Tom Kelley was an American photographer. Tom photographed the Hollywood celebrities throughout the 1940s and 1950s in Hollywood. David O. Selznick and Samuel Goldwyn retained Tom to take promotional photos of their stars and starlets for magazine covers and advertising.
A few of his most famous subjects have been Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Winston Churchill, Bob Hope, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Jack Benny, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt and, of course, Marilyn Monroe, with and without clothes.

He is best known for his iconic 1949 nude photographs of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

, one of which was distributed widely as calendar art and was featured in the inaugural issue of Playboy

Playboy

Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

 magazine in 1953.

Kelley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

. He learned photography as an apprentice in a New York photo studio, and then worked for the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 and Town & Country

Town & Country (magazine)

Town & Country, formerly the Home Journal and The National Press, is a monthly American lifestyle magazine. It is the oldest continually published general interest magazine in the United States.-Early history:...

magazine. After coming to California in 1935, Kelley established a photography studio in Hollywood and produced promotional photographs of motion picture stars. Later, Kelley's business shifted to commercial and advertising photography.

Kelley served on the panel of judges at the Miss Universe 1952

Miss Universe 1952

Miss Universe 1952, the very first Miss Universe pageant, was held on June 28, 1952 at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium in Long Beach, California, USA. 30 contestants competed for the crown...

 and Miss Universe 1956

Miss Universe 1956

The fifth edition of the Miss Universe pageant was held on 20 July 1956, at Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach, California, USA. They had 30 young ladies in the competition. Miss USA, 20-year-old Carol Morris, won the competition...

 pageants. He appeared in the 1966 documentary film The Legend of Marilyn Monroe

The Legend of Marilyn Monroe

The Legend of Marilyn Monroe is a 1966 American documentary film chronicling the life and career of actress Marilyn Monroe. Directed by Terry Sanders, and narrated by John Huston, the film was also released under the title The Marilyn Monroe Story in the UK.- Cast :Gladys Baker, Albert Bolender,...

.

External links

• Biography of Tom Kelley, by Norman Mailer
• Tom Kelley Studio
• mptvimages.com, archive of celebrity photography including many Tom Kelley photos