Characters inspired by Marilyn Monroe

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Regardless, while Bob Kane's story of how Vicki Vale was created is unlikely, it is quite possible that Vicki Vale was based on Marilyn Monroe. Of course, while Vicki Vale's appearance may have been based on Marilyn Monroe, her personality was based largely on Lois Lane. Just as Lois was always trying to uncover Superman's identity, so too was Vicki always trying to uncover Batman's identity! From her face to her figure, Vicki does resemble Marilyn a good deal, particularly in her early days of modelling. Vicki Vale would appear in the serial Batman and Robin, where she would be played by Jane Adams. In the movie Batman (1989) she was played by the very blonde Kim Basinger. Vicki Vale would be a regular character in the Batman comic books until 1963, after which editor Julius Schwartz dropped the character. Since then she has resurfaced a few times in the comic books.

Given Bob Kane's story of the creation of Vicki Vale, it would seem that he was very attracted to Marilyn Monroe whether he met her or not. In 1960 Bob Kane created the animated series Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse. A funny animal parody of Batman, the series ran from 1960 to 1962. Minute Mouse's love interest was a movie star named Marilyn Mouse, who looked like a rodent version of the movie star.

While it is debatable whether Vicki Vale was based on Marilyn Monroe, it is fairly certain that Milton Caniff based the character of Miss Columbia Mizzou in the comic strip Steve Canyon on the actress. Of course, her name has an entirely other source of inspiration. Miss Columbia Mizzou first appeared in Steve Canyon in September 1952. Miss Mizzou was a blonde who wore a trenchcoat and generally nothing else. Milton Caniff drew her while consulting a picture of already famous actress Marilyn Monroe. As to her name, Milton Caniff spoke at the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1949 as part of the university's Journalism Week. Mr. Caniff apparently enjoyed his visit to Columbia, as he maintained close ties with the university for the rest of his life. The first name of Miss Mizzou then came from the city in which the University of Missouri is located. Her surname came from the nickname of the university to this day--Mizzou (short for "Missouri University"). Here I must note that the University of Missouri is also the alma mater of Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker and underground cartoonist Frank Stack was an art professor there (in fact, he still lives in Columbia). I must also point out that I was named for Milton Caniff's Terry Lee from Terry and the Pirates...

It would be in 1955 that one of the earliest characters to be based on Marilyn Monroe would appear in a play. The play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? revolved around a fan magazine writer (Orson Bean) who must ,make a deal with a Hollywood literary agent in order to become a successful screenwriter. Among the characters was Rita Marlowe (played by Jayne Mansfield in a break through role), a movie star who was essentially an exaggerated version of Marilyn Monroe. The 1957 film version would retain Rita Marlowe and Jayne Mansfield, and she would remain an exaggerated parody of Marilyn, but it largely jettisoned the plot. In the movie, starring Tony Randall, an advertising man must pretend to be Rita Marlowe's boyfriend in order to make her actual boyfriend jealous. Jayne Mansfield would essentially make a career out of parodying Marilyn Monroe.

Most of the characters based on Marilyn Monroe up to the late Fifties had been largely positive, if some of them were a bit exaggerated. This was not the case with the lead character in Paddy Chayefsky's movie The Goddess (1958). The movie starred Kim Stanley as Emily Ann Faulkner, who becomes the extremely famous and popular movie star Rita Shawn. The film portray how, even though Rita has attained dizzying heights of fame and wealth, she is still essentially lonely and unhappy. It has always been said that the film was based loosely on the life of Marilyn Monroe and, indeed, there are many similarities between Rita Shawn and Marilyn.

Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse would not be the only TV series to draw inspiration from Marilyn Monroe. Although it has never been clear, many have often suspected that the character of Marilyn Munster was based on Marilyn Monroe. Indeed, not only is Marilyn the only normal looking human being in the Munster family (the rest looking like classic Universal monsters), she is a beautiful blonde. Beverly Owen, the first actress to play Marilyn Munster, certainly thought so. She stated that the producers seemed to be going for Marilyn Monroe's image. In the end, however, Miss Owen confessed that she thought Marilyn Munster wound up being a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Sandra Dee.

Another television character patterned after Marilyn Monroe was Sweet Polly Purebred, TV reporter and the romantic interest of Shoeshine Boy and his alter ego Underdog. While creators W. Watts Biggers and Chet Stover named and developed the characters, it was artist Joe Harris who designed their appearances. In the case of Sweet Polly Purebred, he modelled her after Marilyn Monroe. This is fairly obvious given the colour (blonde) and style of her hair. Of course, Polly was not the only character on Underdog based on a movie star. Underdog's archnemesis Simon Barsinister was based on Lionel Barrymore. The gangster Riff-Raff was based on George Raft. Even Underdog himself was based on an actor, namely the actor who voiced him, Wally Cox.

I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful. Read more Marilyn Monroe quotes

While it is fairly certain that Sweet Polly Purebred is based on Marilyn Monroe in her appearance, it is not so clear that the character of Maggie in Arthur Miller's play After the Fall was based on Marilyn. The play debuted in 1964 and centred around lawyer Quentin. Quentin later marries the sexy Maggie, who goes from a shy, slightly scatter brained girl to an outright prima donna after she attains fame as a singer. Maggie drinks, takes barbiturates, and becomes increasingly irrational. Maggie eventually commits suicide. Although Arthur Miller always denied it, many have suspected that Maggie was based on Marilyn Monroe. From her shyness to being slightly scatter brained at times to taking barbiturates, Maggie does have a lot in common with Marilyn Monroe. For that matter, After the Fall seems all to similar to Arthur Miller's actual life, including being suspected of Communist sympathies. Of course, Arthur Miller was married to Marilyn Monroe..