Marilyn Monroe announced as new face of Max Factor – despite being dead for 53 years

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]he may have been dead for more than half a century, but Hollywood’s most sought-after blonde is still very much in demand. Max Factor has announced that Marilyn Monroe will be the new face of the make-up brand – despite her death in 1962.
As the brand’s ‘global glamour ambassador’, she will take the starring role in this year’s advertising campaigns.
The adverts will emphasise the role that make-up played in Monroe’s transformation, from mousy Norma Jeane Mortenson to the red-lipped, platinum-haired bombshell which cemented her reputation as one of the west’s most enduring sex symbols.
The glamorous actress, who died at the age of 36, was a Max Factor client in the 40s, when the American brand catered for silver-screen starlets from its beauty parlour in Hollywood Boulevard.
Earlier this year, Gwyneth Paltrow was transformed into a modern interpretation of Marilyn Monroe in celebration of the 1940s and to continue the brand’s Hollywood legacy.
Other faces of the brand have included Madonna and supermodel Gisele Bundchen.
Pat McGrath, from Max Factor, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Marilyn made the sultry red lip, creamy skin and dramatically lined eyes the most famous beauty look of the Forties, and it’s a look that continues to dominate the beauty and fashion industry.
‘It is the ultimate look that defines glamour – nothing else compares.’
Last year, Monroe was ranked as sixth in the Forbes magazine’s annual list of the highest-earning dead celebrities. She makes an estimated £11m a year.
The rights to Monroe’s image belong to the Authentic Brands Group, a licensing company which helped develop Monroe-branded spas and nail salons, as well as a clothing line for teenage girls at U.S department store Macy’s.
Her real name Norma Jeane Mortenson, Marilyn was 36 when she died of a barbiturate overdose in 1962.
She was married to the baseball star Joe DiMaggio and the playwright Arthur Miller, and it has long been claimed she had affairs with President John F Kennedy and his brother Robert.
However, her last years were marked by illness and personal trauma. It has never been proved conclusively whether her death was a suicide or an accident.