Over the years, LIFE’s legendary photographers enjoyed unprecedented access to the private lives of the biggest stars in the world, watching them as they ate their meals, played with their children, read their books — and even tucked themselves into bed.
Here, some of the most memorable photographs that resulted from those intimate moments.
Pictured: Her sex-symbol image aside, Monroe was an avid reader of 20th-century literature and was often photographed curling up with a book, as in this shot taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt at her Hollywood home in 1953.
