There is no documentation to show that anybody who knew Marilyn when she was young (e.g., her mother, the foster parents and relatives with whom she lived, her first husband) ever mentioned anything about her having been born with an extra toe.

Nothing other than those few questionable photographs supported the claim:

The notion that Marilyn was born with an extra digit which was later surgically removed is bunk, and the appearance of a 'sixth toe' that Jasgur's photos show is merely an artifact of the blending of shadows and light and the natural bulge that appears at the base of one's small toe (where the digit joins the outer edge of the foot) to create something that looked like an extra toe. It does look a bit like Marilyn has more than the usual five toes in these pictures, but later photographs clearly show her left foot with only five toes: So, did she or didn't she? Here is the relevant portion of the photograph upon which this rumor was based, and a second (less clear) photograph from the same session: The photograph was also published in the British tabloid Daily Mirror and was denounced as a hoax by many Marilyn devotees. He had heard rumours of plastic surgery on her foot as well as her nose and chin, but he notes, 'It's none of my business.'ĭespite Jasgur's 'It's none of my business' disclaimer, his publisher made the most of the situation, using the picture in a 'What's wrong with this picture?' publicity campaign to promote his book. A surprising discovery, he thought, but not earth-shaking. It wasn't until 41 years later when Joseph Jasgur was alone in his darkroom making prints of that day's excursion that he noticed something odd about Normal Jean's left foot. It was only then, four decades after the fact, that Jasgur noticed his photographic work revealed a supposedly previously undisclosed physical feature of the young Marilyn - she had an extra toe on her left foot, as the text of his book explained:

Most of Jasgur's pictures of a teenaged Marilyn Monroe remained unpublished for over forty years, until he finally assembled them for a book entitled The Birth of Marilyn: The Lost Photographs of Norma Jean. Young Norma Jean, of course, would later become one of the twentieth century's most famous women under the name Marilyn Monroe. This claim originated with photographer Joseph Jasgur, who in March 1946 (as a favor to a friend who ran a modeling agency) took some test shots of a nineteen-year-old model named Norma Jean Dougherty. The claim, which is traceable to a specific source, is that she was born polydactyl, but with only one extra digit: a sixth toe on her left foot, which was supposedly surgically removed early on in her Hollywood career. They didn't have a bone in them, so they just took them off.Despite the way a 'fact' about Marilyn Monroe's toes is usually worded, the real issue is not whether she had six toes on each foot - she didn't. I was born with two extra fingers, one on each hand. “My granddad had the condition, and my dad,” she revealed, “I’m so proud of it. Gemma Arterton - Extra fingersīond girl Gemma Arterton has it too, although her extra digits were fingers. The Catwoman and Monster's Ball star has a condition called polydactylism which comes from the Greek for “many digits”. Oscar winning actress Halle Berry is one of the world's most beautiful women. I hate my feet - they are the most disgusting thing about me.” Halle Berry - Extra toe “I beyond hate ballerina flats.” she said. so she could keep wearing her favourite stilettos. Posh developed such a big, painful bunion on her left big toe joint that five years ago she was said to be considering surgery. The German star appears to have grown a tennis-ball sized lump on his funny bone – although it didn't stop him firing off a few aces.īut Boris isn't the only star with an odd physical foible.Ĭheck out the bizarre body bits sported by these celebs. Tennis legend Boris Becker drew some odd looks on court in New York this week when he flashed a very nobbly elbow.

Webbed toes celebrities