Blonde (2001 film)

Blonde
Genre	Biographical/Drama
Based on	Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
Written by	Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Eliason
Directed by	Joyce Chopra
Starring	Poppy Montgomery Patricia Richardson Patrick Dempsey Jensen Ackles Kirstie Alley Ann-Margret
Theme music composer	Patrick Williams
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	240 minutes
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	May 13, 2001 (2001-05-13)

Blonde is a 2001 American made-for-television biographical film on the life of Marilyn Monroe, with Australian actress Poppy Montgomery in the lead role. The film was adapted from Joyce Carol Oates's 2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist novel of the same name.

Premise

A fictional biography of Marilyn Monroe mixed with a series of real events in her life. With glimpses into her childhood years, teenaged marriage to first husband James Dougherty, meeting with photographer Otto Ose, career with 20th Century Fox, relationship with her mother, her foster parents, Charles Chaplin Jr. (Cass), Edward G. Robinson Jr. (Eddie G), and her marriages to baseball player Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller.

Cast

• Poppy Montgomery as Norma Jeane Baker / Marilyn Monroe
  • Skye McCole Bartusiak as Young Norma Jeane
• Patricia Richardson as Gladys Pearl Baker
• Patrick Dempsey as Cass Bulut
• Wallace Shawn as I.E. Shinn
• Titus Welliver as The Baseball Player
• Griffin Dunne as The Playwright
• Eric Bogosian as Otto Ose
• Niklaus Lange as Bucky Glazer
• Jensen Ackles as Eddie G.
• Richard Roxburgh as Mr. R
• Ann-Margret as Della Monroe
• Kirstie Alley as Elsie - Grace Goddard
• Emily Browning as Fleece
• Matthew O'Sullivan as Lee Strasberg
• Andrew Clarke as Laurence Olivier
• Bruce Hughes as Clark Gable
• Renee Henderson as Jane Russell

Reception

Steven Oxman of Variety considered that Blonde's approach as a work of fiction instead of a "based on true events" retelling allowed creators "to be far more imaginative in their suppositions about the characters' private thoughts" than similar works.

External links

• Blonde at IMDb