Seventy years after their wedding, the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller still fascinates. It was the screen’s most famous blonde and America’s most respected playwright, a pairing the press could hardly believe. This weekend Vanity Fair Italia revisits the story in its series on the great love affairs of the twentieth century, and it is a tale of hope, style and, in the end, two people who never quite understood each other.
An actress who wanted to be taken seriously
They were introduced in Los Angeles in 1950 by the director Elia Kazan. Miller, who had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949 for Death of a Salesman, told Monroe she could become a serious dramatic actress, and the idea stayed with her. By the middle of the decade she had left Hollywood for New York to study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg, and there the relationship deepened. As Vanity Fair Italia puts it, she felt respected by him in a way she rarely did in the studio system, which had cast her as the dizzy blonde.
Two weddings in three days
On 29 June 1956 the couple slipped into the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains and were married in a ceremony that lasted under five minutes. The New York Times reported the next day that the bride wore a sweater and skirt with no hat, and the groom a blue suit with no tie. Two days later, on 1 July, came a Jewish ceremony for about 25 guests at the home of Miller’s literary agent, Kay Brown, in Waccabuc. For that one Monroe chose a tea-length dress in beige with a short veil, a design credited to Norman Norell. According to The Knot, Miller borrowed his mother’s ring for the day and later gave his wife a band engraved “Now is forever”.
Within weeks the newlyweds flew to London, where Monroe starred opposite Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl. The strain began to show there, and it grew during the making of The Misfits, the film Miller wrote for her and the last she completed. They divorced in January 1961, and a year later Miller married the photographer Inge Morath, whom he had met on that set.
What lasts is the image of Monroe as a reader and a thinker as well as a star, and a bridal look that still feels modern: simple lines, soft colour and very little jewellery. If you love that pared-back glamour, a single strand from our necklace collection, a pair of understated earrings or a delicate ring from our women’s rings would be very much in her spirit, and our jewellery sets make matching easy.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia (18 October 2026); The New York Times (30 June 1956); Westchester Magazine; The Knot; Christie’s. Featured photo: Letícia Higa via Pexels.
