Many of the events surrounding actress Marilyn Monroe's death on the night of 4 August, 1962 remain a mystery to this day, but a few facts are not in dispute. Marilyn Monroe's primary cause of death was a lethal overdose of prescription barbiturates, although the first police officer to arrive on the scene did not observe the vomiting or convulsive posturing typically associated with a drug overdose. He also noted the lack of a drinking glass in Monroe's bedroom, which would have been essential for swallowing such a lethal amount of barbiturates. Nevertheless, a preliminary coroner's report listed her death as a "probable suicide," a finding which has led to years of speculation and conspiracy theories.

A convincing argument can be made for Marilyn Monroe actually taking her own life. She spent nearly all of her childhood and early adolescence in foster homes, then entered into a marriage of convenience at age 16. By the time she was discovered by Hollywood producers, Marilyn Monroe had already found herself involved in scandalous affairs with much older men and other sad realities of the Hollywood studio system. Even her success as a mainstream Hollywood actress and marriage to a sports legend did not seem to bring Marilyn Monroe true personal happiness. Allegedly, she had attempted suicide several times during the 1940s and 1950s, incidents which were largely kept out of the press by studio publicists.

By 1962, Marilyn Monroe's career was said to be slipping away. The studio system which had promoted her in the past now considered her to be a liability. Monroe's last movies were not commercially successful, and her behavior on the set of her unfinished film Something's Got to Give had become very erratic. A second marriage had also failed, and Monroe spent some time in a psychiatric hospital in 1961. Monroe did have access to large quantities of Nembutal, a barbiturate she often used (or abused) as a sleep aid. The idea that Marilyn Monroe committed suicide by ingesting an overdose of Nembutal and chloral hydrate, another sedative prescribed by her psychiatrist, could be seen as an unfortunate end to a very troubled life.

There are others who suggest that Marilyn Monroe's death was the result of an accidental drug interaction, caused primarily by a lack of communication between Monroe's internist and psychiatrist. By 1962, Monroe had developed an addiction to Nembutal, but she agreed to let her psychiatrist wean her off the medication by switching to chloral hydrate, a less addictive form of sleeping pill. It has been suggested, however, that Marilyn Monroe secretly continued taking Nembutal, and her internist had provided a refill only days before her death. Neither doctor was apparently aware of the other's actions concerning Monroe's addiction. When she took both medications at the same time, a fatal drug interaction occurred. The secrecy surrounding her death may have been an effort to protect the reputations of the internist and psychiatrist who failed to coordinate their efforts concerning the care of Marilyn Monroe.

A third theory suggests that Marilyn Monroe was murdered in order to guarantee her silence. Through a mutual friend, Monroe met John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, and rumors of sexual affairs with both men ran rampant through the tabloids. If Monroe had indeed been privy to sensitive political matters, she may have become a liability to the president or his politically ambitious younger brother. A neighbor who lived next to Monroe's bungalow testified that she saw Robert Kennedy and two other men enter the house the night of Monroe's death around 7pm, and one man was said to be carrying a black medical bag. Although subsequent examinations did not reveal injection marks, the fatal drug combination could have been administered rectally through an enema bag. This would explain the lack of drinking water and the lack of identifiable pills in Monroe's stomach and intestines.

Whether or not Marilyn Monroe's death was self-inflicted, accidental or a criminal act, it was a tragic end to a Hollywood icon's fascinating life. Within a few years of Marilyn Monroe's death, the studio system which created and promoted her would also fade away, leaving Marilyn Monroe's many fans to wonder what she might have accomplished in the post-studio era had she lived.