View a timeline of Marilyn Monroe's life and career.

Marilyn Monroe was a minor American actress, but a colossal American icon.

Long regarded as "the First Lady of American Theater," Helen Hayes earned international esteem and affection during a career that spanned more than eighty years on stage and in films, radio, and television.

Porter gained a name for her flawless prose. Often concerned with the themes of justice, betrayal, and the unforgiving nature of the human race, Porter’s writings occupied the space where the personal and political meet.

She was the archetypal silent film heroine -- the delicate damsel in distress, fainting on an ice floe, cowering before a brutal bounder, languishing in a garret.