Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model and singer. She became known for playing cartoon “blonde bombshell” characters and became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era’s sexual revolution. A top actress for ten years, her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2022) by the time of her death in 1962. Long after her death, Monroe remains a pop culture icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her as the sixth greatest female screen legend of Hollywood’s Golden Age.