As noted before, most of these 50s blondes who were (retroactively?) regarded as 'versions' of Marilyn had almost nothing in common with her; at best, they may have been inspired by Marilyn circa 1951 and never moved beyond the starlet/pinup girl phase.
This sums up a lot of them. For years, the only image I had of Joi Lansing, Cleo Moore, Barbara Lang, Beverly Michaels, Barbara Nichols, and even Sheree North and Mamie Van Doren, were from the pin-up pictures I saw via Google and their Wikipedia pages.
Of course, that image has swelled over the years as I have now seen all of them in something.
Barbara Lang probably had the briefest splash of celebrity during the 1950s. Her career was almost cut extremely short when she attracted a disease that paralyzed her legs and face muscles. When she finally healed, she turned to singing in nightclubs to pay off her medical bills.
She appeared in several DEATH VALLEY DAYS episodes, and ultimately got a contract with MGM. Her only leading role was in HOUSE OF NUMBERS (1957), which I've seen once. It's a decent, run-of-the-mill crime-prison break movie. Her biggest loss was being ousted from JAILHOUSE ROCK with Elvis. That might've actually helped sustain her.
Beverly Michaels' first role was in a Barbara Stanwyck movie called EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE (1949). She was a protégé of independent filmmaker Hugo Haas, who actually had some talent, but lacked the A-movie financing. He produced THE GIRL ON THE BRIDGE (1951) and PICKUP (1951) for her, but their partnership dissolved. She is best known for starring in WICKED WOMAN (1953), which is perhaps her signature movie. It's a downright good B-movie, and I love the theme song to it. I've seen it twice. She later married Oscar-winning producer Russell Rouse.
Cleo Moore made some good B-movies during the 1950s -- ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION (1953) and HOLD BACK TOMORROW (1955) are two good ones. She left movies in 1957, and she went on to make millions in real estate.
She's in THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER (1964) with John Wayne. She's in several other good movies, too.
