Carley’s Corner - Marilyn Monroe’s Messy Estate
Marilyn Monroe was and still is a household name in the entertainment industry. She was an American model, actress, and singer best known for her roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch. Monroe, born Norma Jean Mortenson on June 1st, 1926, overcame a difficult childhood to become one of the world's biggest names in entertainment. Her stage name, Marilyn Monroe, was created with the help of Ben Lyon who was the head of talent at Fox Studios. He had told her that she reminded him of a woman named Marilyn Miller, who was a Broadway star in New York at the time. She had asked if she could use her grandmother’s last name Monroe as a tribute to her, thus creating the legendary stage name of Marilyn Monroe that we know today. Marilyn’s life, as many know, was a struggle. She lived in an orphanage as a child for a period, was married at the age of 16 to her first husband Jim Dougherty, struggled with both her grandmother and her mother’s mental health battles, and watched them go in and out of mental institutions repeatedly for treatments. She herself had numerous suicide attempts over her lifetime due to mental illness and passed away on August 5th, 1962, at 36 years old leaving approximately $800,000 behind (which is roughly $7 million in today’s dollars after inflation.)
Marilyn did have a Will in place before her death. That is a positive note! According to the Will, she left $10,000 to both her half-sister and personal assistant. Her Will had put $5,000 in an educational trust for her assistant’s child and left $100,000 in a trust to her mother. Monroe left all her physical property and a whopping 75% of her intellectual property rights to her beloved acting coach Lee Strasberg and his wife Paula who were like parents to her throughout her lifetime. The remaining 25% went to her therapist, Dr. Marianne Kris. When Kris died in 1980, the 25% was gifted to the Anna Freud Centre for Psychoanalytic Study and Treatment of Children in London.
This is where Marilyn’s estate gets messy… Lee Strasberg’s wife Paula passed away in 1966, four years after Monroe, and in 1967 Lee married a 28-year-old model from Venezuela named Anna Mizrahi. Anna was just 23 when Marilyn Monroe died, and it is likely that the two had never met. In 1982 Lee Strasberg died, leaving Anna the sole owner of 75% of the Monroe estate and all her personal property.
Anna was quick to sell and auction off all the property to the highest bidders (most items going for over $1 million,) and quickly turned Monroe licensing into an empire, signing numerous deals for products and endorsements with hundreds of companies. Anna Strasberg, a woman that Marilyn had never even met, turned Marilyn Monroe into one of the highest-paid dead celebrities on the planet and earned herself tens of millions of dollars in the process. The extremely sad irony in all of this, is that Anna Strasberg has made more money from Marilyn Monroe than Monroe did herself in her entire lifetime…
It’s very unlikely that Marilyn would have wanted a stranger to benefit so much from her image and personal property while leaving her friends and family behind with so little. According to friends, Monroe was under the impression that Lee would take care of her loved ones over the years and would set up his estate properly to carry through on his promises upon his own death. This was obviously not the case at all. Unbelievably, the Estate of Marilyn Monroe was open for nearly 40 years and only closed in 2001 after decades of legal battles. In 2010, her estate was worth an estimated $50 million dollars and continues to be one of the top-earning celebrity estates of all time.
The lesson to take away from this disastrous estate is to consider EVERYTHING when it comes to your legacy and estate plans. You may want a specific person to benefit from your estate, however someone else may gain from your estate unless you provide overwise in your Will. Do not make verbal promises, and ensure you have proper planning in place to avoid family discrepancies and lengthy litigation!
If you find yourself needing help with estate administration or have any questions about estates, please contact us today!
This blog is not intended to be legal advice and should not be relied on as such. If you require legal advice, please contact a legal professional concerning your particular circumstances.