American model, actress and television personality Anna Nicole Smith led a tragic life just like her idol Marilyn Monroe.
The Playboy Playmate, real name Vickie Lynn Hogan, passed away 13 years ago on February 8 2007 as a result of an overdose, just months after her son Daniel’s death and leaving behind a newborn daughter.
She first gained popularity in Playboy magazine when she won the title of 1993 Playmate of the Year and she modelled for fashion companies, including Guess, H&M, Heatherette and Lane Bryant.
Her highly publicised second marriage to 89-year old billionaire J. Howard Marshall resulted in speculation that she married the octogenarian for his money, claims which she furiously denied.
Playmate Anna Nicole Smith would have celebrated her 53rd birthday on November 28 (Image: Getty Images)
Smith died in 2007 in a Florida hotel room as a result of an overdose of prescription drugs.
In the months leading up to her death, Smith was the focus of renewed press coverage surrounding the death of her son, Daniel, and the paternity and custody battle over her newborn daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, now 14.
Daily Star Online has taken a look back at the life of Anna Nicole Smith on what would be her 53rd birthday.
Texas girl to Hollywood fame
Smith was arrested for driving under the influence in Texas on September 21 1989 (Image: Getty Images)
Small-town Texas girl Vicky Lynn Hogan wanted to be Marilyn Monroe and at 15, she dropped out of school to work in a fried chicken restaurant.
Vickie married a restaurant cook Billy Smith and gave birth to a boy named Daniel aged 17.
She left her son with her mother Virgie Mae Hogan, dumped her husband and headed for the bright lights of Houston.
The mousy brunette became a platinum blonde, and she became a exotic dancer.
She quickly became known as Anna Nicole Smith and saved up for breast implants with the money she made at a Houston club.
Smith was arrested for driving under the influence in Texas on September 21 1989.
Playboy success
The model finally got to follow in her idol Marilyn Monroe’s footsteps into the world of movies and appeared in Naked Gun 33 1/3 (Image: Getty Images)
Smith met Texas oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall while dancing in the club an he showered her with gifts.
He asked the model to marry him but she had a different career in mind.
With her new breast, the blonde bombshell took nude photographs to herself and sent them to Hugh Hefner at the Playboy mansion.
She later feared in the famous magazine and her career had finally begun.
The star made the transition from centrefold to the prestigious world of fashion and was was selected to be Guess Jean’s new face, replacing the brand’s previous ambassador, supermodel Claudia Schiffer.
Smith was named “Playmate of the Year” in 1993 and finally got to follow in her idol Monroe’s footsteps into the world of movies.
She won a small role in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult and another minor part in The Hudsucker Proxy saw her co-starring with Paul Newman and Tim Robbins.
The blonde and the billionaire
Smith caught the eye of billionaire J. Howard Marshall and the pair got married despite their 63-year age gap (Image: Getty Images)
Despite their 63-year age gap, Smith, then 26, finally agreed to marry Marshall, 89, four years he first asked her.
She was now a fully established celebrity in her own right as well as a Playmate and fashion model.
The marriage was front-page news all over the world, and her image was significantly tarnished.
Critics slammed the idea of a voluptuous Playmate in the shrivelled arms of an octogenarian which was a deadly blow to the sensual image of Anna Nicole Smith, sex bomb and pin-up.
At the time she said: “I don’t care what people think. We’re in love, and that’s it. It just so happens that I get turned on by liver spots.”
Thirteen months after their marriage, Marshall passed away in August 1995.
He was 90, and the model was just 27.
However, Marshall, who had promised her half his estate, never changed his will or set up a trust fund for Smith or her son Daniel’s benefit.
Bitter feud and botched boob job
Anna Nicole Smith attends the memorial service for her husband J. Howard Marshal in 1995 (Image: Corbis via Getty Images)
Smith and her estate were embroiled in a vicious and very public fight with Marshall’s heirs over the money, which the Playmate claimed was worth $400 million, for over 16 years.
In 2011, the case was finally resolved and Smith’s estate was awarded no part of Marshall’s vast fortune.
Over the next few years, life became complicated for Smith as one of her breast implants ruptured and tore one of her nipples.
As a consequence, she suffered indescribable pain for which she was prescribed painkillers.
Her acting career foundered but she was later offered her own reality show, The Anna Nicole Show in 2002.
The show gave viewers a glimpse into her life, and her relationship with her son Daniel, and then boyfriend/lawyer Howard Stern.
The series started with the highest ratings for a cable reality show, but Smith’s life proved too much for audiences and the show was cancelled in 2003 after just one year.
Family tragedy
The actress ended her own life five months after the death of her son Daniel (Image: WireImage)
Smith started dating photographer Larry Birkhead in secret and she announced she was pregnant with her second child in 2006.
The baby girl was born in the Bahamas on September 7 2006 but the moment of joy was tainted by Daniel’s shock death.
Smith’s son flew to the Bahamas to meet his baby sister but their reunion was brief.
On the morning of September 10, Smith woke up find Daniel dead in the chair in her hospital from an overdose.
An autopsy revealed his cause of death to be related to methadone and two antidepressants.
Smith was devastated and shared her pain in an interview and revealed that she would rather have been the one to die.
Five months after Daniel’s s death, Smith was found unresponsive in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida.
Attempts were made to revive her but Smith followed in the steps of her icon Marilyn Monroe and died alone of an overdose.
Last message to daughter’s father
Smith told former lover Larry Birkhead “Don’t fall in love again”‘ in her final message to her child’s father (Image: WireImage)
Smith left behind five-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, whom she had claimed was Howard Stern’s child.
Former lover Larry Birkhead contested paternity and was proved to be the father by DNA tests.
Dannielynn, now 14, lives a quiet life with her father in rural Kentucky, far from the bright lights and glamor her mother so craved.
Speaking to Fox News, Birkhead opened up about the last time he spoke to the mother of his child before she took her own life.
“My goal at the time was to try to get her to come back to the U.S. from the Bahamas, and I had almost got her to that place of saying that she would do it,” Birkhead recalled.
“We still had that connection and she was really more curious about what I was doing at the time, the last time I spoke with her. I told her that I was going on a tour with a country artist, this female country artist.”
“She wanted to know all about her,” he continued.
“Who is she, what does she look like?’ It was one of those things where she was kind of getting a little jealous about it and she started crying about it. And that same day she had to go to the emergency room because she was so upset.
“She actually gave birth early to my daughter because of her getting so upset at that time. And she sent me an instant message on AOL Instant Messenger.
“She said ‘Don’t fall in love again’ And then she had a crying face and then she signed off. That’s the last time I spoke to her.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
