Former Playboy Playmate, reality TV star and actress Anna Nicole Smith died Thursday afternoon after collapsing in a Florida hotel, reports say. Smith was 39 years old.
The statuesque blonde celebrity personality, born Vicki Lynn Hogan, was found unresponsive in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida earlier this afternoon; Smith was taken to a local hospital, where she was declared dead half an hour later.
Smith‘s life in and out of the media was a tumultuous one; after early days as a topless dancer in Texas, she became 1993’s Playboy Playmate of the Year, known for a style that recalled Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield — two other blonde bombshells that met early, tragic ends. She modeled for Guess? Jeans and married an 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall in 1994, at the age of 26.
Marshall’s death 14 months later launched Smith into a legal battle over his $1.6 billion estate that pitted her for years against Marshall’s adult son, Pierce Marshall. The case wound through multiple incarnations in both Texas and California state courts before the United States Supreme Court decided to rule on it in 2006 (they sided with Smith, saying she deserved to pursue the case in federal court). Pierce Marshall died in June of 2006, but his estate was to continue sparring with Smith.
And that may have been the least of her troubles. Smith was recently named in a class-action lawsuit against weight loss company TrimSpa, for which she was a spokeswoman, and was embroiled in a paternity dispute over the parentage of her newborn baby girl, Danielynn. Days after giving birth in September 2006, Smith lost her 20-year-old son Daniel to a lethal drug interaction of methadone and anti-depressants.
Smith, with real-life pals Kim Walther and Howard K. Stern, in "Wasabi Tuna"
Smith’s rise and fall (and rise and fall) from fame had been well-documented in the media thanks to the E! reality series "The Anna Nicole Show," which followed the former model-actress around Los Angeles documenting her eccentric lifestyle and ran from 2002 to 2004. Smith was most known for her wacky antics, her oddball entourage, and her up-and-down battle with weight loss.
She also starred in a handful of small roles in films like "The Hudsucker Proxy" (1994) and "The Naked Gun 33 1/3" (1994), and had starring roles in the direct-to-video flicks "To The Limit" (1995) and "Skyscraper" (1997), playing a rogue CIA agent and a helicopter pilot, respectively. More recently, Smith starred as herself in the independent comedy "Wasabi Tuna," a Halloween caper involving ninjas, drag queens, and Smith’s toy poodle, Sugar Pie.
Smith is survived by her five-month-old daughter and lawyer-husband Howard K. Stern, who she married in a Bahamian commitment ceremony last September.
