The photograph is signed by Barris at lower right and stamped on verso Copyright. Barris has always been passionate about photography and. A color photograph of Marilyn Monroe taken by George Barris in 1962. President” dress, which recently reigned in nearly five million dollars, the items are set to make a fortune-but more importantly, they also memorialize Marilyn at her most alive-and her most bombshell blonde, ocean spray and sand be damned. George Barris is an American photographer born in 1922, known for his photographs of Marilyn Monroe.

Judging by the going rate for her “Happy Birthday, Mr. Fifty-five years later, though, the largely unpublished photos are finally seeing the light of day thanks to an auction this week on Paddle8 that’s gathered 70 other pieces of Marilyn memorabilia-including even her eighth-grade school group photo, signed with Marilyn’s birth name, Norma Jean Baker. The resulting 150 photos, which stretched from beaches where Monroe writhed around in a bikini in seaweed to the Hollywood Hills where she wore heels to climb a chain-link fence, felt celebratory-until a few weeks later, when Monroe unexpectedly passed away at age 36, making the Barris sessions her final photo shoot. Survivors also include his wife Carla, another daughter, Stephanie and his mentee, Xavier Clemente.Back in June of 1962, Cosmopolitan assigned the photographer George Barris to capture Marilyn Monroe around Los Angeles, which he obligingly did over the course of several weeks-and, by the looks of it, over the course of more than several martinis. Eisenhower’s personal photographer for the welcoming Victory Parade in New York on June 19, 1945. Army and served in the office of public relations during World War II. His daughter also said that he photographed Chubby Checker for the singer’s “The Twist” record cover.Ī native of New York City, Barris enlisted in the U.S.

While on assignment for Cosmopolitan, Barris photographed Elizabeth Taylor while she filmed Cleopatra (1963) in Rome, and during his career he also shot such stars as Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando, Charlie Chaplin, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, Sophia Loren and Walt Disney.

He said that he never believed that her death was a suicide. “When I first saw her, I thought she was the most beautiful, fantastic person I’d ever met,” Barris told the Los Angeles Daily News in 2012. Eight of his prints, several of which showed Monroe in a bikini or wrapped in a towel, were sold at auction in May 2015.īarris and Monroe became friends after they met on the set of The Seven-Year Itch (1955).

George barris marilyn monroe