Marilyn: The Untold Story

Marilyn The Untold Story is a 1980 television movie, about the life of the 1950s sex symbolmovie star, Marilyn Monroe. The feature stars Catherine Hicks as Monroe Richard Basehart as her earlycareer agent Johnny Hyde Frank Converse as her second husband Joe DiMaggio Jason Miller as her third husband Arthur Miller Kevin Geer as her first husband James Dougherty Viveca Lindfors as her acting coach Natasha Lytess and Sheree North as her mother Gladys Baker.

The movie begins with a young Marilyn then Norma Jeane, as an orphan in California. The feature progresses with the young girl growing up and superstar dreams fill her head, and she eventually marries, starts modelling, divorces, signs a contract with 20th Century Fox, and changes her moniker to Marilyn Monroe. The movie also takes a view of her personal life with her husbands, baseballstar Joe DiMaggio, and with playwright Arthur Miller. As with her personal life, the movie shows a great deal of Monroes life in the public eye, showing her rise to stardom, her career peak, and her tragic final years. The film ends with the mysterious death of the star.I quit about twothirds of the way through, because producer Schiller kept interfering with the production, changing my camera setups, changing the wardrobe. Schiller is a very bright guy, but he drove me up the wall with his constant meddling, to the point where I literally had my hands around his neck one day. So I left and Schiller brought in Jack Arnold to finish the picture. I shot all the footage with Richard Basehart, Catherine Hicks and John Ireland, who was terrific as director John Huston. I cast this picture very carefully. Sheree North was outstanding as Marilyns crazy mother. Jocelyn Brando Marlons sister had a small part as Marilyns grandmother, and she made the most of it. Catherine Hicks was good, but she was kind of an imitation of Marilyn Monroe. I begged Bonnie Bedelia to take the part of Marilyn, but she turned it down. She was a great actress and an absolute knockout back then. I thought Bonnie would have been brilliant as Marilyn. Even Schiller agreed to cast her, but Bonnie wouldnt do it. ........

Source: Wikipedia