Monroe to New York. The couple were married in a charming French-country style lake house that sits across from the 16th hole of the Waccabuc Country Club golf course. Wrought iron, French doors, arched doorways and European fireplaces impart an Old-World fairy tale allure to the 4,291-square-foot, six-bedroom mansion. In 2017, it was listed for $1.65 million.
Monroe and Miller split their time between a Manhattan penthouse and a Connecticut estate for the five tumultuous years of their marriage. Following her third divorce, Monroe bought a charming Mediterranean-style home in 1962 in Los Angeles’ affluent Brentwood neighborhood for $75,000. Built in 1929, the 2,097-square-foot home with lots of green grass, flowers and citrus trees was the first home that she bought on her own.
According to TopTenRealEstateDeals.com, the four-bedroom home, which recently listed for $6.9 million, sits on over half an acre of prime Southern California real estate and features exposed roof beams, a Mexican-tiled fireplace and a swimming pool shaded by mature trees.