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Bigger than life, tragic in death

The dysfunctional pop culture icon collapses at a Florida hotel. She was 39.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 9, 2007

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Anna Nicole Smith, the blond pinup whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale - Playboy centerfold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother - died Thursday (Feb. 8, 2007) after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.

She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy was planned for today.

Five months ago, Ms. Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.

Seminole police Chief Charlie Tiger said a private nurse called 911 after finding Ms. Smith unresponsive in her sixth-floor room at the hotel, which is on an Indian reservation. He said Ms. Smith's bodyguard administered CPR, but she was declared dead at a hospital.

Tiger said Ms. Smith's death was not being treated as a crime, but crime scene investigators from the Seminole Police Department and the Broward Sheriff's Office were going through the room.

Dr. Joshua Perper, the chief Broward County medical examiner who will perform the autopsy, said if her death was from natural causes, the findings would likely be announced quickly. He said, however, that definitive results could take weeks.

"I am not a prophet, and I cannot tell you before the autopsy what I am going to find," he said.

Through the '90s and into the new century, Ms. Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her ditzy-blond persona and her revealing outfits.

Recently, she lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On her reality show and other recent TV appearances, her speech was often slurred.

"Undoubtedly it will be found at the end of the day that drugs featured in her death as they did in the death of poor Daniel," said Michael Scott, a former attorney for Ms. Smith in the Bahamas.

Lenard Leeds, another former attorney for Ms. Smith, said she "always had problems with her weight going up and down, and there's no question she used alcohol." Leeds said it was no secret "she had a very troubled life" and had "so many, many problems."

Ms. Smith's attorney Ron Rale said he had talked to her on Tuesday or Wednesday, and she had flu symptoms and a fever and was still grieving over her son. "Poor Anna Nicole," he said. "She's been the underdog. She's been besieged. ... Nobody should have to endure what she's endured."

Ms. Smith was born in Texas and was a topless dancer before she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992. She became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV commercials, billboards and magazine ads.

In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. In 1992, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $550-million.

Marshall died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with Ms. Smith's former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over his estate. A federal court in California awarded Ms. Smith $474-million. That was later overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court.

The stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.

Ms. Smith starred in her own reality TV series, The Anna Nicole Show, from 2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her poodle, Sugar Pie.

Ms. Smith's son, Daniel, died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter. Officials said her baby was not with her when she died, but did not comment on the child's current whereabouts.

An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said her son died accidentally of a combination of methadone and two antidepressants. Last month, a Bahamas magistrate scheduled a formal inquiry into the death.

Meanwhile, the paternity of Ms. Smith's now 5-month-old daughter remains in dispute. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as attorney Howard K. Stern, Ms. Smith's recent companion. However, Ms. Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was waging a legal fight, saying he was the father.

Ms. Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children.

She dropped out of high school after 11th grade and worked as a waiter and then a cook. She married fry cook Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.

Information from the Associated Press, Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel was used in this report.

[Last modified February 9, 2007, 00:28:39]