A century later, new light on a Hollywood tragedy

Today, 1 June 2026, would have been Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday. The icon, born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles, died on 4 August 1962 at age 36. Official reports ruled her death a probable suicide from an overdose of chloral hydrate and the barbiturate Nembutal. But for decades, conspiracy theories—often linking her to John F. Kennedy or the mafia—have overshadowed the narrative. Now, a new biography by British writer Andrew Wilson, I Wanna Be Loved By You: Marilyn Monroe, A Life in 100 Takes, presents a different account: Monroe was the victim of a tragic medical error.

“How do you write a life story? The truth rarely comes to light, usually falsehoods circulate. But it's hard to know where to start if you don't start with the truth.”

The prescription that changes the story

Central to Wilson's claim is a prescription for chloral hydrate dated June 1962, signed by Dr. Hyman Engelberg, Monroe's personal physician. Engelberg, who died in 2005, consistently denied ever prescribing that drug to the actress. In a 1982 statement to Los Angeles police, he insisted: "I knew nothing about chloral hydrate. I never used it. Nembutal was the only prescription I gave her." Yet the document, sold at auction in 2011, bears his signature. Wilson, who spent five years researching the book, argues that Engelberg's denial was a cover-up.

“If you have nothing to hide, why deny it so categorically?”

A doctor's negligence and a vulnerable patient

Wilson suggests Engelberg was distracted by a difficult separation from his wife Esther and "panicked" after Monroe's death. In her last months, Monroe was in crisis: she had been fired from the film Something's Got to Give and was severely depressed. Wilson's investigation reveals that in the final two months of her life, Monroe received prescriptions for over 830 doses of medication—"enough to kill several people," he noted. The combination of chloral hydrate and Nembutal, both prescribed for insomnia, was known to be lethal when taken together.

The night of 4 August 1962

On the evening of her death, Monroe locked herself in her bedroom. Her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, called her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, who broke in through a window and found her lifeless in bed. Engelberg was summoned and pronounced her dead. Wilson claims there was a delay of about an hour before the police were called, and that Engelberg told investigators she had committed suicide—a version Wilson now calls a "catastrophic misjudgment."

“It was an accident, but also a catastrophic misjudgment.”

Echoes of another celebrity overdose

Wilson draws a parallel to the 2023 death of actor Matthew Perry, who died at 54 from a drug overdose. Both cases, he says, involve a vulnerable patient prescribed excessive drugs by a trusted physician. While Engelberg was never charged, Wilson believes that by today's standards he could have faced involuntary manslaughter charges. The biography, released to mark Monroe's centenary, aims to strip away the myths and present her not as a victim, but as a survivor.