Lawrence Julian Schiller (born December 28, 1936) is an American photojournalist, film producer, director and screenwriter. As of 2026, he is the last living professional photographer who worked with Marilyn Monroe.
Schiller was born in 1936 in Brooklyn to Jewish parents and grew up outside of San Diego, California. After attending Pepperdine College in Los Angeles, he worked for Life magazine, Paris Match, The Sunday Times, Time, Newsweek, Stern, and The Saturday Evening Post as a freelance photojournalist.
Schiller's best known work as a photographer are the sessions he took with Marilyn Monroe in the early 1960s. Schiller first photographed Monroe in May 1960 on the set of Let’s Make Love, and then again in 1962 when he was hired to photograph the star on the set of what would become the last film she would ever work on, the unfinished Something’s Got To Give. His photos of her have been showcased in art exhibitions and his 2015 book Marilyn & Me.
Schiller has published 17 books, starting with LSD in 1966. Other notable books he has collaborated on include W. Eugene Smith's book Minamata, and Norman Mailer's Marilyn, The Executioner's Song, and Oswald's Tale. Having produced and directed the 1967 Capitol Records audio documentary album Why Did Lenny Bruce Die?, he also collaborated with Albert Goldman on Ladies and Gentleman--Lenny Bruce!! in 1974. He has also written books independently, including American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Cape May Court House, and Into the Mirror.
He has directed seven motion pictures and miniseries for television; The Executioner's Song and Peter the Great won five Emmys. American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and Into the Mirror were made into television mini-series for CBS, all of which Schiller produced and directed.
Following the June 12, 1994 stabbing deaths of O.J Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, Schiller collaborated with Simpson, who was in jail awaiting his famous murder trial at the time, on a book called I Want to Tell You, which was billed as the former football star answering questions from fans about his life and the incident. Following Simpson's acquittal on murder charges, Schiller and former Time magazine journalist Jim Willwerth co-wrote American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense, considered one of the best books about the case. Dan Whitcomb, who covered the sensational trial for Reuters, worked for Schiller as a researcher on the book.
In 1999 Schiller published a book on the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: The Uncensored Story of the JonBenet Murder and the Grand Jury's Search for the Final Truth, based on an article he had published in The New Yorker on the same subject.
In 2008, after the death of the writer Norman Mailer, he was named Senior Advisor to the Norman Mailer Estate, and served on the executive board of the Norman Mailer Society. Schiller and Mailer were close friends and frequent collaborators.
Schiller served as a consultant to political campaigns and major corporations on such issues as crisis management, branding, public imaging and the use of social networking. Schiller has been an on-air analyst to NBC news, a consultant to Taschen Publishing, The John F. Kennedy Library and Foundation, The Ray Bradbury Estate, Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas, Photographers Annie Leibovitz Studio and Steven Klein and has written for The New Yorker, The Daily Beast and other publications.
In 2005, Schiller traveled to China and over two years built a collection of Chinese contemporary art, which numbered over 80 paintings and photographs.
In 2017 Schiller curated the John F. Kennedy Centennial for the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and the New York Historical Society in New York City. He also represented the Jacques Lowe Estate of historical photographs of the Kennedy family and the Lisl Steiner photographic archives. In 2018 he curated the Robert Kennedy - Martin Luther King, Jr. exhibition for the New York Historical Society. He also managed the 2020 Centennial of Ray Bradbury.
Schiller resides in Sherman Oaks, California with his wife Nina Wiener, the Editor in Chief of publications at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Double Jeopardy (1992) Producer/Director
I Love My Friends (1985 Kris Kardashian music video) Director
The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975 documentary) USA Director
Lenny (1974) Material supplier
Soon There Will Be No More Me (1972 documentary) Producer/Director
Lady Sings The Blues (1972) Titles/Still montage director