A profile of the Broadway star whose name inspired Marilyn Monroe’s, at NPR
“Reading about Marilyn Miller, I found several surprising items. The name Marilyn, for example — Miller made it up from her own given name, Mary, and her mother’s name, Lynn — had apparently been quite rare until Miller’s stardom made it one of this country’s most popular girl’s names.
Decades later, Ben Lyon — a Twentieth Century Fox executive and former leading man who had co-starred with Miller and W.C. Fields in Miller’s last and best movie, Her Majesty, Love — signed up another pretty blond actress, Norma Jean Baker. She reminded him of Miller, and he urged her to change her name to Marilyn.
Both Marilyns had problems with their marriages and with substance abuse, and both died very young — Monroe at 36, Miller at 37, from complications of a chronic sinus infection.
Marilyn Monroe’s films will always keep her memory alive. Marilyn Miller didn’t live far enough into the movie era to appear in films that would do the same for her.”
