His interest in photography began at the age of six, when his older brother presented him with a box camera. The son of Romanian immigrants, Barris was born in Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1922. He steadfastly refused to accept that the death was a suicide, naming the final chapter of his book after a remark she had made to him in those final weeks: 'The happiest time of my life is now.' His Santa Monica beach photographs were published as 99 limited edition prints, and the originals eventually went up for auction in 2015. In 1995 he published Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words. He moved to Paris, where he married and started a family.

In the media frenzy that followed, Barris scrapped the proposed book and withdrew the photographs for publication. That Sunday, two doctors summoned to Monroe's house in Brentwood found her dead of an apparent drugs overdose. Before hanging up, she made him promise to fly out by Monday morning. On August 3, Marilyn Monroe called the office and asked to see him, as they had 'very important' matters to discuss. Returning to New York, Barris began pulling his material together for a feature. It was the last image he ever took of her. 'This is just for you.' She leant forward and blew a kiss to the camera. As the day went on, it became increasingly cold. In other shots she was swathed in a large green towel, or clad in a thick-knit woollen jumper that emphasised the smallness of her wrists. One session took them to Santa Monica beach, where she enjoyed champagne and paddled in the sea. 'She never looked more beautiful, nor was she ever so talkative.' 'She was wonderful to work with the entire time,' Barris recalled.

A well-heeled friend in the North Hollywood Hills lent them his house for longer conversations and elaborate backdrops. From June 9 until July 18, therefore, he and Marilyn Monroe began a series of interviews, shoots and shopping sprees.īarris went to Beverly Hills to buy Monroe some slacks, a beach jacket and a bikini. The title of her latest film, Something's Got To Give, struck Barris as apt readers, he told the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, would be anxious to know what the future held. Her marriage to the playwright Arthur Miller had collapsed. She had spent six months of the previous year being treated for health problems including severe depression. Credit: Baronīarris was aware that not all the headlines had been positive. Actress Marilyn Monroe poses for George Barris in 1954 in Palm Springs, California.

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