Home #Hwoodtimes Director, Actor, Producer And Writer JONATHAN BAKER Draws Connections with Marilyn Monroe...

Director, Actor, Producer And Writer JONATHAN BAKER Draws Connections with Marilyn Monroe on her 95th Birthday June 1

May 28, 2021

Baker-EP’s AMERICAN TRAITOR Opening May 28

Baker-Produced Educational Doc BECOMING ICONIC Out Now on VOD

Hollywood, CA May 28, 2021—It’s that time of year again! Had she lived, cultural icon Marilyn Monroe would have turned 95. For eccentric Los Angeles filmmaker, actor, writer, producer, and hotelier Jonathan Baker, Marilyn and her birthday—and her final resting place—has special significance. Most notably, Baker purchased the crypt adjacent to Monroe’s at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary (Westwood Village Cemetery). A fellow named John Thill put up an adjacent plot for an eye-popping $745,000 last year around this time. Baker bought the plot also alongside Hugh Hefner, who reportedly bought his plot for $75,000 back in 1992. Baker’s already inscribed the brass plaque adorning the front of the plot, with his birthday and the motto “Life is By Design.” But there’s no death date since Baker is alive. Instead, it reads “1962-Stay Tuned.”

Jonathan Baker “Life By Design”

Why?

Baker explains: “Every June 1 comes around and I ask myself, ‘How am I related to Marilyn Monroe?’ There are loads of spiritual and circumstantial significances. She died in 1962 and I was born in 1962. There is a connection between her being Norma Jean Baker and me being Jonathan Baker. If you believe things happen for a reason—and I believe life is by design—then how could this connection be denied?”

(In numerology, both 1926 and 1962 have significance: Both 1926 and 1962 relate to number 9 (1+9+6+2=18, 1+8=9) and Angel Number 9. Number 9 relates to endings and conclusions, and number 1 to beginnings.)

Too Close for Coincidence? Up and to the left!

Too close for coincidence? Baker doesn’t think so. “If you believe in reincarnation, then maybe her DNA is somehow connected to my DNA. Could she be my part of my soul, my family, and my destiny? After all, she is and was a big part of the film industry, and now and then, I like to think I am as well. I bought the mausoleum plot as it again triangulates my life, so…six degrees of separation I guess. Hef and I were friends for 30 years–playing cards every Wednesday and watching movies Sundays. Marilyn was as big an influence on him as he was on me. I thought we’d all be in good company!”

“People always ask me why I put my name on a grave when I’m still alive,” he continues. “I guess it’s my way of being able to enjoy being immortal in this life–ego looking at itself. I’m claiming a voice in the afterlife. It’s something no sane person would ever think of doing. When my daughter was 11, I took her to the cemetery and she said, ‘Why are they dead and you’re alive?’ I said, ‘I am the voice of all of them because I am alive—I love my company here: Truman Capote, Farrah Fawcett (who I adored when I grew up), Merv Griffin, studio heads and dignitaries, all dead but each left with a funny slogan.’ In the end, I thought it would be an interesting way to have a unique voice; some like it, and others think it’s strange.”

Director, producer, actor, and writer Jonathan Baker has two films out now and a third project later this summer: Director Neal Thibedeau’s BECOMING ICONIC—a master class in directing from several directors who either influenced or encouraged Jonathan Baker’s career, including Adrian Lyne, Oscar® winner Jodie Foster, Taylor Hackford, Warren Beatty, and Michael Bay—is finally out on VOD. Baker serves as an Executive Producer on the just-released AMERICA TRAITOR: THE TRIAL OF AXIS SALLY starring Al Pacino and Meadow Williams. He’s unearthed his TV Pilot Dirty Tennis starring Dick Van Patten, Bruce Jenner, and Nicolette Sheridan—a hit when it came out…in 1989 and releasing it on VOD August 18. Finally, Baker owns the famed boutique hotel The Maidstone in East Hampton, NY.