Orson Welles was romantically linked to a number of beautiful women during his Hollywood heyday, but relatively little is known about his brief relationship with starlet Marilyn Monroe.
The two dated after Welles, 32, split from second wife Rita Hayworth in 1947. Monroe, 21, was a contract player at 20th Century Fox, then led by Darryl F. Zanuck. The studio chief would drop Monroe later that year from the studio roster – only to hire her back in 1950.
Her relationship with Welles likely took place as he worked on Macbeth for Republic Pictures, and ended when he left for Italy to star in Black Magic.
Their time together included a violent incident in which an angry husband, mistakenly thinking that Welles was with his wife, burst in on him and Monroe in a bedroom and socked the director in the jaw, according to Barbara Leaming, who has authored biographies on both Welles and Monroe.
Welles reflected on the young Monroe in a conversation some 35 or so years later with Henry Jaglom, which was repeated in the book My Lunches With Orson.
“She was a girlfriend of mine. I used to take her to parties before she was a star. I wanted to try and promote her career. Nobody even glanced at Marilyn. You’d see these beautiful girls, the most chic girls in town, who spent a fortune at the beauty parlor and on their clothes, and everybody said, ‘Darling, you’re looking wonderful!’ And then they’d ignore them…
I would point Marilyn out to Darryl (Zanuck) and say ‘What a sensational girl.’ He would answer, ‘She’s just another stock player. We’ve got a hundred of them. Stop trying to push these —-s on me. We’ve got her on for $125 a week.’
And then, about six months later, Darryl was paying Marilyn $400,000, and the men were looking at her – because some stamp had been put on her.”
However, money and fame brought little happiness. Welles is quoted in the book Marilyn: The Private Life of a Public Icon as saying that Monroe suffered various indignities and improprieties at the hands of men at Hollywood parties. She would laugh to hide her fury, he said.
Nine years after the relationship ended, Welles was a Hollywood outcast and Monroe was at her peak. They were photographed together at an event in New York. At the time, Monroe was dating playwright and future husband Arthur Miller and Welles was married to Italian countess Paola Mori.
Welles, Monroe and pianist Victor Borge were each honored by The Women’s Division of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies in New York on January 26, 1956. Welles, who had injured both ankles during the theatrical run of King Lear two weeks earlier, was seated in a wheelchair. Monroe playfully sat on on the arm of the wheelchair in one publicity photo.
Since the passing of both stars, genealogy websites like famouskin.com have linked Welles and Monroe to a common 17th century ancestor, William Pabodie and his wife, Elizabeth Alden, making the two not just a brief Hollywood couple but eighth cousins.
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