“Please Forgive Me, It Was Not My Doing”: The Story Behind Marilyn Monroe’s Firing From Her Final Film

Marilyn Monroe remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons — not only for her luminous screen presence, but for the mythos that surrounds her life and untimely death. When she died in August 1962 at just 36, she left behind a legacy of beauty, talent, and mystery. Yet in the months before her death, Monroe’s career took a painful turn when she was fired from what was meant to be her next big film: Something’s Got to Give.

A Troubled Production From the Start

In April 1962, Monroe began work on Something’s Got to Give, a George Cukor-directed remake of the 1940 screwball comedy My Favorite Wife. The cast included Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse, and 20th Century Fox hoped it would be a commercial hit. In an unprecedented publicity move, the studio invited press to the set to photograph Monroe filming a nude swimming pool scene — images that would later appear in Life magazine, generating enormous buzz.

But while the photos made headlines, the movie itself quickly fell into trouble. Fox, still reeling financially from the costly disaster of Cleopatra, had little tolerance for delays. Monroe’s health, personal commitments, and long-standing reputation for being late or unprepared on set soon collided with the studio’s fragile patience.

Reputation and Reality

By 1962, Monroe had a history of causing headaches for filmmakers. On earlier projects like The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot, her chronic lateness and tendency to forget lines were notorious — so much so that props sometimes had her dialogue written on them. Those habits persisted on Something’s Got to Give.

Even before filming began, Monroe had informed producers she would take time off to perform “Happy Birthday” for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. The interruption pushed production back, and soon after, reports emerged of further disruptions, including a raucous celebration of her 36th birthday on set.

Director George Cukor, a Hollywood veteran with little patience for chaos, eventually reached his breaking point. He pressed Fox to dismiss Monroe — and on June 4, 1962, they did.

Monroe’s Plea

In the wake of her firing, Monroe sent Cukor a heartfelt telegram that has since resurfaced, offering a glimpse of her emotional state:

“Dear George, please forgive me. It was not my doing. I had so looked forward to working with you.”

It’s unclear whether the message swayed Cukor’s opinion, but Monroe’s removal from the film was final.

A Project Left Unfinished

After Monroe’s death just two months later, Fox abandoned plans to finish Something’s Got to Give. The existing footage — fragments of what might have been her final screen performance — remains locked away in the studio’s vaults, occasionally resurfacing in documentaries but never assembled into a completed film.

Today, the aborted project is remembered less for its plot and more as a bittersweet symbol of Monroe’s final months — a mix of glamour, personal struggle, and Hollywood politics. Her firing from Something’s Got to Give is not just a production footnote, but a poignant chapter in the story of an actress whose brilliance was often matched by her fragility.

In the end, the title feels eerily prophetic. Something had to give — and tragically, it was Marilyn Monroe herself.