Marilyn Monroe's Never-Before-Published Pictures (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Marilyn Monroe's Never-Before-Published Pictures (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

LIFE.com uncovered some never-before-published photographs of a 24-year-old Marilyn Monroe, taken by LIFE photographer Ed Clark in August 1950.

See a few of the photos below, and check out more here at LIFE.com.

Scroll down to watch a "Today" Show segment on the lost photos.

2009-06-02-0marilyn2.jpgMarilyn flashes a brilliant smile. It's hard to believe that just four years earlier, she was Norma Jeane Dougherty, the wife of a Merchant Marine and a worker in a munitions factory.

2009-06-02-0marilyn.jpgMarilyn pats her curls. Naturally a brunette, Monroe reportedly dyed her hair blonde during her modeling days, after hearing that's the look agencies wanted.

2009-06-02-0marilyn3.jpgLounging in the shade, Monroe studies lines of an unknown script. It was still early in her career, and she'd just begun to grab attention: Three months before this shoot, she appeared as a crooked lawyer's girlfriend in "The Asphalt Jungle," and two months after, she had a small role as an aspiring starlet in "All About Eve."

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