What was Marilyn Monroe’s IQ?
No test result exists. The 168 is unproven; her books, courses and company are the record.
Marilyn Monroe’s IQ is unknown: no test result for her has ever been found, and the 168 IQ score that circulates is unproven. The earliest version Snopes found is a 2013 BuzzFeed list that cited no source; the documented record is a self-educated reader with about 400 books, a 1951 UCLA Extension literature course, Actors Studio workshops and her own production company.
Marilyn Monroe’s estimated IQ
- Formed Marilyn Monroe Productions in mid-December 1954 and said in January 1955 that she wanted director and script approval in any new Fox contract; a seven-year contract signed by the end of 1955 let her choose her own projects, directors and cinematographers.
- Left Van Nuys High School in 1942 without graduating, then took a UCLA Extension literature course, “Backgrounds of Literature,” in April 1951.
- Studied acting in New York in 1955, with Constance Collier and in method-acting workshops at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg.
- Kept a private library of more than 400 books, including Joyce’s Dubliners and Camus’s The Fall; about 400 were in the Christie’s sale in New York on October 27–28, 1999.
- Asked Fox to let her play in The Brothers Karamazov; in January 1955 the studio said it had no intention of granting the request (Variety, January 12, 1955).
There is no test result of any kind, so this range is an inference from career decisions and documented self-education, not a measurement. It is wide because reading and negotiating show curiosity and judgment, which an IQ test does not isolate, and no degree or rating is on record to narrow it.
- Born
- June 1, 1926, Los Angeles (birth name Norma Jeane Mortenson)
- Field
- Film
- Education
- Van Nuys High School, 1941–42 (did not graduate); UCLA Extension literature course, April 1951; Actors Studio workshops from 1955
- Own company
- Marilyn Monroe Productions, formed December 1954, announced January 1955
- Library
- About 400 books sold at Christie’s New York, October 27–28, 1999
- Known for
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot
- On record about IQ
- No test result found; Snopes rated the 168 claim Unproven (2017)
What an IQ of 120–135 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Marilyn Monroe was
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. At Emerson Junior High School she did well in writing and contributed to the school newspaper, but her other schoolwork was unremarkable; she began at Van Nuys High School in 1941 and left in 1942 without graduating. Scott Fortner, curator of MarilynMonroeCollection.com, told Snopes she was “very sensitive about her education” but did “focus on self improvement and development throughout her life.” In 1944 she worked at the Radioplane Company, a munitions factory in Van Nuys, and in August 1946 she began her first contract with Twentieth Century-Fox.
Her documented study after leaving school is a literature course and acting training. In April 1951 she took “Backgrounds of Literature” through UCLA Extension, with the instructor Claire Soule. In 1955, in New York, she took classes with Constance Collier and attended method-acting workshops at the Actors Studio, run by Lee Strasberg.
After The Seven Year Itch finished shooting in November 1954, she left Hollywood for the East Coast and, with the photographer Milton Greene, formed Marilyn Monroe Productions. The company’s first independent production was The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), which earned her a BAFTA nomination and the David di Donatello Award for Best Actress. Charlie Chaplin had taken a similar route in 1919, co-founding United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. Monroe won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Some Like It Hot on March 10, 1960.
Her reading is the best-documented part of her self-education. Fortner told Snopes her library held over 400 books across literature, art, drama, biography, poetry, politics, history, theology, philosophy and psychology, including first editions of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and William Styron’s This House on Fire. About 400 of her books were among the 1,000 lots Christie’s sold in New York on October 27–28, 1999. In 1955 the photographer Eve Arnold photographed her reading James Joyce’s Ulysses on Long Island, and Time later wrote that she was “a huge fan of Joyce.” For what reading does and does not say about test scores, see reading and IQ.
Her own writing survives as well. Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters, edited by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2010, collects her poems, notes and letters. Publishers Weekly wrote that the editors found in them “a cultured and curious Marilyn.” None of this is a score; it is the kind of documented record the estimate on this page rests on.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed October 2026
Marilyn Monroe: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1941–42Attends Van Nuys High School; she leaves in 1942 without graduating.
- 1946Begins her first contract with Twentieth Century-Fox in August.
- 1951April: takes “Backgrounds of Literature” through UCLA Extension.
- 1954Leaves Hollywood for the East Coast after The Seven Year Itch wraps in November; forms Marilyn Monroe Productions in mid-December.
- 1955Announces the company in January, studies acting in New York (Constance Collier; the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg) and signs a new seven-year Fox contract by year’s end.
- 1960March 10: wins a Golden Globe for Some Like It Hot.
- 1999October 27–28: about 400 of her books are among the 1,000 lots sold at Christie’s New York.
- 2010Fragments, a collection of her poems, notes and letters, is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- 2013August 5: a BuzzFeed list says she “had an IQ of 168”; it is the earliest version Snopes found.
- 2017May 23: Snopes rates the 168 claim Unproven.
Where the 168 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
The 168 has no source behind it, and the earliest version Snopes could find is a BuzzFeed list. In its May 23, 2017 fact check, Snopes found its earliest version in Brian Galindo’s “18 Things You Might Not Know About Marilyn Monroe,” posted August 5, 2013, where item 4 says she was typecast as a dumb blonde, a persona she hated, and adds, “She had an IQ of 168.” The item names no test, no date and no examiner. Snopes rated the claim Unproven and noted that the wording may have formed the basis of later rumors, the same route many celebrity IQ numbers take: a line in a list, copied before anyone asks where it came from.
Snopes found no version of the rumor that said when Monroe was tested, which test she took or why, and it found no evidence that she had been given the school and military screening tests of the period. The Wechsler adult scale, it notes, appeared in 1955, when she was nearly 30. Testing was chronologically possible, Snopes writes, but there is no reason to believe it happened. The number also has a ceiling problem: 168 is about 4.5 standard deviations above 100 on the usual bell curve, roughly 1 person in 340,000, and the WAIS-IV, a current adult test, reports Full Scale IQs only from 40 to 160, so it could not return a 168 (see how high a test can score).
A second version, 165, circulates with an added comparison to Albert Einstein. A Cultura Colectiva article of October 7, 2022 says the world first heard of it around 2013, when the Internet spread the rumor, and that there is no proof she was ever tested. Two numbers three points apart, neither with a source, show a claim that is repeated rather than measured. The motive is easy to see: the number usually arrives with the line that she hated being typecast as a dumb blonde, as a rebuttal.
What makes the number unnecessary is that the documented record already makes the point. Variety reported on January 12, 1955 that Monroe said she had formed Marilyn Monroe Productions in mid-December to make “better pictures,” and that she wanted director and script approval in any new Fox contract. By the end of 1955 she and Fox had signed a seven-year contract that gave her the right to choose her projects, directors and cinematographers. The same Variety issue reports that she had asked to play in The Brothers Karamazov and that Fox said it had no intention of granting the request.
The comparison with other profiles here is about the kind of evidence. Natalie Portman earned a Harvard psychology degree (1999–2003) and Jodie Foster graduated magna cum laude from Yale in 1985; Monroe has neither a degree nor a test, so her range is built from decisions and reading instead. The pattern runs the same direction as John F. Kennedy, where a documented figure was quietly replaced by a more flattering one, except that Monroe has no documented figure at all, so the 168 had nothing to compete with.
How we read a number →Fact check rated Unproven. Finds no year, test or reason attached to the claim, places its earliest version in a 2013 BuzzFeed list, and quotes the curator Scott Fortner on her personal files and library.
Item 4 states an IQ of 168 with no source. The earliest version of the claim Snopes found.
Gives the 165 version with an Einstein comparison, dates its spread to around 2013 and says there is no proof she was tested.
Trade-press report of Marilyn Monroe Productions formed in mid-December 1954, her request for director and script approval, and Fox’s refusal of her request to play in The Brothers Karamazov.
Schooling, the 1955 Actors Studio workshops, the seven-year Fox contract, the first independent production, the April 1951 UCLA Extension course and the March 10, 1960 Golden Globe.
The WAIS-IV score range of 40 to 160 and the education and company facts used for the comparisons.
About 400 books from her private library were among 1,000 lots in a two-day New York sale; book sales benefited Literacy Partners.
Eve Arnold’s 1955 photograph of Monroe reading Ulysses on Long Island, and Time’s statement that she was a fan of Joyce.
Confirms the publisher (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), the editors and the contents: poems, notes and letters, with covers from books in her library.
Snopes and the curator of MarilynMonroeCollection.com found no record of a test in her personal files; no page that prints the 168 or 165 names a test, an examiner or a date.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Marilyn Monroe, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
That Marilyn Monroe’s IQ was 168, a figure repeated on celebrity IQ lists and in trivia articles, often beside the line that she hated being typecast as a “dumb blonde.” A 165 version, set five points above Albert Einstein’s, also circulates.
Fact check: Snopes rated the claim Unproven on May 23, 2017. It found no version that gave the year she was tested, the test she took or why, and the earliest printing it found, a BuzzFeed list posted August 5, 2013, cited no source. Scott Fortner, curator of MarilynMonroeCollection.com, told Snopes he had viewed her personal files in several locations: “There were no records present of her having been tested.” No Marilyn Monroe IQ score on record comes with a test, a date or an examiner.
Two versions circulate, 168 and 165, and neither comes with a test name, a date or an examiner. Both sit 30 or more points above the top of the 120–135 range that her documented record supports.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Marilyn Monroe — frequently asked
What was Marilyn Monroe’s IQ?
Marilyn Monroe’s IQ is unknown, because no test result for her has ever been found. The 168 that circulates is unproven: Snopes rated it Unproven in 2017 and found its earliest version in a 2013 BuzzFeed list that named no test, date or examiner. This page’s estimate of her IQ score is 120–135, an inference from her record, not a measurement.
Did Marilyn Monroe have an IQ of 168?
There is no evidence that she did. Snopes found no version of the claim that gave the year she was tested, the test she took or why, and Scott Fortner, curator of MarilynMonroeCollection.com, told Snopes the personal files he viewed held no record of a test. A 165 version with an Einstein comparison also circulates, with the same gap.
Did Marilyn Monroe have a high IQ?
It is plausible but unproven, because no IQ test result for her exists. This page infers 120–135 from her documented record, roughly the 91st to 98th percentile on the usual scale (mean 100, standard deviation 15), and marks the range as wide: the evidence shows curiosity and good judgment, which tests do not isolate.
Was Marilyn Monroe smart?
The record shows a self-directed learner and negotiator, though no test measured her. In January 1955 she announced Marilyn Monroe Productions and said she wanted director and script approval in any new Fox contract; by the end of 1955 a seven-year contract let her choose her projects, directors and cinematographers.
Did Marilyn Monroe read a lot?
Yes: about 400 books from her private library were among the 1,000 lots Christie’s sold in New York on October 27–28, 1999. The curator Scott Fortner described first editions of On the Road and Invisible Man and copies of The Great Gatsby, Dubliners and The Fall, and Eve Arnold photographed her reading Ulysses on Long Island in 1955.
Did Marilyn Monroe go to college?
Marilyn Monroe did not graduate from high school, and no college degree is documented. She left Van Nuys High School in 1942, took the UCLA Extension literature course “Backgrounds of Literature” in April 1951, and in 1955 studied acting in New York with Constance Collier and at the Actors Studio.
Where did the Marilyn Monroe 168 IQ come from?
The earliest version Snopes could find is item 4 of a BuzzFeed list, “18 Things You Might Not Know About Marilyn Monroe,” posted August 5, 2013, which says “She had an IQ of 168” without citing a source. Snopes thought that wording may have formed the basis of later rumors.
Why does this page give a lower range than 168?
Because the estimate here is built from what is documented — education, business decisions, reading — and that evidence supports a direction rather than a precise figure. Adopting a number to be generous would repeat the 168’s error: a figure with nothing under it.
How does Marilyn Monroe’s estimated IQ compare with Natalie Portman’s?
Marilyn Monroe’s estimated range here is 120–135 and Natalie Portman’s is 135–145. The gap reflects the evidence: Portman earned a Harvard bachelor’s degree in psychology (1999–2003), while Monroe has no degree or test, only career decisions and self-education. Neither range is a test result.
Which other actors are profiled here?
Natalie Portman, who has a published Harvard record, James Woods and Dolph Lundgren, whose academic records are often overstated into test scores.
How does my IQ compare with Marilyn Monroe?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other actors profiles, starting with Natalie Portman.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More actors profiles — same field, same method
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Photograph by iDominick, CC BY-SA 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Bernhard Holub, CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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