Marilyn Monroe (1926 – 1962)   
    
    
   

Norma Jeane Mortenson—who would later become better
known around the world as the glamorous actress and sex
symbol Marilyn Monroe—was born on June 1, 1926, in Los
Angeles, California. She was later given her mother’s name,
and baptized Norma Jeane Baker.

After a tumultuous childhood—both maternal grandparents
and her mother were committed to mental institutions, and
she lived with a string of foster families. Norma Jeane married
one of her neighbors, James Dougherty, when she was 16. He
later joined the Merchant Marines and was sent to the South
Pacific during World War II. A photographer “discovered” the
naturally photogenic Norma Jeane while she was working in
a California munitions factory, and she was soon launched
into a successful modeling career. She divorced Dougherty
in June 1946 and soon after signed a film contract with 20th
Century Fox.

1961

The Seven Year Itch, a 1955 romantic comedy film
directed by Billy Wilder.

Prolific actor and director Clint Eastwood was born on this day,
May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, California.

He and his family moved a number of times before settling in
Piedmont, California. reports

Eastwood was drafted during the Korean War and stationed
in California — and upon his discharge from the Army in 1953,
Eastwood moved to Hollywood.

Likely best-known for portraying police Inspector "Dirty" Harry
Callahan, the Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker started his
noteworthy career with a screen test with Universal in 1954 —
which netted him a 40-week contract. 

1971

1966

1992

John Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979)

Born Marion Robert Morrison, Wayne’s family moved to
Glendale, California, when he was six years old. As a teen,
he rose at four in the morning to deliver newspapers, and
after school he played football and made deliveries for local
stores. When he graduated from high school, he hoped to
attend the U.S. Naval Academy. However, after the school
rejected him, he accepted a full scholarship to play football
at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

In the summer of 1926, Wayne’s football coach found him a
job as an assistant prop man on the set of a movie directed
by John Ford. Ford started to use Wayne as an extra, and he
eventually began to trust him with some larger roles. In 1930,
Ford recommended Wayne for Fox’s epic Western The Big
Trail. Wayne won the part, but the movie did poorly, and Fox
let his contract lapse.

John Wayne in a scene from his last movie, "The
Shootist," 1976.

On May 25, 1977, Memorial Day weekend opens with an
intergalactic bang as the first of George Lucas’ blockbuster
Star Wars movies hit  American theaters.

The incredible success of Star Wars–it received seven Oscars,
and earned $461 million in U.S. ticket sales and a gross of
close to $800 million worldwide–began with an extensive,
coordinated marketing push by Lucas and his studio, 20th
Century Fox, months before the movie’s release date. “It
wasn’t like a movie opening,” actress Carrie Fisher, who
played rebel leader Princess Leia, later told Time magazine.
“It was like an earthquake.” Beginning with–in Fisher’s words–
“a new order of geeks, enthusiastic young people with sleeping
bags,” the anticipation of a revolutionary movie-watching
experience spread like wildfire, causing long lines in front of
movie theaters across the country and around the world.

George Raymond Stevenson  (25 May 1964 – 21 May 2023 )

(FOX NEWS) – Ray Stevenson, a veteran actor of movies like
“Punisher: War Zone,” “Thor,” “RRR” and major TV shows
like “Vikings” and a Star Wars spinoff, has died. 

A rep for Stevenson confirmed that he died on Sunday.

No other details have been shared at this time.