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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteMarilyn Monroe did not spend money after her death in 1962. The phrase is a figurative way to describe what happened next: her estate received film royalties, beneficiaries inherited its interests, and companies continued to use her identity commercially. The available records offer snapshots of bank accounts near the end of her life—not a complete calculation of her wealth.
How much money did Marilyn Monroe have when she died?
The records cited here do not establish a reliable total for Monroe’s net worth at death. The Marilyn Monroe Collection describes an archive of 99 pages of account reports covering January 1 through August 3, 1962, for City National Bank and Irving Trust Company. Its account of those statements lists these balances:
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Marilyn Monroe: The Biography | $19.85 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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My Story | $17.28 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe: A Biography of Hollywood's Tragic Star, JFK's Camelot, and the... | $12.29 | Buy on Amazon |
| Bank | August 1, 1962 | August 3, 1962 |
|---|---|---|
| City National Bank | $1,337.53 | Overdraft of $4,208.34 |
| Irving Trust Company | $1,472.41 | $111.71 |
These are account figures reported by the collection for two specific dates, not a complete inventory of assets, debts, contractual income, or property. They cannot, on their own, answer how much Monroe was worth or how much money she had available overall.
Who inherited Monroe’s money?
The Ninth Circuit’s account of Monroe’s will describes three intended allocations. May Reis, Monroe’s private secretary, was to receive $40,000 or 25% of the total remainder, whichever was less. Dr. Marianne Kris, her psychiatrist, was to receive 25% of the balance for psychiatric institutions or groups she selected. Lee Strasberg was to receive the rest.
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The interests later passed to different recipients. Kris left her share to the Hampstead Child-Therapy Clinic, now the Anna Freud Centre. Strasberg left his share to his wife, Anna Strasberg. According to the Ninth Circuit opinion, in 2001 the Surrogate’s Court settled the estate and authorized the transfer of remaining assets to Marilyn Monroe LLC. The opinion identifies the LLC’s members as Anna Strasberg, with 75%, and the Anna Freud Centre, with 25%.
How did Monroe generate money after her death?
Film royalties
The Ninth Circuit opinion says Monroe’s estate received royalties under film profit-participation agreements. That is posthumous income received by the estate; it is not evidence of Monroe personally earning or spending money after her death.
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- Written at the height of her fame but not published until over a decade after her death, this autobiography of actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) poignantly recounts her childhood as an unwanted orphan, her early adolescence, her rise in the film industry from bit player to celebrity, and her marriage to Joe DiMaggio.
Commercial use of her identity
The Atlantic reported that Monroe’s name was being used to market lipstick and that Authentic Brands Group reportedly bought her publicity rights in 2011 for $20 million to $30 million. That reported transaction is a historical figure, not proof of current licensing terms or a continuing revenue stream.
A dated estimate of posthumous earnings
The Ninth Circuit opinion cited Forbes’ estimate that Monroe earned $27 million in 2011, when she appeared on its list of highest-earning deceased celebrities. This is Forbes’ estimate for that year, not a current annual figure and not a measure of the cash she held at death.
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In 2012, the Ninth Circuit held that Marilyn Monroe LLC was judicially estopped from claiming Monroe was domiciled in California because the estate had repeatedly represented that she was domiciled in New York in probate and tax proceedings. The court concluded that New York law applied and that the LLC could not enforce a posthumous publicity right through Monroe’s will in that case.
That ruling concerns the dispute before the court; it should not be read as a universal rule for every state or as a statement of every jurisdiction’s current law. The outcome turned on the domicile representations and legal framework addressed in that case.
Quick Recap
What the records do—and do not—show
- They show: reported balances in two accounts on two August 1962 dates; the beneficiaries and later transfers described in the Ninth Circuit opinion; and historical posthumous royalties and commercial activity.
- They do not establish: a complete net-worth figure at Monroe’s death, a current annual earnings total, or the terms of any present-day licensing arrangement.
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