Marilyn Monroe Only Owned Three Cars (And They All Had One Thing In Common)

There is no shortage of lore surrounding Marilyn Monroe, one of America's cultural icons whose life tragically ended at the young age of 36. This fascination extends beyond her acting career and celebrity status to the cars that she owned. People have speculated whether she owned vehicles used while traveling to far-flung regions of the globe, as well as others that she used during filming. 

For example, a 1952 MG TD appeared in some home movie footage that showed Monroe driving it during the production of the movie "Monkey Business." Similarly, she drove a 1950 Mercedes-Benz 170 S Coupe during a visit to Greece in 1956. According to Hagerty, however, there were just three cars that were registered in her name — and all of them were convertibles. 

Marilyn Monroe's first vehicle was a 1953 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible. This was an earlier version of a car that landed on our list of classic cars from the 1950s with high resale value. The '53 Caddy, with its 5.4-liter V8 that produced over 200 horsepower, was a gift from Joe DiMaggio, the baseball superstar who would go on to become Marilyn's second husband in January 1954. The 1953 Eldorado was a limited-production vehicle, with only 532 made. Marilyn filed for a divorce from DiMaggio only nine months later, and the location of the car he gifted her remains a mystery.

The next car owned by Marilyn Monroe was a 1954 Cadillac Series 62 convertible, which was given to Monroe for her performance on "The Jack Benny Program" in September 1953. The car was a nice bonus, since most stars were not compensated for TV appearances then. Like the 1953 model, the 1954 Cadillac Series 62 convertible featured a 5.4-liter V8 engine, but this one produced 230 horsepower and drove the rear wheels through a four-speed automatic transmission. An earlier version of the Series 62 made our list of the best looking Cadillac models ever designed. Its location is also unknown, although The Hollywood Garage told Hagerty that they guessed it was sold to the actor Robert Wagner.

The last car that has been confirmed to have been owned by Marilyn Monroe was a Raven Black 1956 Ford Thunderbird, a quintessential symbol of American cruising culture. Milton Greene, Monroe's photographer and business partner, bought it for her in December 1955. It had a 312-cubic-inch V8 making 225 horses, which travelled to the rear wheels through an automatic transmission. Greene gave it to her for Christmas, just seven months before she would marry her third husband, playwright Arthur Miller. Monroe owned the T-bird until 1962. Eventually the car came up for auction in 2018 and sold for $490,000. The car had received a frame-off restoration by a leading Thunderbird restoration company.